Chapter 3 A cute boy - Monet

I think I despise Cole and Luke even more the week following the cafeteria incident.

Why?

Because Chrystal keeps hounding me for their numbers. She also realised that the pictures on the quilt is Cole, and now she has questions about where it was taken. It's killing me. I thought she was cool, but it seems she's just another cleats chaser like all the other girls in high school.

I never knew if people liked me for me, or because of Cole. I got invited to the best parties, all the popular kids wanted to be friends with me. In the end, I just became a loner who had my head stuck in my books and ignoring people.

I thought university was going to be great, a fresh start of sorts, but it seems as if it's a repeat of high school all over again.

Orientation goes by in a blur, and Chrystal tried inviting me out with her and some friends that she made, but I decline. She probably told her whole friend group I'm Cole Brown's sister, so I don't feel like dodging any questions about him.

"Hey, Cole's sister!"

I roll my eyes when I leave the student quad after dinner the night before classes start. I've been avoiding Cole the whole week, and yet he still somehow manages to follow me.

I turn around, ready to give whoever a piece of my mind, but the words on my tongue dry up, when the cute boy with a dazzling smile jogs over to me, and stops in front of me.

"Hi."

His teeth are really white, and he looks like an All-American boy with his windswept blonde hair and light-blue eyes.

"Hey."

He sticks his hand out to me. "I'm James, thought I'd introduce myself."

My heart skips a beat, and I shake his hand. "Monet."

He tilts his head. "Cool name."

"Thanks."

"I'm a freshman too, I'm on the football team." He smiles, pointing to himself.

He's wearing the school colours, and if he's on this team, that means he must be good.

I turn around and start walking to my dorm, James falling in step beside me.

"Let me guess. Quarterback?" I have to say, I admire the fact that he had the guts to come talk to me. "Didn't you get the memo? I'm off-limits. Touch me, and you die."

He chuckles at Luke's words. "Running back actually. I'm red shirting the year."

Red shirting is typical in college sports, especially football. You don't play the first year, instead you train with the team until you know all the ins and outs. Most of the time, it makes for better players. Cole did it too, so technically he's a sophomore now, only a year ahead of me.

"So what did they say about me in training?" I'm curious to know. Do they know I'm not actually Cole's sister, not by blood anyway. Or what my major is?

"You're off-limits. If we touch you, we die." James smiles down at me.

God, he's really cute, and he looks so wholesome too, like the kind of boy I should be talking to. Not that I have much experience, since everyone was either warned away from me, or only talked to me to get closer to Cole.

Cole is like the sun, everybody wants to soak up his heat and be in his orbit.

"Then you have a big set of balls." I smile back up at him.

He shrugs. "I figured it's worth the risk for a beautiful girl."

My ears burn, and I'm grateful that my hair is loose today and that it doesn't show.

We stop in front of my dorm building. "This is me."

"Soooooo..." He drawls. "This is where I ask for your number."

I raise my eyebrows. "Are you asking or saying?"

"Both." He smiles that dazzling white smile again, making me wonder if that's his real teeth, because no teeth can be so perfect.

It would be so easy to give him my number, flirt with him a little, but what are his intentions here?

Is he asking me because he actually wants my number to get to know me, or is this a ploy to get closer to my brother? It's so screwed up that I can't even enjoy my college experience. Maybe I should've chosen one of the other two universities who also offered me at least a partial scholarship.

This offer, however, was just too good to pass out on, but now I'm in Cole's shadow, and I didn't bargain for that.

"Good to meet you, James." It pains me not to give him my number, but I just wink at him and go inside.

There will be other cute boys in my lifetime that is not affiliated with my brother. Even though this one was really, really cute.

My phone rings as soon as I go inside my bedroom, and I sigh when I see Cole's name.

"Brother." I answer. "To what do I owe this pleasure."

"What were you doing walking with a football player." His voice is even lower than usual, with a dangerous undertone in it.

"Are you following me?" I narrow my eyes. "Or do you have some spies that are doing your bidding?"

"I don't want you talking to players!"

Anger bubbles inside my chest at his words. "Luckily I don't have to do what you want me to do!"

"Monet."

There is something in the way he says my name that is hard to decipher.

I shake my head, even though he can't see me. "I'll talk to whom I want to, Cole. Goodnight."

I immediately block his number after I end the call. He's not going to dictate who I talk to or not. Now I regret not giving my number to James, just to be spiteful.

Instead, I do the next best thing. I go to Cole's Instagram and search James' name. His handle is running_james, and I follow him immediately.

And what do I do next?

I slide into his DM's.

Take that, Cole Brown.