THE BOYS LOCKER room is an interesting place. Loud conversations and running water from the steaming showers bounce off the white and blue walls of the room as everyone changed out of their sweat-drenched and grass-stained clothes for a more fresh-smelling attire.

"Why are you always showing off on the field?" Our designated goalkeeper Caleb McLaurin sneered at me as he removes his gym shorts to the floor. Froy Mavericks, our starting sweeper lets out a laugh beside me on the bench. "Isn't it obvious? He was trying to show off because Lourdes Khadir was watching on the sidelines. I see you smiling in her direction and trying to make sure she sees your muscles flex as much as possible!"

Idris Wellington, comes from the showers with a towel rubbing against his blonde head, blue eyes sending me a glance. "Wait, aren't you messing around with her best friend, or did I hallucinate the moaning coming from your dorm's bathroom that one time?"

"I am," I reply lifting my jersey over my head and tossing it down on the bench beside me. "and I was not showing off for Lourdes Khadir. I didn't even know she was out there."

"Be fucking for real . . ." Caleb sends me a look, brown eyes rolling slightly. I picked up my sweaty jersey and tossed it at his head. He catches it easily before tossing it back at me.

I grinned, "What the hell do you boys want me to say? Because I love showing Lourdes how much of a hot player I am. I want so badly to take her and her best friend to my bed for one night and let the girls have their way with me! Bwahaha!"

Froy's tanned arms fold across his bare chest as he raised a bushy brow at me, green eyes looking me up and down. "I don't think he's joking you guys."

"You know me so well Froy." I stood up from the bench, pinching Froy's cheek as I cooed at the 6 feet something player.

"A bit greedy don't you think? Karina and Lourdes? Save some for the rest of us. The semester hasn't even started officially and you're already plotting" Caleb laughed.

I shrugged my shoulders at my best friend, patting his shoulders as I go to my designated locker for a clean shirt. "It's a dog-eat-dog world out here, I don't know what to tell ya. Gotta do what's best for me and JJ's needs."

Idris made a face. "Who the hell is JJ?"

I sent him a look before grabbing a handful of my dick causing my friend's faces to all scrunch up in disgust and I couldn't help but burst into laughter at the reaction.

"Let's hope you and little JJ can get us to the championships this year."

I threw up my hands. "When have we ever failed you guys before? This is probably gonna be like our best season. We're all first-string now so it's gonna be hell on the field every game. They won't be able to take us."

Columbus University Wildcats has been on a winning streak for almost three years now. ESPN called us Titans because of how we always dominate the opposing teams each game. It's gonna be even better this season now that all of my favorite boys are starting with me, and with Coach Carter making me captain despite only being a junior — I can't afford any fuck ups. This is gonna be the best season for us, it has to be.

This is the year that matters, at least for me. Coach told me that a few recruits from MLS are looking at my file so I can't afford to make any mistakes both on and off the field, and with me only being at CU because of a full-ride scholarship I really can't afford to mess up in any of my classes this semester either because they'll snatch that away from me if I have anything below passing in a class. Whatever happened to C's get degrees?

I've sacrificed too much to just let it all go to waste now. I have to make this work, there's no other option for me.

"Alright, alright," a deep voice mumbles from the entrance of the locker room and I turn around to see Coach Carter standing under the entrance frame, whistle and clipboard in tow as usual. The lights of the room bouncing off his bald head and I held in my laughter, but I turned to Caleb to already see a smile cracking on his russet-skinned face and that did it for me, and I had to turn my head and laughed into Caleb's shoulder quietly.

"Listen up . . ." Coach started again once the conversations in the room settled. I turned back around to meet his cold dead eyes, black and beady like a bat in the night and his pale face and sharp features didn't help with the comparison. I'm so focused on Coach and his unfortunate features that I don't even notice the person beside him standing timidly in the middle of the floor.

