High Point University

"Matches," Carter said. "And yeah, it's intercollegiate."

He decided not to tell her about his winning streak. He knew that'd only poke at her ego.

"If you feel like coming, then go for it."



Bo watched the interaction between Rek and J.R., and he could feel the unsaid tension. Jerica had gotten on the team - he didn't know that yet, and he wanted to be happy for her, but the way Rek was talking made Bo think something had happened.

He thought back to when Jerica was in the kitchen, sitting on the counter, all bruised up. Puzzle pieces started fitting together.

"I can eat later," Bo said, then lowered his voice and leaned down closer to Rek's ear. "I'm guessing he hasn't been very nice to Jerica?"

"Cool, I will." Jerica was almost tempted to poke at him again, try to get him riled up for a match. But she didn't know when J.R. was coming back. And she didn't want to test her luck just then. "How long have you been on the team?"


Rek stepped to the side, letting Bo join him now that there was a reason for him to be nearby. He thought he caught a hint of concern in Bo's voice, and nothing would make him happier than for Jerica to have a literal walking mountain on her side.

"I'm almost certain they're hazing her," Rek answered quietly. "She won't tell me... which makes me even more suspicious that that's what's happening."

Bo glanced back at J.R. Hazing... that sounded about right.

"... I'll have a talk with him," Bo said, his voice unusually cool compared to his usual warmth. "Maybe later, after he's had a few more drinks."

And then it faded, and Bo patted Rek on the shoulder.

"I'll be lookin' out for her."



"All four years I've been in school," Carter answered. "What, thinking of doing wrestling on top of football?"

"Thank you," Rek said gratefully, giving him an appreciative look. Then added playfully. "I don't lift enough to take on the football team."


"You never know," Jerica agreed. "I'm going to need to add another sport in the spring regardless, and I already have to do conditioning so I wouldn't have to double up on that."

She shrugged, taking a drink of her beer before she smirked at him. "And then you'd have to try me."

"Bold of you to imply I have to do anything," Carter countered. "I do what I want."



Bo laughed and then whispered. "I could probably yeet J.R. across the room if I really wanted to."



James took a seat and slid the folder over to him, flipping it open and looking at the prompts. He'd already read the syllabus, so he already had an idea of what to expect. If he was just matching prompts in the order that matched the syllabus, that was easy. He didn't know about Benji, but James was confident he could do this by himself.

Still, he scanned through the papers, found the syllabus, and set it between them.

He paused when he saw Lordshire pull out whiskey and looked at the professor.

"I don't drink," he said simply. "But I'll eat anything. I'm not picky." He turned his eyes back to the papers. "Benji, do you have any preference?"

"Oh heavens, I would never offer you alcohol. I'm a professor! However, if you so happen to take some I wouldn't stop you." Lordy raised his eyebrows and looked between them.

They didn't seem to want to tell him what they wanted, probably because they were both shy. Being scooped up by a dean and forced to do his work would do that to you, Lordy supposed.

"You guys wait right there, I have an idea."

Jerica smirked. She was starting to get to his ego. "I mean, I'm pretty sure you'd want to wrestle me off if I tackled you right now."

She was much too drunk to tackle anyone just then. She was just in the mood to vibe for now. Almost as if on cue, someone landed on the seat beside her again.

"There's that mouth running again, Freshie!" J.R.'s arm landed around her shoulders, threatening, yet again.

Jerica tensed, shoulders involuntarily scrunching up in self-defense. She sighed. This was getting old and she didn't feel like spending the rest of the night next to J.R.'s armpit. She decided to mirror him.

"What can I say?" She threw her left arm around J.R. and man-spreaded, pressing her leg firmly against J.R.'s. "I'm good at running."

J.R. raised his eyebrows then glowered down at her threateningly. "You want to die tonight?"

"Nope." She pulled her arm back to herself, shrinking again.

"Good choice." He patted her cheek condescendingly then pulled her closer.

Jerica let her shoulders round a bit, trying to make herself as small as possible. There was no way out of this. If she tried to fight him: murder. If she tried to retreat: murder by the -addeus-es. She sighed.


"I'd love to see that," Rek laughed, making a point of committing the name to memory.

Just then, J.R. stood up -- leaving his plate on the counter -- and started back towards the living room. An uneasy feeling settled over Rek, a gut feeling telling him that J.R. was on his way back to Jerica. He looked up at Bo with a sigh.

Bo glanced back, watching J.R. on the move. He then looked back at Rek, giving a nonverbal "I'll be back later" with his eyes. Right before leaving, he double-checked the oven and stove-top out of habit, making sure everything was turned off, and it was.

