Two

“Hey, haven’t seen you around here before,” he said with a cocky grin. The same damned cocky grin he always used to pick up skanks, and now he was using it on me.

“Here’s your sac back,” I said and tossed it to him, then turned and walked away.

“Wha – wait, hold on!” He jogged after me and started walking backwards next to me to keep up. “What class are you headed to; I can maybe help you find it?”

I held up the school map I printed out this morning. “Thanks, I got it covered.”

This stumped him and he had no choice but to stop and watch as I continued to walk away like he was never there. I kept walking until I saw the signs for the bathrooms and ducked into them, then let out a gasping breath.

It had been so long since I last saw him, all the memories of high school had come rushing back. Of all the people to run into on the first day, why did it have to be him?

I sat in the bathroom until I thought the coast was clear then snuck out and raced to my first class, which was the History of Dance. I was looking forward to learning all the different styles of dance throughout the years and interpreting the different styles into my own choreography.

The next class was Kinesiology, the study of body movement and function when dancing. It looks at the style of dance as a scientific study of the human body and the capabilities of movement and functions while dancing. Even for a minor University, this B. A course was still top-notch and was going to teach me hopefully all I needed to know about opening my own studio.

But, of course, I could barely concentrate despite how excited I was about this class, because my mind kept wandering as to how I was going to avoid Ace Huxley yet again. It’s obvious he didn’t recognize me, but he also made it clear that he had taken an interest in me, and I had seen the way he hunted girls back in high school.

He would chase after one girl for months, just to sleep with her then dump her. It was almost like a game to him, how many people could he sleep with before he graduated? I could only imagine what Uni life had been doing for him in that field.

Which gave me all the more reason to stay as far away from him. Thankfully, I was already a pro at that, and this school was a lot bigger than our high school, hopefully, it would be easy to avoid him for the entire time he had left at school.

~*~

The first morning went by great, I learned so much in my first two classes and had an hour break after lunch and to wander the campus a little. I wanted to know where the rink was so I could avoid it at all costs, but of course, the moment I found it was the exact moment Ace Huxley decided to walk out of the building.

“Hey, new girl!” he yelled out and ran over to me.

I turned around and pretended not to see him, but his long legs were capable of keeping up with me with no problem.

“Why do you keep running away? Am I that ugly?” he joked, but it reminded me of the taunts he used to throw at me about secretly being ugly.

“Why do you keep following me? Am I really that attractive?”

“Well, yeah, of course,” he answered bluntly. “Come on, don’t tell me you’ve never looked in a mirror?”

I wasn’t expecting such blunt honesty, but I should’ve from him.

“Is that the reason you’re following me because you want to get into my pants?” I scoffed and walked faster, but he still kept up with me.

“At first I thought I might know you; you seemed familiar.” This almost made me stop dead in my tracks. The last thing I wanted was for him to remember who I was. “But now I’m just curious why you don’t want to be around me.”

“I’m just trying to make it through like everyone else,” I muttered.

“All the more reason to have friends who can help you out if you need it. Campus life isn’t easy, I’ll tell you that.”

“Well, lucky for me, I don’t live on campus.”

His eyes widened. “Really? Do you live with your parents in town?”

“Nope. I have a class to get to, excuse me.”

“Wait!” He grabbed my arm and pulled me back.

“Ugh, what?”

He grinned as if he found my attitude amusing. What the hell happened to this guy?

“We’re having our first game of the season this Friday, you should come and support, maybe cheer me on a little.” He wiggled his brows.

“Not interested, thanks.” I tried to walk away but he wouldn’t let go.

“Can I at least know your name, then?”

Shit. If I revealed my name, would that put everything together for him? Would he even remember me just by my name? I didn’t want to tell him, but it wasn’t like there wasn’t way he could find out. But I remembered there was one thing he loved to do.

Gamble.

Ace and his buddies always liked to bet on their games and the other sports games that happened at our school, he would never turn down a friendly wager.

“I’ll make a bet with you; win the game this Friday, and I’ll tell you my name.”

His eyes lit up and his grin widened.

“You got yourself a wager.”

I stopped him before we shook hands. “Hold on, there has to be something I win if you lose. If you lose, you have to leave me alone, never bother me again. Is that fair?”

He slouched a little at this and seemed disappointed. “Not even as friends?”

“Why would you want to be friends with me? We have nothing in common.”

“How would you know? Come on, don’t be that cruel, think of something else. How about I won’t hit on you, ever? If you really think I’m just trying to sleep with you, then if I lose, I’ll never be allowed to make any sort of move on you ever.”

This surprised me and hurt a little for some reason. That was what I wanted, but he made it sound so easy. Was I really not that attractive to him?

“Alright, fine.”

His face lit up again. “You’ve got yourself a wager.”