"Tangled in the sheets 'til the day's done,
I don't wanna kill my time with somebody else."
Kill My Time — 5SOS
"We're going to be roomies!"
I shoot Kai a flat look, following behind Faith as she navigates us through the long hotel hallways. Everyone else is already getting into their rooms, while we haven't even found ours yet.
"Just because your room and mine are connected doesn't mean we're roommates." I snort, poking fun at him as Faith inspects the room number attached to the key card again.
"And Faith, Coach told us we all have rooms on the same floor. So it has to be here." I tell my distressed best friend, before looking over at Kai. "Hey, who did you get paired with to share the hotel room?"
Kai's eyes light up mischievously. "It's—"
He doesn't get to finish his sentence, because a door a few feet ahead of us swings open, and Jace pops his head out.
"Kai! Where the fuck have you been? Our room's right here."
The urge to smash my head against the wall flurries through me and I scrunch up my face in annoyance, which of course, he notices.
"Aw, why the long face Rivers?" Jace mocks, blinking innocently at me.
Choosing to ignore him, I sent an icy look his way before snatching the keys from Faith's hands and sauntering over to the door right next to the one Jace is standing by.
I try the key, and the door opens, and I don't spare a second before going right inside and dumping my bag by the foot of one of the two single beds in the room.
Looking around the room, I see that it's just like any other hotel room, with two single beds, a TV, dressing table, closet and big french windows that lead out to a small balcony. There are two doors to the left, I assume one is the bathroom and one is the door that connects the boys' room to ours.
Jace's room.
Great.
Faith walks in just as I lay down on the bed, exhausted from the bus ride. We've had a long day, and my muscles are aching. After we left college early morning today, the teams were taken straight to a training facility. We split up from the boys, and spent all evening reviewing game tapes, discussing strategy and fitting in a quick workout session. According to Micah, the basketball team had done the same.
Once we were all done, they piled us into the bus again and drove us to this hotel that's supposedly only a few blocks away from Stanford, where we will be playing our first matches tomorrow.
"I'm starving," Faith groans, sitting on the other bed.
"We just had dinner awhile ago," I respond, stretching my arms above my head as I sit up on the bed, feeling the comfortable duvet underneath me.
"I know but I'm still hungry. Do you think we can grab some food?" Faith sends a pleading look my way and I'm about to respond when the door closest to my left bursts open, making me and Faith both jump in surprise.
"Hey ladies!" Kai strides in, followed by Jace, grinning from ear to ear.
"What the hell, Kai! You scared me." Faith huffs, getting to her feet and walking towards the open door that they just walked in from and poking her head in. "Your room is nicer than ours, damn it."
"What can we say, Coach has his favourites." Kai teases, and my eyes follow Jace as he walks to the windows, looking out at the view. His hands are in the pockets of his cream coloured hoodie, his black jeans highlighting his long legs. The hoodie's hood is up, covering his hair, leaving a few strands flat against his forehead.
His tattoos and rings are covered, and even without them, wearing something as plain as a hoodie, he still manages to look... alluring.
"Jordyn!" Faith's voice jolts me out of my thoughts and my eyes snap towards my best friend and Kai, who are looking at me expectantly.
"What?"
"Kai and I gonna go grab some food, coming?" Faith says, jutting out her bottom lip at me, and I roll my eyes because I can never say no to her.
"Fine," I get to my feet, running my fingers through my hair to tidy it a little before glancing down at my outfit. Cropped tank top and grey joggers, that'll have to do.
"You coming, man?" Kai calls out to Jace. He pauses, and I catch his eyes glance towards me for just a moment, before looking back at Kai.
"Yeah."
My brows furrow in confusion, but I don't have time to dwell on it because Faith slings an arm around my shoulder and leads me out of the room, Kai and Jace following. Faith locks the door behind us and pockets the key card, as we set off down the hall towards the elevator.
We pile inside, Kai and Faith chattering away about where we're going to eat. The elevator is a tight fit, and somehow I end up standing in front of Jace. I can feel his presence behind me, tall and prominent, and his cologne feels like it's soaking into my skin.
He shifts, making the front of his hoodie brush against my back, and the fleeting contact has a chill rushing down my spine. I'm about to step away from him when the doors ping open, revealing the ground floor lobby of the hotel.
We step out, making our way out of the hotel. We're still in California, just forty or so minutes away from our college. Stanford is just a few blocks away from this hotel, according to the coaches.
"I know a great food truck two blocks away." Kai says, tugging on the strings of his hoodie. "Remember the one, Jace? We ate from the last time we played against Stanford, with those banging enchiladas?"
"Yeah, you think it's open?" Jace asks, as Kai starts leading the way down the street. The sidewalk is small, forcing us to walk in pairs, and I end up walking next to Jace.
"It's just 8 pm, it probably is." Kai shrugs, and Faith asks Kai about the food there, and he goes on a full on rant about how amazing this truck's food is. They're walking ahead of me and Jace, leaving the two of us in complete silence.
