Rumor Has It I'm Dating the Football Captain

Chapter 3: Chapter 3: You Can’t Hide From Me

Professor Harrison turned his back to the lecture hall and started writing on the chalkboard.

Audrey did not look at the board. She stared strictly at her blank notebook. Her heart was beating entirely too fast. The air in the room suddenly felt incredibly heavy.

Mason Calloway did not fit in a standard university desk. His broad shoulders completely crossed the invisible boundary between their seats. His long legs stretched out under the table, his knee resting casually inches away from hers. The sharp, overwhelming scent of mint shower gel completely erased the comforting smell of old paper in the room.

He was a massive, breathing distraction. And he was clearly enjoying it.

”You are not taking notes,” Audrey whispered. She kept her voice so low it was barely a breath.

”I have an excellent memory,” Mason whispered back. His voice was a deep, quiet rumble.

”You do not even have a notebook.”

”I will just borrow yours.”

Before she could process the sheer audacity of that statement, a large hand slid across the wooden desk. His fingers brushed against hers. The contact was brief, but it sent a sharp jolt of panic straight up her arm.

He smoothly slipped her favorite black pen right out of her grip.

”Hey,” she hissed.

”Shh,” Mason scolded playfully. ”The professor is talking about social hierarchies. This is very important stuff, Audrey.”

Audrey glared at the side of his face. He was not looking at her. He was staring perfectly straight ahead, looking like a completely innocent student. But his hand was moving.

He pulled her open notebook closer to his side of the desk. He clicked the pen.

He wrote something in the top margin of her perfectly clean page. He pushed the notebook back toward her.

Audrey looked down. His handwriting was surprisingly neat, though written in large, bold letters.

*Why do you wear the cap indoors?*

Audrey grabbed the pen from his hand. She pressed the tip into the paper, writing furiously directly underneath his sentence.

*Because I want to hide from people like you. Give me my pen back.*

She pushed the notebook to his side.

Mason read it. A slow, highly irritating smile spread across his face. He took the pen again. He took his time writing his reply. He leaned closer to do it, his shoulder practically pressing against hers. The heat radiating off his arm was suffocating.

He slid the notebook back.

*You cannot hide from me. I am very observant.*

Audrey felt a vein throb in her forehead. She snatched the pen.

*You promised three days of silence.*

*I promised not to talk to you,* Mason wrote back smoothly. *Writing is not talking. I found a loophole.*

*You are a nightmare.*

*You are smiling.*

Audrey froze. She touched her face. She was not smiling. But the tight, panicky feeling in her chest from earlier had completely vanished. She was so focused on being angry at him that she forgot the rest of the class was watching them.

She slammed the notebook shut. She shoved it into her backpack and crossed her arms over her chest.

Mason let out a quiet, breathy laugh. He leaned back in his creaking plastic chair and stretched his arms behind his head. He looked completely relaxed.

The next forty-five minutes were pure torture.

Audrey tried to listen to Professor Harrison. She really did. But every time she tried to focus, Mason would do something annoying. He tapped his foot. He hummed a very quiet, off-key song. He leaned over to look at her textbook, putting his face entirely too close to hers.

He was deliberately taking up space. He was forcing her to acknowledge him.

”And that concludes Chapter four,” Professor Harrison finally announced. He closed his textbook with a loud thud. ”Read Chapters five and six for next week. Class dismissed.”

The second the words left his mouth, Audrey moved.

She did not look at Mason. She grabbed her backpack, shoved her Pride and Prejudice book inside, and zipped it up with lightning speed.

”Whoa,” Mason said. He dropped his arm from the back of his chair. ”Where is the fire?”

”Goodbye, Calloway,” Audrey said.

She practically climbed over the desk to get to the aisle. She ignored the stares of the girls in the front row. She kept her head down, gripped her backpack straps, and bolted.

She pushed through the heavy wooden doors of the lecture hall and hit the main corridor. It was absolute chaos. Hundreds of students were pouring out of different classrooms. The noise of overlapping conversations and slamming lockers echoed loudly against the tile floors.

Audrey wove through the crowd. She walked faster than she had all week. Her sneakers squeaked slightly against the floor.

She just needed to get outside. She needed fresh air. She needed to put as much distance between herself and the football captain as physically possible.

She pushed through the glass exit doors. The morning air was getting warm. The sun hit her face, but she did not stop. She bypassed the busy central quad and took the narrow dirt path behind the old library annex.

Nobody ever came back here. The annex was closed for renovations. The path was completely shaded by massive, overgrown oak trees.

