JAX: MC Biker Romance (New Adult Contemporary Bad Boy Romance) (10 page)

“Vanessa’s getting on my nerves,” Evan spoke, making Chloe look at him in surprise. “She’s so dramatic about everything, always bossing me around, wanting me to go to every single party with her and show her off to my bros. It’s like she wants me to treat her like some prize I should be grateful for winning. I mean, have you ever felt that she’s... I don’t know, annoying?” he asked, turning his head to look at her.

Chloe raised her eyebrows and pointed at herself with her pencil, looking at him like she’s saying, Hello, have-you-met-me? Evan laughed, shaking his head, and Chloe bowed her head a little, a small smile on her lips as she was a little pleased she got him to laugh.

“Aw man… why couldn’t I have fallen for simple girls?” he asked, and Chloe snorted.

“Simple girls? Really? Do you even know what they are?” she asked.

“Sure I do,” he answered confidently. “Like red-headed, wears glasses, likes to read, and just cares about her studies? Doesn’t hurt that she’s pretty easy on the eyes too,” he answered, looking at her cheekily. Chloe blushed as she realized he had just described her and proceeded to hit him with her notebook, making him block her assault with his arm as he laughed.

Afterward, Evan said he was going to try and sleep a little and Chloe shrugged, continuing her homework. She was struggling over the seventh problem and she was getting really frustrated over it. She felt something hit the side of her head and she looked down to see it was a paper plane. She glared at him and she picked up the plane angrily.

“You’ve overstayed your welcome, now get out!” she yelled.

Evan pouted, but he stood up and did as he was told. Chloe was still glaring at the door before she unfolded the paper plane, intent on using it as a scratch paper, and then she frowned as she noticed something was written on it.

“What?” she asked aloud. It was the math problem she was working on. She read and reread the solution he had written, and she was stumped because he had gotten the answer right.

He had solved it for her.

The next day at lab, Chloe was getting antsy as she waited for Evan to arrive. She had been thinking about him all night because of what happened. She had misjudged him, thinking he was just another dumb jock, but he actually has a good head on his shoulders. She didn’t understand why he refuses to apply himself when he was capable of doing so much more than football. Why would he want to feign ignorance when clearly, he could be brilliant academically?

She stopped her train of thought, realizing that she was becoming too engrossed with Evan Cross. She shook her head trying to snap herself out of it. This was not and would not be a precursor to an attraction or even something deeper than that; she could not allow herself.

Evan arrived in the nick of time and took his seat beside Chloe, giving her a smile. She smiled back before she realized it. She quickly dropped it and looked at him seriously.

“Evan, about the problem you solved in the paper airplane--,”

“You’re not still angry I poked you with it, are you? Because I can’t control where the air current takes it once I get it to fly,” Evan teased. Chloe scowled at him.

“Not about that! I meant how you helped me out with my math homework. The number I was having a hard time answering?” she reminded him.

It was only for a split second, but Chloe could swear she saw Evan’s face turn stone cold before he covered it up with a good-natured smile.

“I think you overworked yourself with that assignment, Chloe. How could I have solved something you, one of the smartest students in school, can’t answer?” he asked. He turned to look at the board, and Chloe didn’t get to ask anything else, as the professor discussed their next laboratory activity.

It was a disaster.

Evan had single-handedly ruined their entire lab experiment and successfully got Chloe her first ‘F’ in forever. He messed up the calculations, the mixing of the chemicals—basically, everything he could do to sabotage their grade. Chloe was outraged. She told him to stop ruining their experiment on purpose, even going so far as to beg him to stop, but Evan feigned stupidity once more, and unfortunately for Chloe, the professor believed his act.

The horrified devastation on Chloe’s face as she saw the red mark on their paper made Evan rethink his actions. Wincing that he had probably overdone it, he opened his mouth to apologize, but Chloe glared at him, her gaze felt with so much hate - Evan felt his heart drop.