"This is Cassian Bergman . . . the third," Coach says the boy's name like it's of any importance. "he'll be joining the team this season. Don't corrupt him like y'all did with Jones."

"Hey?" Jones makes a face in the corners but everyone just ignores it and turns their eyes trained on the boy in the middle of the room. Coach sends the boy another look before his phone starts to go off in his back pocket using that as his excuse to leave the room.

A white long-sleeved striped sweater and navy slacks paired with white sneakers are the first thing that catch my eye about the new boy, that along with the designer bag slung across his chest, and those obnoxious large logos plastered across it that Karina always obsesses over. Brown skin and almond-brown eyes look around the room as silence falls over everything and everyone.

"You're Cassian Bergman . . ." Idris moves towards the boy and I sent my friend a raised brow look. "CJ Bergman's son right?" The boy nods his head in reply, long fingers wrapping around the strap of his cross-body bag.

"CJ Bergman is your dad?" Celeb and Froy gawked at the boy before joining Idris beside him.

The new boy lets out a small chuckle, a row of perfect teeth in his mouth. "Yeah, he is," he replies, voice smooth and not at all like I pictured it. Voices start to sound off around the room and before I could even blink the boy had a circle around him as the guys on the team swarmed him with questions like he was a damn celebrity.

Who the hell is this bitch?

I closed my locker shut and turned back around to the team surrounding the new boy. "Who's CJ Bergman?" I asked and I regret it when almost every head in the room turns to me like I just said blasphemy.

Froy turned around to me with a puzzled look on his chiseled face. "You don't know CJ Bergman?"

I squinted at him. "Didn't you just hear the question?"

"CJ Bergman is like one of the greatest basketball players. He's up there with the greats. How the hell do you not know him?" Celeb stepped forward and asked.

I shrugged my shoulder at him, leaning back against the row of royal blue lockers that lined the walls of the room. "You know I think any sport that isn't my sport is boring."

"Really?" Froy sent me a look and I nodded my head.

Soccer has been my entire life. I don't think understand me when I say that. I don't have time to invest in any other sports because soccer is my sport — it's all I have and all I need, so fuck basketball, American football, and especially lacrosse.

"His brother also just got drafted to the NFL not too long ago I'm pretty sure," Froy adds and I withheld an eye roll.

Caleb nods his head at the information. "I think his mom played something too-"

"Alright. I don't need a breakdown of the family tree." I cut them off holding up a hand.

My eyes motioned over to the boy in the center of the room, two-toned heart-shaped lips flapping in the breeze as he talked with the other players. His brown eyes moved over to me and for the first time in the couple of minutes he's been here, we finally make eye contact. It's a subtle glance, my dark ones meeting his brown ones as he's barely paying attention to what the guys are saying in front of him. Deciding to end the awkward moment, I approached him.

"Welcome to the team," I start, hand extended for a shake with a slight stretch upon my lips. I should at least get to know the guy before I start forming an opinion. He looks down at my hand for a quick moment before he gives it a small shake, his grip firm and with direct eye contact like we're at a business meeting.

"This is Jaylen Park. Captain and also the best striker you'll ever see." Idris introduces me as he looks between the boy and me.

"Cassian . . ." the boy said his name breathily like he's been repeating the same three syllables all day and maybe he has. "I'm also a striker, sometimes a midfielder depending on the weather." he let's out a small chuckle that doesn't garner one out of me.

"Good to know," I replied, removing my hand from his grip. We exchanged one last glance before I turned back around and gathered my belongings and made my way out of the locker room.

••••

"I don't trust him, Rina."

Karina Abubakar sends me a look from the edge of the bed, brown eyes rolling to the ceiling as she tosses one of my shirts over her head and covers her exposed chest. "Cassian hasn't even been here for a full day Jaylen. Plus, he seems really nice from what Lourdes has said about him."

"I don't know. Somethings seems off about him." I said to her as I rested my arms under my head, blinking up at my dorm room ceiling.