Audrey finally slowed down. The noise of the busy campus faded into a quiet, distant hum.

She stopped walking and leaned her back against the rough brick wall of the old building. She let out a long, ragged breath. Her chest heaved. The air back here smelled like damp earth and pine needles. It was quiet. It was safe.

She closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the bricks.

She survived. The class was over. She just had to drop the course. That was the only logical solution. She would email her academic advisor today and switch to a different time slot.

”You run incredibly fast for someone with such short legs.”

Audrey screamed.

Her eyes snapped open. She jumped away from the brick wall, nearly tripping over her own feet.

Mason Calloway was leaning against the trunk of a massive oak tree exactly three feet away from her.

He had his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his grey sweatpants. He was not even breathing hard. He looked like he had been standing there waiting for her the entire time. The dappled sunlight filtered through the leaves, catching the golden flecks in his amused brown eyes.

”How did you do that?” Audrey gasped. She pressed a hand to her chest. Her heart was hammering violently. ”Did you teleport?”

Mason laughed. The sound was bright and loud in the quiet space. ”I just walked right behind you. You were so busy speed-walking you did not even check your blind spots.”

”Are you stalking me now?” Audrey demanded. She tried to sound angry, but she was still trying to catch her breath.

Mason pulled one hand out of his pocket. He held up a small, silver object.

It was her dorm key.

”It fell out of your backpack when you were sprinting away from me like I was a serial killer,” Mason said. He took a slow step forward and held it out to her.

Audrey stared at the key. A flush of embarrassment crept up her neck. She reached out and snatched the key from his hand. Their fingers brushed again.

”Thank you,” she muttered. She shoved the key deep into her hoodie pocket. ”Now leave.”

Mason did not leave. He took another step closer. The playful energy completely shifted. He was no longer the annoying guy in the classroom. He looked down at her with that intense, hyper-observant gaze.

The space between them felt incredibly small. The heavy, warm air under the trees seemed to pull them closer.

”Why did you run?” Mason asked quietly.

”Because you are a walking disaster,” Audrey said. She crossed her arms, trying to build a physical barrier between them. ”I told you I do not want the attention. You sat next to me in a crowded room and made a spectacle.”

”I sat in a chair,” Mason corrected. ”You made it a spectacle by panicking.”

”You called me your girlfriend loudly enough for the entire back row to hear.”

Mason smiled a little. ”I like seeing you get mad. You talk really fast. It is cute.”

”I am going to hit you with a rock.”

Mason let out another laugh. He reached out, his hand hovering in the air for a second before he lightly tapped the brim of her baseball cap.

”You do not have to hide, Audrey,” he said softly. ”Let them look. Who cares what they think?”

Audrey swallowed hard. He did not understand. He was popular. He was loved. He had no idea what it felt like to have an entire university decide you were crazy.

”You don’t get it,” Audrey whispered. She looked down at his sneakers. ”When people look at me, they don’t see me. They see the rumor. They see the desperate girl.”

Mason dropped his hand. His jaw tightened. The casual, relaxed posture vanished instantly.

”Who called you desperate?” Mason asked. His voice dropped an octave. It was no longer a question. It was a demand.

Audrey opened her mouth to tell him to drop it.

Before she could speak, the crunch of footsteps echoed loudly on the dirt path.

”Audrey?”

Audrey froze. All the blood drained from her face.

She knew that voice.

She turned her head slowly.

Standing at the edge of the tree line was Logan Foster.

He wore his perfect, wrinkle-free student council polo. He was alone. His eyes darted from Audrey to Mason. His face twisted into a complicated mask of shock, confusion, and raw jealousy.

Logan stepped fully onto the hidden path. The sterile smell of peppermint cut right through the scent of pine needles.

”What are you two doing back here?” Logan asked. His voice was tight. He looked at Audrey like she was doing something wrong. Like she was cheating on him, even though he was the one who abandoned her.

Audrey’s throat closed up. The old fear paralyzed her instantly. She wanted to shrink away. She wanted to run.

A large, heavy hand dropped firmly onto her shoulder.

Mason stepped in front of her. He completely shielded her from Logan’s view. The golden retriever energy was entirely gone. Mason looked at Logan with eyes so cold they could freeze water.

”She doesn’t look like she wants to talk to you,” Mason said evenly. ”You’re making her uncomfortable.”

Logan frowned.

”Stay out of it.”

Mason shrugged.

He glanced back at Audrey for the briefest second before looking at Logan again.

”I’d love to.”

”The problem is...”

”You don’t seem very good at leaving her alone.”