Chapter Three: Violet

When I was 18, I learned that my dad had been dating a woman without my knowledge; Selena Hart. When I was told that she had a son who played football, I was insanely jealous that my dad finally got the son he always wanted. I felt like my world flipped upside down, and I hadn't been ready for it. Lucky for me, Tyler was respectful of our family dynamic. While he gave my dad his blessing, he also wasn't looking for a replacement father, which meant that I got to keep him all to myself for a while... at least until they moved in with us.

Tyler and I actually got on really well, almost too well. It was like we were siblings our whole lives. If it weren't for his brown eyes, we could probably pass for brother and sister. The best part was that we were only a few months apart, and it helped us get on better than if we had years between us. The knowledge that Selena was the one who created and raised Tyler made me give the big thumbs up to my dad when he told me of his plans to marry her. There was no way she could have raised a human to be as good of a person as Tyler was without being a good person herself. It just didn't seem possible.

I bet that you could guess which school gave him his football scholarship. That's right! Mine! The one that my dad now works for.

Nepotism at its finest.

I'm not saying that Tyler wouldn't have gotten it without my dad. He was an amazing player. I just think that my dad being in his corner definitely helped.

I glanced up at the clouds that were scattered across the sky as I made the trek back to my dorm. It wasn't too cold for it being October, but it still sent a chill down my spine when the breeze ruffled my hair.

I wasn't paying attention when I rounded the corner, but neither was the man coming from the opposite direction. My small body collided with the hard figure and warmth rushed through my chest and hands where they had connected with his body. For a moment, time slowed as I flailed like a fish out of water, trying to grab his arms to stop my fall before I bounced back and crashed into the ground.

"Oh, shit!" He yelled as he dropped his duffel bag from his shoulder and stretched his arms out to grab me. "Are you okay?" He asked as he wrapped his arm around my waist and lifted me back to my feet.

As I stood, he moved with me until I was flush against his front - where I was very aware of each hard pane and line of his body pressed against mine.

I glanced up at the man holding me as I steadied myself with my hands on his impressive biceps. His forest green eyes glanced from his bag on the floor to the locker room entrance. The rest of the team was already in there, and he was late. I was sure my dad would give him extra sprints for it.

"Yeah, I'm good, thanks," I said, but it came out in a whisper. My eyes had a mind of their own as they glanced at his lips to watch his tongue peek out to wet them as he released me. The need to escape the awkward run-in was overpowering, and I sidestepped him as he bent down to grab his duffel bag.

"Sorry about that!" Caleb shouted over his shoulder as he took off in a run to meet his team.

In the time it took me to pull myself back to reality and turn around to watch him go, he was already rounding the corner to reach the locker room.

Vibration from my bag caught my attention, and I wormed my left arm out from under the shoulder strap to open the small front pouch of my bag. The cell phone I pulled out had seen better days, but the new crack across the front from my fall made me frown. It seemed to be that kind of day.

My thumbs slid across the cracked screen carefully as I answered the call in an attempt to save my finger from being cut.

"Hey, Chloe. What's up?" It would only take me about twenty minutes to make it back to the room, but I stopped walking just in case she wanted to meet somewhere else.

"I was just about to start getting ready, and I wanted to see when you would be back." She said, and I could hear as she moved stuff around in the background. My feet resumed moving one after the other as I tried to figure out what plans we had going on tonight.

"Getting ready for…" I let the question trail off and regretted it when I heard her take in a large, dramatic breath of annoyance.

"For the Halloween parties on the row!" She grumbled in exasperation, "We've been talking about it for weeks."

I winced and pulled the phone away from my mouth an inch as I let out a sigh. It had already been a long day, and all I wanted was to go back to the room and curl up in bed with a funny movie.

Every year the fraternity houses held a Halloween party, and every year they got crazier and crazier. Last year it was so bad that the school banned public gatherings the night of Halloween, so this year they decided to throw the parties the weekend prior. As a freshman at the time, I went all-in but could not tell you a single thing that happened that night before I woke up in the campus police holding cell the following morning.

I guess you could say that there was a valid reason my dad likes to keep a close eye on me.

"I completely forgot about that, but I'll figure out a costume when I get back to the room," I told her before the sound of the shower being turned on filled the silence. She said a quick okay before disconnecting the call.

Little did I know, this was going to be the night that changed everything.