"You sound like a hater Jaylen." Karina stands up to put on her pants, giving a little jump that makes me chuckle underneath my breath.

"I'm not hating," I send her a look that she doesn't even notice because she's too busy combing a hand through her dark curls. "I'm just stating how I feel about the guy, and you know my feelings are never wrong."

"Sure," she replies not bothering to hide the sarcasm in her voice, and before I can call her out on it she grabs my boxers on the floor and tosses the fabric at my head.

If I were to explain the relationship me and Karina has it would take about a few pages. I can't exactly recall how we ended up in one another spaces but it happened one night and now we're here. Fast forward a year later and our on-again-off-again situation ship has finally flickered back on now that the semester is starting again now that she's back in my radius after being away back home for summer break. It always starts the same. She posts a pretty picture of herself on Instagram, I swipe up with a compliment and she hearts it but doesn't reply right away. A couple of moments later she's in my bed with nothing but my T-shirt on running her fingers through my hair ranting about her shitty ex-boyfriend from back home.

It doesn't bother me though. I like it — our little routine we have going on. It's nice and is a complete 180 from the way I used to do things when I first got to CU. It's no secret that I've had my fair share of adventures here at Columbus University, maybe I had a little too much fun my freshman year and a little bit of my fall sophomore semester, but it's still fun nonetheless. I wouldn't call myself a skirt chaser, but there's no denying that I like to have my fun, and the girls here at school don't mind telling me that they want to have for with me too, and I almost rarely decline because, well, who am I to tell a girl no?

I never had any trouble at all finding a girl that would let me fuck, that will straddle my hips and pull their underwear aside and let me in, slick and hot and wet underneath. I love it all. However, there are those little moments in my head where that sickly word "relationship" comes in and I shiver every time. Monogamy is such a strange concept to me. Spending the rest of my life with one person and that person only sounds like a prison sentence. Eventually, you're going to get bored, right? It's like eating waffles every day for the rest of your life. Eventually, you're gonna want something other than waffles.

I don't see how some people manage to do it for more than a year. I think it's because when you reach a certain age you just kinda have to settle for monogamy more so from a financial perspective. That's why I like Karina. She doesn't think like that. She knows where stands with me and I do the same with her but if I ever had to do the whole monogamy things there's only one person I would consider myself ever settling down with.

And I watched her as she applied lipgloss in the full-length mirror that hung on the closet door of my room. My T-shirt was about two sizes too big for her and would probably look like a dress if she hadn't tied it up in a knot at the front giving a glimpse of her curves and cinnamon-brown skin. Karina Abubakar is the kind of girl you settle down with, the kind of girl I wouldn't mind posting on my Instagram or spending money on because she was worth it all. She's smart, gorgeous as hell and unlike most girls I've met here at CU she can actually hold a conversation that doesn't always have to revolve around something sexual, but she's also one of my good friends here at Columbus so there's that bond that formed without us even knowing.

I get up out of my bed and put on the boxers Karina had thrown at me, and change into a clean shirt and shorts so I can walk her out of there without getting weird looks.

"I can't believe classes start Monday," Karina shakes her head as she places her lip gloss in her purse that she slings over her slim shoulder. "I haven't even looked up any of my professors yet."

I opened my room door and let her walkthrough. "I don't know why you're worried like you don't get put on the Dean's List every damn semester."

Unlike me, Karina is also incredibly smart. She got a scholarship to attend CU like me even though her rich ass parents could afford to pay both hers and my tuition combined. I always ask her why she takes this school shit so serious when she knows all she has to do is make a phone call and she can have anything she wants from her parents, but then she rolls her eyes and say how she wants to make her own money one day — understandable, I guess.

Karina's ambitious, so much it's a little intimidating at times because she works smart, not hard and yet she's always at the top of the class. A girl with a fascination for the genius of science, long training hours, and stress; she knows it's not easy, but it's worth it.

