“Born and bred Sydneysider.”
“What about your family?” she asks.
The familiar pull of loss tugs at me. I try to get a handle on it and force a smile for my new friend. “I have a twin brother, Nicolas, or Nicky as I usually call him.”
“Oh my gosh, that is so cool. Are you guys like, identical?”
I shake my head. “Fraternal, but we look a lot alike. Unfortunately, he’s way bigger than me and the eldest by three minutes, so he likes to boss me around.”
“What about your parents?” she asks.
“It’s just the two of us.” There’s a brief silence, which I feel the desperate urge to fill before she starts asking more questions. “What about you?”
Her eyes light up and she starts telling me about her three older sisters, all of which are scattered across the country.
“You all sound close,” I say. “Do you miss them?”
“Are you kidding? We fought like a pack of wild cats. My parents are enjoying their empty nest far too much.” She grins at me quickly before returning her attention to the road. “I do miss borrowing their clothes, though.”
Leah pulls into a parking spot in front of a majestic, red-brick block of apartments. The windows are trimmed with white timber and matching decorative grids. The surrounding gardens are lush and green, and well kept.
“This is us?”
She nods and grins. “This is Colton Park University, Elliott. Home to the best student athletes in all of Texas.”
“Wow,” I breathe as I take it all in, finding it hard to believe I’m finally here. “I wasn’t expecting it to be so pretty.”
Leah shakes her head as she gets out of the car. “What were you expecting? The Wild West?”
“At the very least.”
The building is five floors and our apartment is halfway up on the third. We make our way up the stairwell. My suitcases make a loud clunk as we roll them up the wide, tiled steps. After moving down the long corridor, we stop at a dark timber door. Nervous anticipation fills me. This is going to be my home away from home for more than a year. It might not seem like much, but right this minute it feels like a big deal.
Leah hands me a key. “You do the honors,” she says, bumping my shoulder with hers.
“You’re not going to carry me over the threshold?” I ask as I take it.
With a laugh, she snatches the key back, unlocks the door, and makes a grab for me. “What are you doing?” I screech, leaping backwards with a giggle.
Leah crouches and locks her arms around me, just under my backside, and lifts me up. We’re shrieking with laughter as she carries me through the doorway, but when she trips over my bag near her feet, we take a header and spill across the floor like a figure skating trick gone wrong.
“Oh my god,” she gasps and rolls over, moaning loudly. “I think you dented my ass with your knee.”
“Better that than your face,” I reply weakly, getting up on all fours.
“That was,” drawls a deep, amused male voice from somewhere in the room, “the single best thing I’ve seen all day.”
I lift my head and my eyes climb upwards, slowly taking in the Viking warrior standing before me. Worn jeans encase brawny legs, and a Colton Bulls muscle tee shirt covers a chest so powerful and wide it deserves its own postal code. Further up I catch brown hair pulled back off his face with a tie, a scruffy jaw, and eyes the color of dark blue denim—one of which winks at me.
I close my mouth.
“Elliott, this is my boyfriend, Hayden. Honey bunches of love, meet my new roommate, Jordan Elliott.”
I can’t imagine this guy being a honey bunches of anything, but the endearment doesn’t faze him in the least. He stalks toward me, powerful thigh’s rippling with each step, and holds out his hand. A little dazed, I scramble to my feet and take it in mine. His handshake is firm and warm, and I like him instantly.
“G’day, mate,” he says with an excited grin.
I burst out laughing. Hayden’s attempt at an Australian accent is horrendous. His grin morphs into a pout. It should be ludicrous on such a colossal specimen of man, but on Hayden it’s charming. “Too much?” he asks. “Not enough? I’ve been practicing for weeks.”
“He really has,” Leah corroborates as she picks herself up off the floor with a groan. “He’s never met an Australian before so I’m warning you now, he’s going to swamp you with questions, crack jokes about dingoes, and make lewd references about your vagina being the land down under.”
“It sounds perfect,” I reply with a grin, letting go of Hayden’s hand. “Keep doing that for the next year or so, will you? My course load is going to kick my ass, so I could use a good laugh now and then.”
“I like her,” he says to Leah without taking his eyes from mine. “She can stay.”
“Yeah? Good,” she replies, already wheeling one of my suitcases inside the apartment. “Because I’ve already decided I’m keeping her.”
After I bring the other suitcase inside, Leah gives me the grand tour, starting with the living area. A flat screen television rests on a small cabinet in front of a three-seated sofa. A PlayStation sits on the floor between both. The screen is paused in the middle of a game of Major League Baseball. It reminds me that Leah mentioned along the drive from the airport that her boyfriend plays college baseball.
“Nice,” I say, waving my hand at his score. “You’ve got version fourteen, right? We have twelve back home on the PC and the glitches do my head in.”
Hayden’s eyes go wide and his nostrils quiver with ill-concealed excitement. “You play?”
“I have a brother. Of course I play.”
“You want to play now?”
Leah shakes her head at me. “You haven’t done yourself any favors, Elliott. My man is not going to leave you alone until he kicks your ass on that stupid baseball game.”
“You only call it stupid because you’re a sore loser, babe,” he says.
A smirk plays on her lips. “I’ll show you who the loser is later tonight. In bed.”
Hayden jabs a finger in her direction as he sinks down on the sofa. “You better put your money where your mouth is.”
“How about I just tell you where to put your mouth, and we can go from there?”
Leah’s boyfriend groans as he picks up the controller and returns to his game, muttering something under his breath that sounds a lot like, “I’m going to eat you alive.”
“How long have you two been together?” I ask when she leads me into the kitchen that sits off to the left of the living space.
“Three years.”
“I don’t believe you.” I fan myself with my hand from the heat sparking between the two of them.
“Believe it.” Her grin is smug. “He’s a man madly in love.”
Hayden’s snort from the living room is loud, indicating he heard us talking. Ignoring him, Leah opens and closes a few cupboards, showing me where everything is kept before she leads me to the opposite end of the apartment. There are three rooms: two bedrooms with a bathroom situated in the middle.
My room has a double bed pushed against the far wall and a nice, wide window. Beneath it rests a study desk and chair, and beside that a single dresser with five drawers. It’s tucked neatly next to a built-in wardrobe. The furnishings are basic, but it’s clean and it doesn’t stink like sweaty gym socks, which is always a huge plus when you’re rooming with athletes.
The bed is already made with fresh sheets. “You can change them if you brought your own,” Leah says, “but I figured jetlag would be making you its bitch and you’d want to crash for a couple of days before you settle in properly.”
I face her, pressing my lips together to hold in the sudden well of emotion. I’m an outsider here, in senior year no less—where strong bonds and deep friendships have long since formed. I was prepared for it to take months to feel welcome and accepted as a team member, but Leah and Hayden have managed to do just that in one afternoon.
“Thanks,” I choke out, my eyes burning.
“Don’t cry over sheets, Elliott.” She pulls me into a hug, one hand rubbing my back soothingly. “Why don’t you go have a shower? Afterwards we can have dinner and something to drink.”