"Did you have to ruin what was shining? Now it's all rusted."
Bad Blood — Taylor Swift
Some Avicii song pierces my eardrums as I walk past the enormous two speakers that are set up right by the tiny kitchen, my hands trying to balance the cups of beer I'm holding.
I look for my friends in small crowd of unknown faces all around me, finally spotting them hanging out by the couch that's pushed up against the wall.
Pushing my way through bodies, I finally make it to Faith, Bella, Micah and Ty, handing over the cups of beer to Faith and Bella.
I'm about to down my entire cup in one go, when Jace and Kai emerge from the crowd, Thalia and Nathan following them, all of them holding beer bottles of their own.
"—She looked at me like twice. I gotta talk to her." Ty runs a hand through his inky black hair, eyeing a girl who's probably from Stanford across the room.
"Liquid courage, buddy." Micah laughs, pouring some beer from his bottle into Ty's cup.
Nathan comes to stand by me, and I send him a grin. "Hey."
"Hey," He replies, his eyes giving me a quick once-over.
There's nothing much to see, I hadn't bothered to pull on anything dashing when we were all invited to a small get together by the Stanford basketball team captain. We're at the same hotel we're staying at, in a suite with the Stanford basketball and soccer team filling the place alongside our two teams.
My grey cropped top and ripped high waisted shorts seemed decent enough at the time, but I eyed a few girls from the Stanford soccer team wearing dresses. I look back at Bella and Faith, who are also wearing casual clothes, and shrug it off.
"You won a game today man," Kai says to Ty, leaning against the armrest of the couch. "Your confidence is supposed to be over the roof."
"C'mon Ty." I add, poking him with my elbow. "Go."
"Wait!" Faith stops him, getting to her feet. "Let's cheer first."
Everyone forms in a small circle, holding out cups and bottles in front of us. My eyes latch onto Jace's for a millisecond before I look away, the memory of last night by the food truck still fresh in my mind.
"To winning both of our first games of the season today. Go CSU!" Micah cheers, lifting his bottle, and we all cheer, clinking our drinks together.
Everyone drinks and so do I, exhaling a breath of relief. Today was a grueling day, and the game against Stanford wasn't an easy to one to win, but our team pulled through with just two scores ahead.
As promised, our coaches took us to the boys' match just a few hours after we were done, and surely enough, they won by a huge lead, with Jace scoring the final point.
I'd expected the Stanford teams to be pissed off after we beat them at two games in one day, but the captain of the basketball team approached us while we waited for our buses after the basketball match and invited all of us to a party. Since we'd anyway been planning to celebrate, we all agreed. And so far, it's decent.
"Go, you wuss." Jace shoves Ty's shoulder gently, and Ty shoots us all a nervous look before sauntering over to the brunette girl a few feet away from us. We all immediately look away from them, not wanting to embarrass Ty.
"Have you guys hung out with these people before?" Bella asks, motioning around.
"Yup." Thalia says, twirling her skull necklace between her fingers. "We play against them often, and even though it gets competitive on the field, we've made decent friends afterwards."
"Quent, the basketball team's captain, is surprisingly a nice guy." Nathan says, popping open a new beer can. "Captain's are usually douchebags."
"Point." Jace raises his eyebrows in mock agreement, and everyone cracks up laughing, and I can't help the smile that forms on my mouth.
"If something called The Captain Douchebag Awards existed, Jace would win every fucking year." Kai snorts, and Jace sends him a death glare.
Shaking my head in amusement, I place my empty cup down on the coffee table and look around. I see Maya and Malia chatting with some Stanford girls in the kitchen, and Maya turns her head, making eye contact with me. She waves me over, and I tilt my head in question at her but walk towards them anyway.
"Jordyn, this is Cayla and Lea," Malia introduces, gesturing to the two girls they're with. Lea is a brunette, the edges of her cocoa coloured hair dyed maroon, contrasting prettily against her soft brown skin. Cayla is blonde, hair a similar shade to mine. I remember them from the game, they both put up hell up a fight. They both smile at me, which I return.
"Good play today, Jordyn," Cayla tips her cup at me, and I grin.
"Thanks." I lean against the wall to my left, my legs still slightly sore from today.
They talk about the upcoming season, and I join in, listening and adding in often. I'm listening to Cayla talk about how competitive Cornell is, the college we'll be up against next, when Jace walks into the kitchen, and immediately Cayla's and Lea's attention diverts to him.
I shoot the twins a subtle confused look as Cayla and Lea exchange glances, looking away from Jace.
"Not your favourite basketball player then?" Maya teases, chuckling.
Lea sighs. "You don't know the half of it."
"Do tell." Malia urges, and Cayla sets her cup down on the counter behind her.
"Last year, Lea and Jace had a... thing."
My eyebrows lift, curiosity ribbing through me. "Oh?"
"No regrets though. He is good." Lea smiles slyly, and the rest of us burst into laughter, and I can't help but smile in amusement too.
"He just didn't stick around." Lea continues, shrugging. "I knew that though, he made it clear when we first started. Along with the rest of his... rules?"
I blink. "Rules?"
Cayla tilts her head at me. "I'm surprised you don't know, most girls from CSU do."
"Oh, I've heard too, but I never actually thought they were true?" Malia widens her eyes slightly in disbelief.
Lea holds up her hand, folding one finger with every point she says. "Only brunettes. No commitment. Minimal touching and kissing. Always use a condom. And he never gets on top."