Walking out into the living room Caleb's asleep on the couch with headphones in his ears, and Netflix on the tv asking if he's still watching. Karina laughs quietly at his opened mouth and light snoring that I've grown used to over the years after being roommates since freshman year.

"Text me when you get back to your room, and tell Lourdes I said she owes me some damn pop-tarts from last semester. I haven't forgotten." I opened up the door for her, peeking a head out at the empty corridor of the dormitory.

"Lourdes probably isn't giving you a damn thing when I tell her that you hate her childhood bestie." Karina gave a snarky reply.

I rolled my eyes, my top lips upturning. "I don't hate the guy. I don't even know him. I just think he's a little-" I never get to finish my sentence because Karina nudges me in the side when she notices someone coming down the hall.

It's not until they got a little closer that I noticed it's a new boy — Cassian Bergman . . . the third.

It's hard to make him out at first because of the large tote box in his hands filled with all sorts of things, but when he comes closer I know it's him and he knows it's me because he offers an acknowledging head nod. I expected for him to keep going down the hall but when he stops at the dorm room placed directly in front of mine I found my brow raising at him.

He drops the box down at the door, exhaling a breath he's probably been holding for a while. He wipes the imaginary sweat from his forehead, a hand falling onto his hips before he turns to us. "Wassup . . . Jacob, right?" he extends out a hand for me to shake.

I look down at the hand not sure if I should break it for getting my name wrong despite introducing myself a few hours ago. How did he forget already? And I thought I had bad memory. I don't realize I'm staring at his hand until Karina nudges me again and I finally reach out and shake his hand.

"It's Jaylen," I told him, offering a small chuckle to not make the moment any more weird than it already is.

"Oh, my bad. Long day," Cassian replies, shaking his head in reply. His eyes then moved over to Karina who was standing beside me already with a smile plastered upon her lips. "I'm Cassian."

He extends out his hand and she gladly shakes it. "Hey Cassian, I'm Karina. I'm a friend of Lourdes," she tells him and his head titled a little as he nods with a smile stretching at his lips.

"Oh yeah, I think she mentioned you. You're roommates too, correct?" he speaks and I never really noticed just how posh his voice is when he talks.

Karina nods her head at his words.

"What are you doing up here? You're dorm on this floor?" I asked, a feeling in my gut already letting me know I knew the answer.

Cassian knocks against the door bending him, offering a small smile. "Yep. Right in front of you, I suppose?"

Karina looks up at me, her 5'6 grinning teasingly at my 6'1 frame. I ignored her and kept my eyes trained on the boy who's gonna be my neighbor for the semester. "Yeah . . . I'm rooming with Caleb. You?"

"Oh, I don't have a roommate. It's just gonna be me this semester." Cassian answered and I audibly gasped.

How the fuck?

Who the hell is this guy? How the fuck did he get a whole dorm to himself? I've been at this school for three years and I finally just got my separate bedroom this semester and I still have to share things with Caleb like the bathroom, kitchen, and living area. I love Caleb to death, he's my best friend and practically my brother but I don't think I could've survived another year of sleeping in bunk beds with him and his abnormal snoring. For someone who weighs 130 lbs, he sure sounds like a grizzly bear when he sleeps.

"I should probably get back to unpacking. It's gonna take hours to get my room how I want it. It was nice meeting you Karina, and Jaylen . . . see ya on the field." Cassian offers one last smile before opening the door to his door and sliding the tote box in with his foot, closing it behind himself soon after.

Once the door closed I immediately turned to Karina who was already looking at me. "He has his own fucking room . . ."

"And that's good for him Jaylen," she said rubbing on my arm one last time before she starts to make her way down the corridor.

"Where's my room?" I asked her and she shrugs her shoulders at me playfully as she walks down to the elevator of the dormitory at the end of the hall. "I don't know!"

••••
EXCUSE ANY MISTAKES OR ERRORS