I Hate Football Players 3 | 18+

Chapter 7: Ellie

"Ah! Ha ha ha ha! Oh fuck me - ha ha! Aahhh! I can't - ahh!"

My mouth twisted sideways in annoyance and I pulled my ear away from my phone. "Are you done, Harper?"

"No!" was her elated response, followed by more hearty laughter. Suddenly my phone buzzed with a video request and I pressed 'accept call' with annoyance. Since her blonde hair was pulled back, I got a clear view of her sky-blue eyes streaked with tears and her full, pink-glossed lips cracked open into the biggest smile.

Two years ago, I couldn't have imagined I called Harper anything that wasn't a profanity. A lot of time, apologies almost entirely from Harper's side, tears, and even a few sat in sessions with Dr. Sterns where even more tears shed, we were friends again. Even without the physical distance, we weren't at the same level of friendship we'd been in high school but I'd realized she'd gotten me through moments that were some of my darkest.

"Fuck me sideways, that's the funniest thing I've ever heard. You and Adonis. Roommates. And after two years of you internet stalking him, now you're married on paper in a fucking one-bedroom apartment. How does this shit even happen, Ellie?"

Harper's synopsis skills are... something else.

"Harper." My tone indicated how my new roommate situation was anything but funny to me. "I did not internet stalk him."

I have a long list of emotional responses to this situation but amusement is definitely not on it.

And it was just one picture... that Grace sent me.

I wasn't sure why but last year Grace tagged me in a picture for some Seventeen magazine article. I hadn't read the article because every time I'd never gotten past the picture of Logan in his dark blue and gold Aggie's uniform. His helmet was off, his hair stuck in random directions, and for some reason he'd lifted up his shirt with what looked like water streaked down his ridiculously chiseled abdominal muscles. His facial expression was weird, almost like he was uncomfortable, but to anyone else I guess he just winked at the camera.

It's not stalking if his Mom sends me a picture. More like... gawking and drooling.

"Sorry, I don't buy that for one second." My phone cracked while she gasped for a few breaths after she no doubt saw my pissed off expression. "I had to see your face to know if you were joking or not."

"It's not a joke!" I whisper-yelled into the phone. "Keep it down, okay? The one bedroom thing I'm kinda freaking out about and I'd rather he not hear about that."

As if I didn't have enough to overthink about.

"Wait..." Her laughs ground to a halt and she stared at me. "He's.. there? Like right now?"

Awkward was an understatement when Mom and I arrived back at the apartment. Logan opened the door dressed in more formal clothes, a thin, sky blue polo shirt and pressed khaki shorts. At my raised eyebrows, he rolled his eyes and clarified, "Alumni golf event tomorrow, wanted to make sure my preppy clothes still fit."

"I..." My eyes roamed over him shamelessly. "Didn't know you played golf."

Even preppy he's hot.

Snap out of it, Ellie.

"I'm terrible. Wes is the golfer." His handsome face broke out into a sheepish grin. "I'm just there to look pretty and drive the cart."

"Ahh, okay." I nodded and hugged my box into my stomach until an awkward silence filled the air space between us. My feet hadn't gotten the memo to walk so, like a bump on a pickle, I just stood there pretty useless and looked at Logan.