“That was crossing the line,” she said quietly. He shrugged, trying to maintain his bravado.

“This is me. This is my life. If you can’t accept it, it’s not my problem,” he said coldly. Chloe looked like he splashed cold water on her face at his answer.

She gathered her things swiftly and ran away from him, and he cursed, thinking of how he was going to make it up to her.

*****

“Hey, man. Did you check out how the Captain was totally screwing up his passes earlier?” the male student asked, as he held out his tray and moved slightly ahead of the line.

“Oh yeah. Coach was livid. He said he was going to tell Captain’s father about him slacking off. Can you believe that?” the student beside him said. The two students stopped and laughed boisterously at the memory.

“Excuse me,” a voice asked behind them.

The males shrieked and looked behind them, seeing Chloe standing there holding her tray and gazing dolefully at them, and they immediately associated her to those witches in the movies that sucked your soul.

“I need to buy food,” she whispered, and the two men immediately scattered, running away from her. Chloe shrugged and scooped up some baked potatoes in her bowl, already used to that kind of response.

She wasn’t supposed to hang around here in the cafeteria during dinner time, to be honest. She made it a point to come to the cafeteria an hour earlier because she despised the noise. The students were too rowdy and students like her all too often became a target for the popular students’ amusement.

But, she had spent her time begging her professor to give her another chance or; at least, let her make up for the bad grade by submitting a report or two. He wouldn’t give her a chance, and Chloe had been sulking ever since.

Her stomach growling was the only reason she went down and risked eating in the cafeteria at this time of the night. She had hoped that if she ate her food fast enough, she’d be long gone before Vanessa or Ethan or any of their groups arrived.

But, being the unlucky girl she was, they were here, and they spotted her.

“Well, look at who’s finally decided to join the land of the living,” Vanessa snidely remarked, her cheerleading lackeys all laughing at her. She was practically seated on Evan’s lap, his hands wrapped around her waist, causing Chloe’s heart to twinge in pain a little. Chloe rolled her eyes, but kept on walking, searching for an empty seat. “Oh come on, Casper. We’re roommates, aren’t we? Why don’t you be a nice ghost and haunt somewhere else?”

Chloe didn’t get to hear Evan tell Vanessa off as she saw a group leave their table, and she immediately walked over and claimed it. She focused on her food, steeling herself each time she heard someone laugh around her. All the laughing was making her paranoid that they were laughing at them, but she wasn’t about to give them and Vanessa the satisfaction of looking around her to check. Doing so would mean Vanessa’s taunts were getting to her and that Vanessa was winning, and Chloe wasn’t going to let her win.

She saw the chair beside her move, and she looked up to see Evan pull it out and sit down, looking at her solemnly. She turned her head away, not willing to hear whatever he came to say to her.

“I’m sorry,” he said, and she ignored him. He sighed and tried again. “I’m sorry I messed up our grade earlier. I’m sorry I was such an asshole. I’m just really sorry,” he bowed his head and Chloe sighed, giving in.

“I don’t get it, Evan,” she said, turning around to look at him. “Why did you have to do that? Why did you have to ruin me when all I did was call you out for pretending to be something you’re not?” she asked. It was Evan’s turn to sigh. He bit his lip, mulling over the idea of telling her before he nodded.

“My dad, he’s uh… he’s a professional football player. He practically had my future planned out for me before I even came out of my mother’s womb. You see, he wants me to concentrate on one thing, and one thing only: getting drafted into the big leagues. He’s not interested in academic standing at all, so in order for me to do what he wants, I pretend I’m a big dumbass and make sure that I do only the bare minimum to graduate, so the professors don’t expect anything from me,” Evan admitted, Chloe bowing her head as she finally understood. “As long as I go the way I am, my Dad will stay off my back enough to let me be in peace here.”

