Chapter 12 - Waylon

It was a stroke of luck that I was awake when Wakely walked out of the dorm. I couldn’t sleep. The thought of her was swirling in my mind. Dreaming about her and fantasizing about her didn’t help my quality of sleep.

Watching her walk through the quad and into the building with the coffee shop, I couldn’t help but follow. She had a book tucked under her arm, and I wanted to know exactly what she was reading.

Classes haven’t started yet, so this had to be a book for pleasure.

She grabbed her coffee and tucked herself into a large armchair. If we wanted to, we both could share that seat. She could sit on my lap as she read if she wanted. Because that was exactly what I wanted.  

My dick twitched at the thought of her on my lap. I wanted that more than I could say. She looked happy. Contented.

Now her chest was heaving after she practically yelled at me. Her image of me was completely wrong, but that didn’t matter. I was going to change her mind. She was mine, and soon she was going to find that out as well.

I held up a finger. “First, my brothers are assholes and if I interfered they would have done something worse.”

Wakely opened her mouth as if to protest, but I held up a second finger.

“Second, I do not do any of the tormenting. That is all Whittaker and Wynn and I have done everything I can to make sure to minimize their tormenting. Because what they plan is way worse than what actually happens.”

Wakely didn’t try to say anything, just waited.

“Third, I don’t walk around the campus like a god. I walk around the campus, and if people revere me as a god, that is on them, not me. Most of the time I want to be left alone, but obviously that doesn’t happen.” I glanced over at the barista, who had tried time and time again to get with me.

It wasn’t going to happen. She didn’t hold my interest in the slightest. But the woman who was dumbfounded in front of me held all of my interest.

“Fourth, I’m the captain of the swim team because that was the only way I could afford to come to this university. Some of us don’t come from wealthy families and don’t have open doors to each and every university.”

I gave her a pointed glare. I knew who she was and who her father was. Money was not a problem for her, and I wanted her to know that I knew that. Her cheeks flared red.

“And last, I may be a jock, but I’m not stupid. I’m at the top in my engineering program and am determined to graduate early.”

Wakely glanced away, embarrassed by her outburst. I didn’t want that, though. I wanted her to face me head-on so I could see what she was feeling. I knew she felt embarrassed, but there was something else there.

I leaned forward and looked over my shoulder to make sure no one else was around us. “Can you keep a secret?”

She glanced back at me and held my eye contact. She gave me the slightest nod.

“I want to graduate early because I want to get away from my brothers. And the only way to do that is to separate myself from them completely. They are toxic, and I don’t want to be connected to them any longer.”

I didn’t know why I told her that. No one knew. They all just thought I wanted to save money. But no, I needed to get away. Getting away meant freedom.

Wakely’s mouth hung open. I took a finger and closed it for her. “So the next time you want to compare me to my brothers…don’t.” I clenched my jaw. “Because I’m nothing like them,” I said through my teeth.

I leaned back and stared at the beautiful woman in front of me. I had nothing else to say to her. I was going to let her ruminate on my words. Whether she believed me or not was up to her.

But I hoped she did.

I stood and pushed in my chair, nodded at her, then turned to leave.

“Espresso,” Wakely said before I could get too far away.

I looked over my shoulder. “What?”

She took a deep breath. “A shot of espresso makes it dirty.”

I smiled and gave her a nod. “Thanks.”

I walked out of the coffee shop, determined not to turn around and see if she was looking at me. I knew she was. I didn’t need that validation. I wanted to look at her and engrave her image in my mind of how she was in the coffee shop, enraptured by the book she was reading.

She was content. Her eyes looked happy. At least they looked happy before I showed up. Compared to the photos of her online her eyes didn’t look concerned. Just irritated with something else lingering there.

Even after she started to talk to me, her eyes weren’t concerned. There was a fire there, and determination. Not concern.

I walked to the pool and breathed in the chlorine. Ever since I was a kid, I loved the smell of swimming pools. It felt like home to me.

Being under the water, where it was quiet as I swam laps, made me feel powerful. Almost otherworldly.

It reminded me of when I was a kid and my brothers and I would play water monsters in the public pool during the summer.

Now, instead of being water monsters, my brothers were real monsters. I don’t really know when the change happened. It was in the blink of an eye. One day they were caring and then the next they tormented those around them for fun.

I stripped my sweats off and stood at the edge of the pool staring down at the calm water. This was my element. This was where I thrived.

I dove into the water, and my arms and legs sliced through the water, propelling me forward. I stopped thinking about swimming and focused on my brothers.

Whenever I wasn’t in a race, I let my mind wander. And my thoughts usually wandered to my brothers and how they changed.

I hated it. But the problem was I was the only one that noticed. My parents did their best to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. Whenever we were at home, my brothers reverted to their usual caring behavior.

As soon as we got back to school, they would go back to their toxic ways. I didn’t understand it. Now I would be able to lock myself away in my room to get away. At least I had that.

I don’t know how many laps I made, but I bobbed up, treading water. Someone was sitting on the bleachers, staring at me. Bryan Baker.

It’s been over a year since I have seen him. Bryan was on the receiving end of my brothers’ torment at the end of Freshman year. During the last couple of months of the semester, my brothers isolated Bryan and told anyone on the swim team that if they spoke to him they would be isolated too.

Then at the year-end party, I wasn’t sure which of my brothers had drugged Bryan. They pretended that he was their friend again, and he was relieved. He accepted the drink that they offered him and drank it no questions asked.

After a few minutes, he started to act strangely. He went completely crazy, apparently whatever my brothers gave him interacted with the medication he was already on. He had a mental breakdown and didn’t return for Sophomore year.

It killed me that I wasn’t at the party to prevent this from happening. I was studying for my last final the next day. But I knew deep down that my brothers had something planned. I should have done something. I should have been there.

My stomach clenched with guilt as he stared at me. “Hey, Bryan.”

I swam closer to him, he had dark circles under his eyes. His face had scruff, which was not something he usually had. He was always clean-shaven and well-put together. The man before me was a shell of the person that I had seen before.

“Hey, Waylon,” he said. I could see him grinding his teeth together.

“I’m glad you’re back. Did you want to join the team again?” I was shocked that those words were the truth. I wanted him to come back, to join the team again. I would protect him from my brothers this time.

“Did you know?” He asked, ignoring my question.

I didn’t have to ask him what he was talking about. I knew exactly what he meant. “No.” I grabbed the ledge and leaned against it.

He gave me a sharp nod, accepting my answer. He stood, shoving his hands in his pockets, and started to walk away.

“If I knew, I would have stopped it,” I said.

He turned around and stared at me for a moment. “I know.” He left me in the pool alone. I was pretty sure he knew I wasn’t involved even before he asked.

It killed me what he went through. He shouldn’t have had to deal with what my brothers did. I knew why, though; they said he needed to be put in his place.

He didn’t need to be put in his place. He was good at swimming. Better than my brothers and almost as good as me. And they got jealous because he was getting recognition that they weren’t.

I pulled myself out of the water and grabbed the towel to dry off. Bryan deserved better than what he received. His college experience was tainted because of my brothers.

We never found out what happened to him last year. Some say that he had to go to a rehab center, and others say that he was homeless, living under a bridge. That last thought was obviously not true, he was back here.

And I was going to do anything in my power to get him back on the team. He was good at swimming, and I was going to do my best to make sure that at least this year was a good one for him.

If it was the last thing I did.