He raises a hand. “I’ll be there.”
I barely refrain from rolling my eyes at his noncommittal way of seeing her off. It’s enough for the girl because she blows him a kiss and trips lightly down the stairs.
“Not even going to walk her to the door?” I ask as I brush by him into the room.
“That implies I invited her here, which I didn’t. She showed up, took her clothes off, and told me she felt like celebrating with a winner today because she’d gotten some good news. I had some time to kill before we went out tonight.”
Okay then.
It smells like sex, but his bed is perfectly made. I remind myself to put a blanket on the sofa if I decide to sit on it. I stride over to the windows and throw one open. Ace chuckles but lights a stick of incense.
“Thanks for letting me crash here tonight.” I set my backpack next to the bed and gingerly climb onto the side.
“It’s no problem. So your place is getting exterminated?” Ace throws himself into the corner of the sofa.
“The girls down in 1C convinced management that we had a bug infestation and that they’d sue if something wasn’t done. Then they went around and got a bunch of the residents to sign some anti-bug petition.”
Ace squints. “1C. Those the Stepford twins?”
I nod. I’m sure I’ve complained about them before to Ace.
He gets a faraway look in his eyes. “I think I slept with them last semester.”
“Ace,” I groan. “Why?”
“They offered to do me together. Who turns that down?”
Normal people. “You know I can’t stand them.”
He shrugs. “I’m not dating them. I just slept with them.”
I throw a pillow at his face. “You’re terrible.”
He throws it back. “They weren’t that good actually. I thought they’d be all over each other, but one watched while I did the other. It was actually kind of weird. Hey, I bought diet pop for you and picked up a bag full of Splenda if you want to bake tonight.”
This is Ace in a nutshell. A horndog who manages to wrest his attention away from his own dick long enough to be a thoughtful friend.
“You like this star quarterback business.” Even in high school, Ace’s stint as quarterback was overshadowed by a star running back. He came here without much hope of ever starting, but injuries opened up a space for him last year. He made the most of it, and I’m thrilled for him.
“It’s the bomb, Lucy girl. All the chicks I want. Everyone bends over backward to give me a pass. Even my professors give me a high five and the TAs suggest that I can take it easy. It’s nothing like high school, that’s for sure.” He stretches his legs out and folds his arms behind his head. His smug look reminds me again of what he was doing before I arrived. Or should I say as I was arriving?
Which reminds me, “Am I going to need a set of sheets for the sofa?”
“Take the bed. Marissa and I didn’t make it to the bed.” His words hold about as much emotion as a stone. Poor Marissa. As if to emphasize his disinterest in the topic of Marissa and their hookup, he flicks on Family Feud. Steve Harvey asks what the top five answers are for the question “something people do when they are tired.”
“Drink caffeine,” I guess.
“Take a nap,” is Ace’s answer, then he asks off-handedly, “Want to come to the Gas Station with us tonight?”
“No.” I kick my backpack. “I’m working on some things for the mock trial team.”
“I can go and beat her up,” he suggests.
“You really can’t because I’m sure that would be grounds for suspension. I can see the headlines now. ‘National Championship quarterback arrested for assault and battery.’” But I’m touched by his instant defense.
Ace tips his head back and drains his bottle. He has the next one open and poured down his throat before he responds. “Better than ‘former National Championship player demoted in favor of true freshman recruit,’” he says bitterly.
I blink in surprise at his quick change in mood. A moment ago, he was complacent and self-satisfied and now he’s pissed off? What’d I miss? “What are you talking about?”
Ace’s face darkens. He finishes the second bottle and opens a third. “Nothing. It’s nothing.”
Every once in a while, he gets in these I hate everyone so I guess I’ll go eat worms moods. Privately I refer to it as male PMS, but I shouldn’t be surprised because Ace’s bad moods usually occur in the off-season.
During the season, he’s focused and determined and he rarely sulks. These small snippets of time when he can generally ignore school and focus on drinking and screwing girls all day is when he becomes maudlin and unbearable.