“But, don’t you want to be something else other than what your Dad wants you to be?” she asked softly, and Evan shook his head. He kept silent, and she knew that that was all he was going to reveal to her now. She decided to change the topic and nodded her head toward the jock and cheerleaders’ table where Vanessa was currently seething. “Thank you for explaining yourself, but I think you should get back to your girlfriend. I’m pretty sure she’s trying to shoot lasers at me with her eyes right now.”

Evan laughed, shaking his head. “No, I think I’m the one she’s trying to burn a hole at the back of the head right now. I broke up with her just a few minutes ago.” Chloe raised her eyebrows in surprise.

“Why? I thought you really liked her,” she said, and Evan smiled wryly.

“It’s about my Dad too. He’s fine with me sleeping around and all, but he doesn’t want me to get too serious about any girl because I might lose focus. So, as soon as I feel that they’re wanting something more from me, I cut them loose,” he answered, and she wrinkled her nose in slight disgust. He shrugged it off, ignoring her reaction. “Besides, Vanessa was becoming too dramatic and overly-clingy for my taste. I don’t like girls like that,” he winked at her and Chloe scoffed, making Evan look at her hopefully. “So, am I forgiven?”

Chloe hummed and pretended to think it over before nodding. “Yeah, I guess I forgive you. I just,” she sighed, and Evan looked at her in concern. “I just wish the professor would let me make up for that grade. I can’t afford to have a red mark. It might have a huge impact on my scholarship,” she explained.

“Oh hey, I almost forgot. I talked to the professor earlier. I told him that it was mostly my fault and that you were trying to stop me from goofing around, and I begged him for another chance at that experiment. He gave me the keys to the lab,” he held up his hand where the key was dangling on his finger, and Chloe’s eyes widened. Evan smiled, his eyes sparkling as he watched Chloe’s sadness slowly dissipate. “What do you say? Want to give it another go tonight?” he asked.

Chloe smiled brightly before throwing her arms around his neck, surprising him. She squeezed tighter until she opened her eyes and realized what she was doing and abruptly let go, jumping back to her seat. They looked at each other for a few moments before Chloe stood up, making the table shake as she slammed her hands down on top of it.

“Uh, I’ll meet you at the chemistry lab then. Bye!” she said hurriedly, running away from him. He sat there trying to process what happened, and when he remembered the smile Chloe gave him before she hugged him tightly, he smiled to himself, pleased to have made her happy again.

Vanessa; however, did not like what she had just witnessed… not at all.

*****

Chloe wasn’t sure about anything anymore.

She was so excited to meet Evan at the chemistry lab that she ran the whole way to the dorm from the cafeteria. She then spent a long time looking at all of the clothes she had, checking if they looked good before her eyes widened, her brain having caught up with how she was acting.

She was acting like a silly school girl about to go out on her first date.

She dropped the clothes she was holding and looked at herself in the mirror, her face betraying how scared she felt. Her heart was betraying her, doing exactly what she had prevented herself from doing. She was falling into that trap her parents always told her to watch out for or she’d never succeed in her goals.

She was falling in love… she was falling in love with Evan Cross.

She looked at herself in the mirror, scrutinizing every detail of her heart-shaped face, her violet eyes that always remained obscured by her square-cut glasses, and red hair that was long, flat, and had never been styled a day in her life.

She was just as Evan described: simple, which was another term for ‘boring’.

And, despite knowing that compared to the rest of the girls vying for his attention in this University, despite knowing she didn’t have a chance in hell, her stupid heart still went and fell for the Quarterback.

“Screw it,” she mumbled to herself, picking out what she deemed was the best outfit in her closet and laying it out gently on her bed before getting in the bathroom for a quick shower. She put on some lip gloss and left her hair down, another first for her, before grabbing her things and leaving the room.

‘So what if I’m falling in love with exactly the kind of man I’ve trained myself to hate? It’s about time I do something I’ll be happy about for a change.” She thought to herself, feeling a burst of determination course through her.