My eyes almost bulge out of my head, and I stare like a fool at Lea, fully expecting her to say that she's kidding. "What?"
Cayla laughs. "I couldn't believe it either. But apparently, it's his thing you know? His way of making sure nobody gets attached. I'm not sure of the only brunettes part though, maybe that's just a preference."
"He makes up for the minimal touching with his..." Lea trails off, widening her eyes for emphasis, making the rest of us guffaw at her. "Trust me, even with all that, he was still the best I had. I didn't mind the rules, it's a package deal."
I shift, suddenly feeling slightly uncomfortable. "How long was he with you?"
"Three months."
For the umpteenth time today, I'm surprised again, but Malia beats me to it.
"What? I thought he never sticks with one person for long."
Lea nods. "He doesn't. See, Jace doesn't sleep around, although it may seem like it. He gets with one person, and keeps them around for awhile. As good as the sex is, it's never regular. Throughout the three months, I was with him around five times, and it was never in a row either. Once in awhile."
My confusion only keeps heightening. I was under the impression that he fucks and dumps, and gets laid once a day minimum. This was the total opposite of that.
"How are you sure he doesn't see other girls when you were with him?" I ask, hating that I'm curious.
"Because he told me straight up the first day. That he's not gonna want regular sex, and I'll be the only person he sees. All of it so that we don't get attached to each other, and so he doesn't get distracted from basketball, I guess. It's pretty smart, actually."
Her statement triggers a memory in my head, the conversation me and Kai had when Emily came over that day when I was at their house.
"So. I take it she's a regular?"
"A regular and the most annoying."
I almost facepalm myself. It all makes sense now.
"It is, isn't it? Damn... I thought he fucked everything with a pulse." Maya snorts, and Lea laughs, shaking her head.
"Trust me, he's not what he seems. I of course don't know him closely, but from the short minimal time we spent together, he wasn't an asshole to me. And when he ended things, he did it respectfully. I'm just salty that things ended to be honest, because he was really the best I had." Lea shakes her head, chuckling. "Nothing personal against him."
"At first, we thought he was just that way with Lea." Cayla adds in. "Until we made friends with this girl from CSU that transferred to Stanford. She was also with him for two months and she said the same thing."
I can't fathom what I'm hearing. He doesn't sleep around, he's respectful and honest with the people he does sleep with, and he's not a horn dog who demands it all the time either.
"Now that you mention it, I do remember seeing him go off with the same girl a couple of times." Maya says. "The most recent was Emily."
"Emily is blonde." I cleared my throat, taking a sip of the beer.
"Oh my god." Malia's eyes go wide. "She's a natural brunette, Jace got with her when she was a brunette, but she dyed her hair a few weeks ago."
I rack my brain, trying to remember if they hooked up that day when I was at his house and Emily came over.
My fingers twitch around my cup when I remember that Emily left just a few minutes after they disappeared upstairs. I didn't think much of it at the time, but maybe he broke it off with her that day.
I haven't seen him with her, or anyone else, since.
Malia turns to her twin, and Maya's expression morphs into realization as she catches on. "And he broke it off with her shortly after. I heard her telling her roommate at our class awhile ago."
"Holy shit!" Malia snorts. "He broke up with her after she went blonde."
This is all getting increasingly amusing, confusing, and fascinating at the same time.
Lea shrugs, shaking her head. "Told you."
She then looks over to Jace, who's at the other end of the kitchen, talking to Ty. "He's one of the hottest guys I've ever laid my eyes on, and I'm not even exaggerating."
"No denying that." Cayla agrees, downing her beer.
I don't look his way, because I'm already way too aware of how appealing Jace Parker is.
The conversation shifts away from Jace, but my mind is still whirring from everything I heard. I had it all wrong about him from the start.
It doesn't change the fact that I despise him, he's still an ass to me, but atleast I know he's not a dick to everyone.
"I'm gonna head to the bathroom." I say to the girls, waving them goodbye as I dump my empty cup in the trash can and walk out, my bladder feeling like it's seconds away from combusting from all the beer I'd been drinking.
Someone directs me to the bathroom which is towards the back of the apartment, where there more people spread around. I pull my hair up into a ponytail as I walk down the small hallway that leads to the bathroom, brushing past a group of Stanford girls and boys.
The guys glance my way as I pass, but I pay no notice, heading straight inside the bathroom. After finishing business, I wash my hands and step out, drying my hands with a paper towel as I walk back down the hallway.
Laughter up ahead catches my attention and I see Jace and Ty lingering at the opposite end of the hallway, talking to some of the guys from the Stanford basketball team.
I'm walking past the group of people again, when I feel a sharp sting of pain with the feel of a hand on my butt.
Exhaling sharply, I swivel around, anger bubbling up inside me as I face a guy I don't recognise towering over me, pulling his hand away from my ass as he smirks down at me.
"You fucking prick!" My vision blurs with fury, and without a moment's hesitation, I draw my fist back and punch him straight on the nose.
He stumbles back, groaning with pain as his friends start to notice the commotion, his hands shooting up to cover his nose.
I step closer to him, ready to punch him again, but I don't the chance to because someone comes up behind me, pushing me aside and storming towards the guy, so fast that I barely catch the movements.
My brain registers the person as Jace, right when he lunges for the guy and slams him against the wall, green eyes burning with anger.