The streets are mildly busy, and there's a cool night breeze that tickles against my cheeks every now and then. This area is quite open, with little to no tall buildings, greenery lining streets, and stores built far apart from each other.
"Ready for your game tomorrow?" Jace's voice makes me look at him, caught off guard by the fact he spoke to me.
"Yeah," I answer sceptically. "Can't wait."
"First college game ever, huh?" He tilts his head at me. "I remember the feeling."
I scoff. "Okay, grandpa."
A chuckle escapes Jace at that, and I pause, realising that I actually made him laugh. An odd feeling swirls in my stomach.
What the hell is happening?
It feels odd to be civil with him, since the past month I've known him all we've done is bite each other's head off.
Thankfully, Kai and Faith stop walking ahead of us, Kai turning around towards us. "There it is!"
He points towards a food truck parked on the side of the road a few feet ahead of us. The four of us make our way towards it, browsing through the menu attached to the side of the truck. There's not many people around, save for the gas station and grocery store across the street, and also an ice cream truck a few feet behind.
Kai, Jace and Faith rattle off their orders to the man in the truck, and I ask for a taco with lemonade, not wanting to eat anything heavy because of our game tomorrow. There's a small bench on the sidewalk next to the truck, and I sit on it with Faith while the boys wait to get our orders.
"I wonder if Bella and Micah got their room together?" I wonder out loud to Faith.
Faith shrugs, pushing strands of her blonde hair away from her face. "They were gonna tell the coaches that they're pairing with other people and sneak into a room later. If it didn't work we would've heard from Bella by now."
"Yup." I scrunch up my nose. "She's probably getting that vitamin D from Micah."
"What from Micah?" Kai's voice catches Faith's and my attention and we look up to see the boys standing over us, our food in their hands.
"Um, nothing." Faith smiles innocently, grabbing the burrito that Kai's extending towards her. Kai narrows his eyes playfully at the two of us before plopping down on the bench next to Faith. Jace steps closer to me, and I look up to see him holding out my taco and lemonade to me.
I take it from him, giving a small nod as a thank you, before settling the food on my lap. Jace sits next to me, way too close for comfort with his knee and shoulder brushing against mine. We start to talk about the games tomorrow as we finish our food, enjoying the quaintness of the night. Faith and Kai finish off their food first, getting up and approaching the trash can by the food truck to dump the containers.
"Ice cream?" Faith asks Kai, jerking her head towards the ice cream truck down the street. Kai nods enthusiastically, and the two of them turn towards me and Jace who are still sitting on the bench.
"Chocolate chip." I say, just as Jace says, "Cookie dough."
Kai shoots the two of us a thumbs up, before he and Faith walk off towards the ice cream truck, leaving me and Jace by ourselves. Ignoring that particular fact, I finish my food, slurping up the last bit of lemonade before getting to my feet and walking to the trash can.
I throw the containers in and take a step back, only to bump hard into a chest, the contact almost throwing me off balance. A tattooed hand reaches around me and presses against my stomach, steadying me.
Jace's familiar scent invades me, and my pulse starts quickening, faint chills skittering across my skin. I'm about to turn around or step away from him when his hold on my stomach tightens, and I feel his hand brush my ponytail aside.
The warmth of his fingers and the coldness of his rings against my skin sends heat bolting through my body, and my lips part, drawing in breaths because apparently, I've forgotten how to talk, move and think. My whole body is frozen in a mix of anticipation and shock as he pushes my ponytail off my back, and his fingers slightly tug down the neckline of my tanktop. His tall figure is pressed against my back, and I can feel my chest tightening.
"Devil tattoos, princess?" His voice is husky and slow, his breath brushing the back of my ear. My throat closes up, and chills run down my spine despite it being a warm night. "I'd say you're the devil to my saint, but we both know I'm far from that."
The breath I didn't realise I'm holding leaves my lips in a sharp exhale when I feel his fingertips brush over the devil horn tattoos on my shoulder blades. I'm hyper-aware of his hand on my stomach as well, his big palm pressed flat and firmly against the thin material of my tank top.
Suddenly, I hear the sound of footsteps and Jace takes a step back away from me, his hands slipping away from my body. My body suddenly feels bare and empty at the loss of his hands on me, and I don't even have a chance to gather my thoughts because Faith and Kai appear, holding the ice cream cones.
A bead of sweat trickles down my back as I turn slowly, my heart still racing in my chest as I see Jace back on the bench, his eyes on me. The vivid green of his eyes has turned a few shades darker, heated. I can't figure if I'm sweating because of the warm weather or something else.
"Here you go!" Faith smiles, handing me my ice cream, oblivious to what they interrupted.
I let out a breath, swallowing thickly and take a lick of the ice cream, avoiding looking towards Jace and hoping the ice cream would calm down my irritatingly overheated body.