Free Slammed #3 by Claire Adams Page A

Can’t wait to get you alone again, Evie . I am counting down the hours.

 
    CHAPTER
SIX
    For a day or two, I had no time to get back to Zack;
in spite of the fact that I wanted nothing more than to be with him again, I
still had the presence of mind to put my studies first. I sent Zack a few
texts—teasing him, and getting teased in return—but I couldn’t make any
definite plans until I knew I had all of my work done. I wanted to see him
again, but I wasn’t going to make the mistake of letting my grades tank because
I’d gone sex-crazed with a guy. I was also still nervous about the reaction from
his teammates. Was the one who’d talked to me the only one who was worried
about Zack being distracted, or was it something that the whole team was on
board with ? And had they noticed that Zack was
apparently more distracted without me?
    It was Wednesday morning when I woke up; I was
already thinking of how I would hit Zack up to go to dinner somewhere off
campus, maybe bring him back to my dorm to spend the night. I still had my own
prejudices against this frat house—if he had to stay there for whatever reason,
I would go to him there, but if I could have him to myself in my room, I wanted
that a lot more. I got up and decided to wake up gradually, about an hour or so
earlier than my usual wake-up time.
    I was sitting in the common area of the dorm when
Jess came in, eyes wide and face set in shock. I was watching one of the
early-morning shows, drinking a cold coffee in my pajamas, and Jess made a
beeline to me.
    “Shit, Evie —have you seen
this?” She brandished a newspaper and I furrowed my brow.
    “What, did something come out in the school rag?”
    Jess shook her head. “This isn’t the campus paper,”
she said, straightening it and showing me the banner.
    It was the Tribune, distributed throughout the state, though it was mostly local. Jess unfolded the
newspaper. On the front page, a huge headline read, Up and Coming QB May Be Suspended for Partying Too Hard . My gaze
moved down and I saw a picture of Zack, obviously at a party at his frat. He
was wearing a toga and had a beer in each hand, streams of the drinks flowing
into his mouth from both sides. There was a girl in the picture with him,
grinding up against him with a huge grin on her face.
    For a long moment I couldn’t do anything but stare
at the picture, shocked at what I was seeing. I finally snatched the paper out
of Jess’ hands and began to read. “ The
quarterback’s partying ways, as a member of the notorious Phi Alpha Kappa
fraternity, recently came to light to the administration as well as the
coaching staff at the university.” The article went on to describe the
different highlights—or maybe they were lowlights—of the frat’s history on
campus, and opined that it was a foregone conclusion that Zack would be lost to
partying ways once he’d joined as a freshman. “Of course, the kind of behavior that a second string quarterback is
able to get away with is impossible for a starting quarterback for a school
that will be going on to nationals.” The article concluded with speculation
as to whether suspending Zack would force the school to forfeit at the finals,
whether or not the first string QB was going to be able to take up his mantle
again, or whether there would be a backup quarterback who could be brought in. “It is certainly a shame to see a promising
college ball career marred—potentially ended—by the bad choices of a student.”
    I shook my head; his coaches would have had to have known that Zack was partying. Of course, with pictures
of potentially underage drinking coming out, I could see why they were
worried—and why they might suspend him, even if it cost us the big national
championship. They had to at least look like they were being tough on underage
drinking and too much partying. But my eyes went back to the picture and I felt
my concern for Zack dissolve in a bitter thought. That girl, grinding on