I make my way to the science building for our anatomy lecture nearly twenty minutes early so I can secure my seat next to Olivia, because I know rat boy will try his hardest to make it to class before me and take my seat. I'm relieved when I walk into the large lecture hall and hardly anyone is there, only a handful of people.

I take a seat in the same spot as last time, making myself comfortable in my chair while waiting for Olivia to walk through the door. Not even five minutes later, Olivia walks through the large double doors with Delilah, both girls giggling about something as they make their way in.

"Hey, Finch." I smile, pulling out her chair for her.

"Hey." She smiles warmly, thanking me while shrugging off her backpack. 

Once Delilah and Olivia are situated in their seats, Delilah leans in over the desk top to look at me. "I heard Olivia found another ride home yesterday," she says, eyes gleaming with interest.

"Yeah. I couldn't have her sitting in the library for three hours bored out of her mind," I tease.

Delilah grins, and suddenly I feel my chair jerk. I just catch rat boy walking by, deliberately but discreetly kicking the leg of my chair, thinking it'll actually do something to rattle me. To teach the little twerp a lesson and scare him a bit, I abruptly scoot my chair back, causing him to trip over the second leg of my chair at the last second, giving me a sense of satisfaction.

"Oops, sorry," I lamely apologize as he regains his balance, shooting me a death glare.

"So you guys ended up having a lot of fun last night?" Delilah continues, her voice playfully suggestive and eyes sparkling with mischief.

"Delilah," Olivia scolds her friend in a low, warning tone, shooting her a look that doesn't seem to faze Delilah one bit.

I chuckle. "Yeah, her dad makes a mean lasagna."

Olivia gives me a soft, appreciative smile for not taking Delilah's teasing implication to heart.

"Wait," rat boy cuts in. "You two hung out last night?"

Olivia flushes while I speak up. "I drove her home and stayed for dinner," I inform him, trying my best to hold back the smug tone in my voice.

He shoots me another glare before swinging his gaze to a clearly uncomfortable Olivia. "I could have driven you home yesterday. Why didn't you call me?" he asks a little too sternly, making me involuntarily clinch my fists. Who the fuck does he think he is?

Olivia shrugs, refusing to look at him. "Bronx was right there and offered first."

His beady little eyes turn to slits, clearly unpleased with her answer. "Why didn't you drive her home?" he snaps to Delilah, his tone accusing.

Still unfazed, but now slightly irritated, Delilah turns to him with a bland expression. "I had something come up last minute," she explains vaguely, pissing him off further.

"Next time you need a ride, call me," he tells Olivia, his tone more of a demand than a polite request.

I drape my arm over the back of Olivia's chair, hoping to give this kid an aneurism since he's being a total asshole. "She can call whomever she wants," I shoot back calmly, despite feeling anything but calm, irritation vibrating in my veins.

This kid is getting on my last nerve. I get that he probably has a huge crush on Olivia, but that doesn't give him the right to act like he owns her. Unless he's her boyfriend. I never really considered that a possibility. But with how uncomfortable she seems around him at times, I highly doubt it. And even if he was her boyfriend, she can do whatever the hell she wants.

Olivia gives me an appreciative glance, but I can also detect the pleading deep behind her eyes for me to drop the subject and ignore him. For her sake, I bite my tongue to refrain from giving rat boy another piece of my mind when he shoots me another death glare.

The legs of the empty chair next to me screech as they scrape against the floor. I turn my head to catch a flash of raven hair, the curtain of long silky strands being flicked over a bare sun kissed shoulder to expose a sharp smile and smoldering green eyes on a pretty face I know all too well.

"Hi, Bronx," Adrianna says in a sickeningly sweet, flirty voice, her and her posse slipping into our row.

"Adrianna," I say curtly, a new sense of irritation surging.

"These seats aren't taken, right?" she asks, her smile venomous.

Before I can say anything, the professor strolls into the lecture hall, wasting no time turning on the projector and starting the PowerPoint presentation.

Ten minutes into the lecture, I feel a hand land on my right knee and my body involuntarily stiffens. I snap my head towards Adrianna, only getting a glimpse of her side profile. She carries on taking her notes, acting innocent, but I can tell she's trying to bite back a smirk.

Not wanting to cause a scene, I let it slide. That is until her hand starts traveling upward.

Abruptly, I drop my pen and slip my hand under the table to capture her wrist, halting her actions. I snap my gaze in her direction, once again only getting a glimpse of her side profile as she pretends to be focused on her notes. But this time she doesn't even try to hide her smirk. 

I lean over in my chair, my lips inches from her ear. "You better knock it off," I warn lowly, only causing the smirk on her face to deepen, and I know she sees my threat as a challenge.

A few moments later, when I'm sure she's not going to try anything, I slowly let go of her wrist and pick back up my pen, scrambling to scribble down the notes I missed. Not even a minute later, her hand brusquely travels from my mid-thigh to grip me through my jeans. I nearly bolt up from my chair, my body involuntarily jerking in my seat, catching a few people's attention.

I cough awkwardly to try to mask my outburst, rushing to grip Adrianna's wrist and push it away, all the while trying not to cause more of a scene with my frantic movements.

Daringly, I glance over at Olivia to find her already staring at me. Her brows are pinched together and her head is adorably tilt to the side in silent questioning.

I give her a forced smile. "All good," I whisper to assure her. "Just had something tickle my throat," I explain lamely, trying to cover up what really just happened. Because god, if she knew...

She looks at me skeptically, concern still etching her features. I flash her another reassuring smile, and even though I can tell she doesn't believe me, she lets it go, reluctantly returning to writing down notes from the lecture still going on.