Then, he was out, slipping past everyone near the doorway as politely as possible. Though, with how big he was, he had to say excuse-me a few dozen times, apologizing to Stephanie for accidentally bumping into her (though Stephanie didn't seem upset by it, he still felt bad).

When he saw what was happening on the couch, with J.R. pulling Jerica close into his armpit while she was just sitting there, clearly uncomfortable, he had a brilliant idea.

He strode over, plopping down right beside J.R., and he stretched his arms out a little before throwing his arm over J.R.'s shoulders.

"J.R. You're getting awfully comfortable with your new teammate," Bo heard Carter say, with a hint of malice that Bo picked up on.

But J.R. seemed more distracted by Bo at the moment. Bo watched as J.R. slowly turned his head to look at Bo, meeting his eyes. Bo smiled mirthlessly and pulled J.R. in a little closer.

"Comfortable?" Bo asked.

J.R. stiffened, and his gaze flicked briefly to Jerica. J.R. was a lot of things, but he wasn't that stupid.

"It's a little crowded," J.R. said stiffly.

"Maybe we should scoot over," Bo suggested. "Give Jerica and Carter a little breathing room."

Bo tightened his grip a little more at that, and he could feel J.R. tense up even more.

"Oh hey, it looks like your bottle's empty," Carter said smoothly. "I'm afraid I don't have any more hidden in the couch."

"There's more in the fridge," Bo said.

"Fully stocked," Carter added.

Bo could feel J.R. grip on Jerica steadily loosening, but he didn't relinquish his grip on J.R. just yet. He watched as J.R. let Jerica go, and then he gave J.R. one last firm squeeze.

"Take your time," Bo said in J.R.'s ear. Then he let go.

J.R. got up, shaking it off a little with a rapid shake of his head. Then he walked back to the kitchen. Bo could hear him starting to talk to Brittany. At least, he thought it was Brittany. They all kind of blurred together...

With J.R. gone, Bo decided it might be the safest bet to keep the space beside Jerica occupied so J.R. couldn't squish beside her again. So, just to be safe, he scooted a little closer, but still gave a good few inches of space between him and Jerica.

He leaned back, and kicked up his feet on the coffee table.

"I don't know why you invite J.R. to these things," Bo whispered to Carter, but obviously for Jerica to hear too.

Carter glanced back in the direction of the kitchen, then turned back, leaning in to whisper as well.

"Didn't realize he was that much of a prick," he said, then looked to Jerica. "Sorry about that."

Evaline suddenly realized a lot was going on right now. On the other side of the couch, some poor girl was being harassed, but it looked like two guys bullied the harasser away. It didn't really matter; the fact that there was even a harasser told a lot about this party.

Evaline searched the crowd to find Mel and prematurely bail, but Mel was picking on the harasser with the two other girls she was with.

"Awww, who's the real pussy now?" she heard Mel coo in front of him as Stephanie and Brittany slayed their own taunts at him. "Does little J.R. junior needs a time out? God, you're such a prick. No wonder you can't get laid."

Evaline rolled her eyes but smiled, admiring her friend's confidence. As for her, she was still bent on leaving, but not when they were all huddled by the door.

She looked around and noticed the door to the balcony across the room. Silently, she got up and invisibly waded through the people, sliding the door and slipping out. She took a breath of relief that it was much quieter out here, and that no one else was around.

There was a table and a few chairs nearby. She sat herself down and fished around her messenger bag, pulling out her sketchbook. She should be working on the digital project on her tablet, but it was too stressful right now, and she just needed to idly do something. She had already exhausted her Instagram feed, and plus, there were a few things in mind she could idly sketch.

Jerica watched in dumbfounded silence as Carter and Bo tag-teamed bullying J.R. until he... left. She blinked stupidly, not quite believing her eyes. J.R. had clearly been playing a power move on her, but it hadn't even crossed her mind that Bo had the power to make an even bigger move.

She looked over at Bo, still so surprised that he'd managed to get that menacing. She hadn't thought anything in the entire world could get him riled up. She briefly thought about how terrifying it would be to have him threatening her instead of J.R. -- but now all the threatening demeanor was gone and his presence felt oddly soothing. Even Carter, of all people, was on her side.

It suddenly struck her that she was much more upset by the threats than she'd thought she was. And now, here was Bo -- her Guardian Giant-- sitting near her basically daring anyone to be mean to her. And Carter on her other side, fending off the jocks from that side. Defending her, even though she'd done very little but taunt either of them.

She looked from Carter back to Bo, realizing he still had his arm up on the back of the couch, leaving his torso exposed to her. Before she really thought about what she was doing she turned and dove into a hug, wrapping her arms around Bo in an appreciative hug.


