Jack wanted to kill someone. A very specific someone. Sulking, he watched Alice walk into their first Monday class with her cheeks flushed from the cold and a dreamy smile on her lips—she was practically glowing. Peter hadn’t given Jack any specifics at practice, which was the first red flag. But his smug, stupid face and confident smirk had hinted at more than enough for Jack to figure out that his captain had gotten lucky with Ice.
They’d slept together. Jack had no doubts. The thought was like a sucker punch to his guts. He was rotten jealous; there was no denying it at this point. He’d always thought he was fine with Alice being his friend and nothing more, a platonic relationship. Wrong. When she’d tried to kiss him, something had stirred in him, and seeing her with Peter was torture. Thinking of them together turned his stomach in a washing machine spinning at full speed.
For the first time, Jack had arrived at a lecture before Alice. He was usually late as he had to run all the way across campus from the gym after practice. Today, he’d managed to get in at the top of the hour and Alice was fifteen minutes late. Ice was never late. Had Peter given her such mind-blowing sex that she’d had trouble getting up this morning? Jack’s stomach churned again.
What now? Should he tell her? Tell her what, exactly? Accuse her of having had sex with Peter? Demand an explanation? Or go for something more along the lines of, “Hey, Ice, remember the other day when you tried to kiss me and I told you it wasn’t going to happen between us because we’re just friends? I was kidding. Let’s get together.”
She would laugh in his face. Coming clean with her now would be a disaster, and Jack still wasn’t sure starting a relationship with Ice was right. What if he screwed up again? He’d already lost one best friend because he’d thought he was in love with Felicity when he wasn’t. He’d mistaken familiarity and attraction for something they weren’t. Was he misinterpreting plain territorial jealousy for deeper feelings here? Jack didn’t know what he felt for Alice or if he should be with her; the only clear certainty in his mind was that she shouldn’t be with Peter.
If he’d never cared who Alice dated before, why the change now? What if Alice wasn’t the problem? Maybe it was Peter. Jack didn’t like his captain invading his turf. Yeah, that must’ve been it. Male competition was his problem, not his non-existing-before-two-weeks-ago feelings for Ice. Jack had better play it cool with both of them. Their relationship would evaporate just like all the other relationships Peter had. He shouldn’t worry. This problem would solve itself.
Still, when Alice sat next to him and uttered a cheerful, “Hey!” Jack felt like punching something—no, someone.
“Hi,” he replied stiffly. “Had a good weekend?”
“Yeah. You?”
“Just the usual: practice, game, homework.”
“Yeah, I saw the game. It was, uh, cool.”
“I played like crap.”
“The team won; it’s all that matters.”
“Yeah, scoring is all that usually matters with basketball players.”
He noticed Alice stiffen in her chair.
“Are you having a bad morning?” she asked.
“You could say that.” Jack sneered. “For one, it started with me having to listen to Peter bragging about scoring with you.”
“He did what?” Alice hissed. “Did he tell the entire team we had sex?”
Jack felt as if he’d just been punched in the stomach. So I was right—it did happen. He wanted to lie to her and claim Peter had gone bragging to everyone—what better way to drive a wedge in their relationship?—but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. “No, he just told me,” Jack admitted. “Actually, he didn’t say it—but I can read between the lines. Thank you for the confirmation.”
Alice blushed. She hid her face by bending forward to take her notepad out of her messenger bag.
“So how was it?” Jack asked. He couldn’t help his morbid curiosity.
“You’ve never asked me about sex with other guys before,” Alice whispered.
“You’ve never dated any of my friends before.”
“Oh, so that gives you kiss-and-tell privileges?” She scowled at him. “I don’t think so.”
“If it sucked, you can just say it.”
“No, it didn’t suck. It was the best sex of my life,” Alice whispered furiously. “Happy now?”
Yeah, Jack had gotten what he wanted. He basked in the bitter satisfaction of having tricked her into saying what gave pain to no one but himself.
“Mr. Sullivan, why don’t you answer the question?” Professor Procter targeted Jack. “You seem pretty busy discussing hypotheses with Miss Brown.”
Luckily, Jack’s subconscious had been half-following the lecture, and he was able to cook up a half-decent answer. After the rebuke, he and Alice didn’t exchange another word for the rest of the class, and Jack made himself promise he would never discuss Peter with Alice ever again—especially not how good his captain was in bed.
Live and let live was truly the best solution. Jack would let Peter ruin everything on his own. No need to interfere or say anything. Peter would dig his own grave, eventually.
***
Jack’s do-nothing-and-life-will-take-care-of-it plan failed miserably. Two months later, Alice and Peter were still dating. Peter had either become monogamous or was smart enough not to let Jack catch him with some other girl. To be honest, Jack really believed Peter was being faithful to Alice. What with their super-packed schedule, Jack didn’t see how Peter could fit in another woman; it was nearly impossible. The thought gave him little consolation.
Besides his mood, Jack’s performance on the basketball field had suffered too. Alice had become a regular presence at their home games, keeping Jack angry and distracted. Not a good combination when you were playing a team game and all you wanted to do was strangle your captain. Coach Morrison noticed something was up, but Jack refused to provide any explanation, so the coach made him play the bench more often than the court.
On top of everything else, his dating life was nonexistent. All of a sudden, women who were not Ice seemed dull to him. Jack didn’t see the point in sleeping with any of them anymore. The notion that he didn’t want to sleep with anyone else because of Alice surprised and scared him. The only person who knew of this turmoil was his friend Felicity. Over the phone, she’d told him—not without a hint of regret in her voice—that he’d finally fallen in love with someone. And that not wanting to sleep with anyone else because they weren’t Alice was exactly what being in love felt like.
Jack didn’t know what to do with this unwelcome intel on his feelings. Telling Ice now, when she already had a boyfriend, would be a stupid move. Also, the possibility that she could turn him down left him in a state of panic. Was this how Ice had felt after the library incident? Why had he been so stupid? In the last few months, Jack had relived that afternoon over and over in his head. In every single one of his fantasies, he had scooped Alice into his arms and kissed her back. How could he have been so stupid, and how could Ice have moved on so quickly?
She hadn’t told him she loved him—but had she? Was her love for him over, finished, caput? Just like that? Was she in love with Peter now?
Nausea assaulted him whenever he let his mind drift in that direction. Jack needed a break. A break from seeing Alice almost every day and feeling her less close to him with every passing hour. Ice spent more and more of her free time with her boyfriend and ignored her supposed best friend. In response, Jack’s ego crouched in a dark corner of his mind like a sulky child neglected by his parents.
Mercifully, winter break was approaching fast. There’d be no time for Alice and Peter to be together. The team was flying to Hawaii over Christmas to play three games in Honolulu. No way would Peter behave himself on a trip where they’d be surrounded by hulu beauties 24-7. No. Way.