Blood boiling, I quietly excuse myself and slip out of the lecture hall and into the long hallway, finding the nearest bathroom. I walk in, restlessly pacing the empty room while tugging at my hair. I kick a stall door, causing it to swing back and slam against the adjacent wall with force.

Damnit, Adrianna. 

I can't believe she's starting this shit. I'll admit, freshman year it was sort of flattering, having the hottest girl on campus crazy over me, but now it's just fucking annoying because she doesn't know when to quit. I've told her since the beginning, I never wanted anything serious. She's played along, us hooking up periodically throughout the last three years. But she always gets possessive, always wanting something more from me. We keep going around and around. She acts cool with just hooking up, but then she starts hounding me for something more, I cut her loose, trying to be the nice guy, but she always comes back. The cycle is never-ending.

Time to end this shit for good.

We can't keep going like this.

Reeling in my anger, I unclench my fists, roughly wiping my palms on my jeans and exhaling. Feeling more composed, I exit the bathroom to find Adrianna leaning against the wall, waiting for me, looking damn pleased with herself.

"Fucking hell," I growl lowly under my breath. Knowing its best to ignore her, I keep my head down, briskly walking back to the lecture hall, but her hand grips my bicep to stop me. "Don't," I warn gruffly, refusing to turn around to look at her.

She saunters around me, stopping right in front of me, her face as charming as a snake's. "What's the matter, Bronx? Did I get you flustered?" She runs her hand up and down my arm seductively. "I can finished what I started with you in the supply closet."

"That won't be necessary." I take a step back to only have her advance forward. Knowing she's not going to ease up, I grip her by her shoulders to literally keep her at arm's length. "Adrianna, stop."

As fast as a flash of lightning, her charming, flirty face morphs into an angry pout I know all too well. "Bronx—"

"No, Ads," I cut her off. "I can't do this with you anymore. I can't give you what you want," I remind her for the hundredth time. I let go of her shoulders, backing away, and when she comes after me, I lift up my hand to stop her. "Don't."

With one final look, I turn around and head back to the lecture hall. 

Running off the field to the sidelines, I find my hand towel and wipe the sweat pouring down my face. It's hot as hell out today. Grabbing my water bottle, I take a long drink, needing to take a deep breath after, since I never fully caught my breath from the last play.

Placing my hands on my hips, I take a moment to catch my breath. When my lungs cease to burn, I pick back up my water bottle, guzzling down the remains. While chugging my water, I gaze over the rim of the bottle, spotting a number of kids walking by. Probably from a class that just let out.

Scanning the pack, I spot a slender brunette strolling by with a powder blue backpack, talking to a curly haired girl with light brown skin and large glasses.

Finishing my water, I drop the empty bottle on the ground next to my things, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand before jogging over to the pair. I realize Olivia's eyes are already trained on me, a smile curving her lips.

"Hey, Finch," I greet her once I'm within talking distance. "Hey, Dee," I greet her friend, slowing my jog and stopping a few feet in front of them.

"Hey," they say in unison, Olivia flashing me that sweet smile of hers while Delilah clearly checks out my abs and chest glistening with sweat.

"Looks like you're feeling better," Olivia notes, her smile softening as she gives me a cautious once over, trying to detect if anything is still wrong.

After my confrontation with Adrianna, I walked back into the lecture hall and gathered my things, knowing I couldn't sit and listen to the rest of the lecture with all the awkward tension hanging in the air. I said a quick goodbye to Olivia before I walked out, telling her I wasn't feeling too well. She understood, kindly offering to lend me her notes later to copy what I missed.

"Yeah, a bit better. I may be suffering from heat exhaustion now, but I'm better," I joke.

"Yo, Miller!" Brennen yells out, and I look over my shoulder at him. "Stop flirting with girls and get your ass back on the field!" he jokes.

I flip him the bird before twisting back around to face Olivia and Delilah.

"Nice tat," Delilah notes, catching a glimpse of it when I must have turned around.

"Oh, thanks," I say, instinctively reaching my arm up and around to massage the top of my back, right below my shoulder where my tattoo ends. "So, Finch, any leftovers from last night?" I tease, although I wouldn't be opposed if she actually offered for me to come back over and have dinner again.

She lets out a small laugh. "I think so. I mean you're more than welcome to stop by and see if my dad's home and willing to share some with you. I'm sure he'd love to talk football again. Don't know if my mom would like sitting at a table with just two men talking about football, though."

"You're not going to be home tonight?" I gather, feeling slightly disappointed for some reason.

"Don't even think about hanging out with Liv on Tuesdays," Delilah says. "Getting her to hang out on a Tuesday evening is like having the pope to show up to your birthday party. Impossible."

Olivia flashes her friend a dry look, rolling her eyes. "Sorry, I just have a commitment. I meet up with a friend every Tuesday night for dinner," she explains, giving me an apologetic look.

I vaguely remember her mom freaking out last night when she thought it was Tuesday and Olivia was home for dinner.

"It's no biggie," I assure her. "I can take a raincheck."

She gives me a soft smile before her eyes grow wide in realization. "Oh, I have those notes from lecture today if you want to copy them," she says, starting to shrug off her backpack.

"That's okay," I stop her. "I'm kind of gross right now," I say, flashing her my sweaty palms. "I don't want to ruin them. Or possibly lose them. Any chance I can copy them tomorrow? Maybe we can do lunch together?" I ask hopefully, realizing we both have a lunch break between lab and our English class tomorrow.

"Uhh," she thinks about it for a moment, hesitating. Delilah nudges her with her elbow, and the two girls share a look before Delilah gives an affirmative nod. Seeming settled, Olivia turns back to me, smiling. "Sure, that works."

I flash her a grin before starting to back away slowly, knowing I need to get back to practice. "Alright, I'll see you tomorrow," I affirm before turning around and jogging back towards my teammates, feeling excited about tomorrow.