Rek teetered forward until he could see the scene unfolding in front of him. As expected, J.R. made a beeline to Jerica. He frowned, but then watched in delight as Bo gave him exactly a taste of his own medicine. It only took a moment before J.R. was on his feet, sulking away from the couch to nurse his wounds.

He tried -- and failed -- to hide a smirk as J.R. tried to come over to shake off his rejection by talking to the girls, only to get insulted by then until he finally left. About time.

His gaze wandered around the room. There was a throng of people by the door -- mostly the girls taunting J.R. all the way out of the apartment. But his eyes landed on a girl who seemed unhappy. She was eyeing the door as if she wanted to sprint, but instead turned and rushed towards the balcony.

Is she okay? Rek turned and grabbed a muffin, then followed her outside. He offered her a grin and held the muffin out to her. "Hi. I'm Rek."

"Sorry about Lordy, you know how excited he gets when classes finally start again." Morri picked up the bag full of books he just checked out.

"Don't worry about it, I'm just thankful you're around to control him." The librarian told him.

"Feels like my second job sometimes." Morgan waved to her as he left.

"See you soon Professor Morrigan."

He opened the door and took in the glow of the sun. It was a much different scene than it was yesterday at this time. Students were chatting in the distance, classes were going on, and the parking lot was much more crowded than it had been over the last few weeks.

Morri smiled as he walked over to the grass area and sat under a tree.

Our lives may be trapped in the snare of time,
but life would mean nothing, without you in mine.

Morri shook his head. He blinked up at the sky and watched as the clouds raced one another. Too often he found himself struggling to grasp the concept of his existence rather than realizing that he was existing at all. He found solace in remembering that the gift of being able to question the life he was living was a reminder that he was alive to begin with.

"But I'm here to enjoy the ride, so let's worry about which way it's headed later." He told himself.

He reached into his bag and picked out a book. As he flipped to the first page, he took a deep sigh and began to read.

Evaline looked up from the middle of a sketch of the fake flower plant in front of her, realizing that someone else had entered the balcony. She set the pencil down, setting her arms down on the paper.

"Hi," she said softly, trying to offer a smile, but it came out strained. Her eyes darted from the people laughing in the background behind the glass door, to Rek, and then the muffin being offered to her.

Hesitant, she decided to take it, then regretted it because she had no where to place it.

He had no idea that she was vegan, and she knew how irritated strangers could get when she mentioned it, so she decided to play it off.

"Evaline," she simply said, already feeling awkward.

Rek smiled at her reassuringly, sitting down across from her, a polite distance away. It was clear that she didn't want his muffin, but she wasn't sure how to recover from that just then. He couldn't exactly take it back after offering it to her.

"They're really good," he said reassuringly. "But, no worries if you don't want it. Just thought I'd bring a goodwill offering."

He took a deep breath, looking at the mediocre view that the patio offered them. He tried to make a point to not look at what she was working on. He liked to see peoples' art, but he knew how infuriating it was when people tried to listen to his songs before he was done practicing, so he didn't pry into other peoples' muses.

"It's nice to meet you, Evaline," he said gently, offering another smile. "Getting kinda stuffy in there, huh?"

Evaline shot Rek a small appreciative smile, placing the muffin on the table. She felt bad since she essentially wasted a muffin, but she wasn't going to just take a bite out of it, even if she was a little hungry.

Elias used to be big into composting. It wasn't like she'd feel that guilty tossing it since it wasn't a meat item, but she wondered if he could... compost... a muffin..?

Her thoughts were interrupted when Rek continued to talk to her.

Small talk.

She tried to smile again, but it came out forced. "Yeah," she agreed. "I'm not a big fan of parties."

She cringed, realizing it was dumb to admit she was at a party and then say she hated it. She quickly tried to think of something else to say so that he wouldn't sit on the hypocrisy and she'd have to go on a long overwhelming spiel about how she got here.

"I'm not even sure why I took the muffin," she blurted out. "Since I'm... vegan. Not to be that guy, but... yeah."

Evaline bit back a groan.

"Sorry."

Bo blinked, surprised when Jerica suddenly went in for a hug, but he reached over and patted her head gently, waiting for her to decide when she wanted to let go.

While Jerica wasn't looking, he made eye contact with Carter, mouthing: "how many drinks has she had?"

Carter looked over at an array of empty bottles and cans littered on the coffee table and on the floor, then looked back at Bo. Bo could see him trying to fetch an exact number, but Carter also knew he wasn't with Jerica the whole past hour or so.

"...Five?" Carter mouthed back with a small shrug. The shrug wasn't enough to disturb Kayla though. She looked like she was out like a light.

Bo turned his attention back down to Jerica.

"You okay, there?" Bo asked quietly, just for her to hear.