The Jock Neighbor

Chapter 3

TW: Mentions of sexual harassment

Luke's POV

After my friends and I sit down at lunch, I find myself glancing over at Briar every couple of seconds. Not once have I met a woman like Briar Madison in my life, so the fact that I got lucky enough to have an opportunity to talk to her was truly amazing to me. When I found out that I was assigned to sit next to her, my heart fluttered. 

The very first time I spoke to her, she looked so shocked that I was addressing her. She tried to hide it, but after watching how she reacts to things for 3 years, I've been able to pick up on her tells. I kept glancing at her out of the side of my eye, especially when I found out that we were going to be partnered for the rest of the semester. I caught the end of her reaction when she heard that we would be partners, and seeing her so shocked gave me a glimmer of hope that maybe she's felt the same way about me as I have for her since freshman year. 

I tune back into the conversation at hand, catching the ending of a statement. ".... partners too is crazy."

I recognize that my buddy Alex Hernandez said that. Alex and I met in one of our chemistry class. He's an insanely smart guy, and because of that class he got placed in higher level classes after they found out how intelligent he was. He's latino, about 6', black hair and brown eyes. Alex is also gay which was hard for him growing up in a catholic hispanic house hold, but his sister, Amanda has always been very supportive of him. I make sure he knows that he is safe to like whoever he wants to around me, I will never judge him for that. 

"I agree. You got really lucky man." My other buddy Devon Anderson says. He and I met because of football. We both started our freshman year and worked our way up to Varisty by Sophomore year. Devon is black, 5' 10", with black hair and sort of emerald green eyes. He has been my friend longer than Alex mainly because Alex and I didn't have chemistry class together until Junior year. Devon and Alex get along really well which has made things really easy for me. I get to hangout with my two best friends, and my only friends really, at the same time. 

Naturally they know of my crush on Briar. It took me a bit of warming up to them before I trusted them enough to tell them. With popularity, you don't really know who are your actual friends are, and who just associates with you because they want the status. I speak from experience unfortunately, it's why I'm so selective with who I keep around in my life and who I don't. Or at least that's one of the reasons. Betrayal runs deep, especially when you experience it from family. 

"Why is he lucky?" I hear that annoying voice say as they come up to the table we were at. Enter Hayley fucking Fisher. She has tried to make something happen between us since she became captain of the cheer team Sophomore year, coincidentally the year I made Varsity. I have never liked her and I never will. She may be beautiful on the outside, but on the inside she's not the best. 

"Uh, because he doesn't have to do suicides today. Coach gave him the okay to focus on plays in place of some of the practices." Devon says quickly, thinking fast on his feet. I smirk lightly at him. He has never not had my back. 

"Yeah coach said since I'm captain this year, I get to work on some of the plays with him while the guys are doing drills. I can't miss all of them but I at least don't have to do suicides." I finally made team captain this year after 3 years of working my ass off. I have been trying for this position my entire football career and I don't plan on letting anyone down. 

"Oh that's cool! See? Being higher ranked has its perks." She says in a tone that's supposed to sound endearing and sweet, but just comes off snobby. I hold back a grimace. 

"Anyways, the Lit project should be cool." Alex says. He is in the Literature class with Briar and me. I think he actually got paired up with Briar's friend John, if I'm not mistaken. 

"Yeah." I respond absentmindedly. I faintly hear Alex talk about what he thinks he wants to do for the project, but my eyes start to find their way to Briar. We make eye contact and her cheeks start to redden. A smirk takes over my features at the realization that I have some kind of effect over her, I just don't know what kind of effect. 

As I get lost in her eyes, I feel a hand grip my bicep and another caress my thigh. I immediately jump out of my trance and look at the culprit. Fucking Hayley. This girl will not leave me alone. 

I gently but firmly remove her hands from my body and give her a hard look before saying, "Don't ever do that again."

She looks shocked and slightly scared but I don't pay attention to that. How dare she touch me like that and no less without my permission? Textbook sexual harassment. She's lucky I didn't respond in a stronger way to her advances. 

I quickly look over to Briar to see if she was watching what happened, but she was focusing on her food, very intently I might add. I wonder if something happened. 

Moments after, I hear the bell sound for us to move on to our next classes so I gather up all of my garbage and throw it away, Devon and Alex following closely behind. 

"Hey man are you okay? We saw what happened with Hayley." Devon asked concernedly. 

"Yeah if you want to talk about it, we're here for you." Alex chimes in with the same amount of concern in his tone. 

"I'll be okay, if I need to talk I know who to go to. Thank you guys." I say with a small smile on my face. There's a reason they're my best friends, they're caring and they understand me. I couldn't have asked for better people to be in my life. 

They both nod their heads, giving me a pat on the back each before we all head off to our separate classes. 

I'll always be okay while they're in my life. 

My eyebrows knit together. I wonder what was going on with Briar. I hope she's okay. 

*****

Hello my lovelies! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It's pretty short but nevertheless I had fun writing it and I hope it was everything you expected. Let me know if there's anything I can fix :)