Killer Queen PART I (Mortal Olympians Series)

Chapter 14: Colton

Watching this shit show used to leave me in stitches back in the day, but I was too pissed off to even crack a smile while the soccer team lugged around squealing girls on their shoulders as some kind of petty excuse for a performance. No, I didn't really give a damn about the stupid thing. Just one girl and the bastard who had her.

Artemis' goddamn boyfriend. At least for the next two weeks.

I heard a loud slam from the front row of the column our department was occupying. I looked over to see Wyatt Hayes getting up and looking just as livid as I probably was feeling. When he was about to walk off, Coach Lawrence, who was sat at the aisle, dragged him back to his seat by the collar and shoved him down.

"Eyes off the girl," Coach Henderson uttered in a low growl from Hayes' right. "You ain't got no fuckin' right to be looking at her after the shit you put her through. Clench your teeth and deal with it like a goddamn man."

"Yes, Coach," Hayes answered back through clenched teeth while keeping his head down.

I did the fucking same. Clenched my fucking teeth and stared at my fucking feet.

I was aware, I had even less right than Hayes to be feeling any sense of entitlement. Artemis was a popular and beautiful girl admired by many, it would be unreasonable to expect her to make compromises when I wasn't even really anything to her yet. To begin with, it was a goddamn miracle she's maintained her interest in me all this time.

I was at ease with the knowledge that she was waiting for me. While these clueluess punks came at her from left and right on a regular basis, I was the only one she kept a path open for. But she's been complaining often how annoying it's become, dealing with her male admirers. She wasn't doing it to make me jealous or some shit. She really was sick of being bothered.

This was the longest time Artemis has been, for all intents and purposes, available. And every fucking one had taken notice. Even with the threat of disability at the hands of her behemoths for brothers, it didn't stop the morons from chasing her. More than once, I passed by her being literally followed and harassed by a moron who thought her casual rejection was just her being cute. Artemis only acted cute on purpose whenever she was pissed off.

I've gotten to know Artemis pretty well over the summer. One thing that quickly became clear to me was she had no tolerance for disruptions. She only kept boyfriends around so other boys didn't bother her. Whenever those boyfriends began to cause her disruptions, she tossed them aside and took another, which was why she was never single for long after a breakup. It was flat out cruel, but I got it. I didn't judge. It actually made me more attracted to her, her unwavering focus.

Back when I was devoted completely to my sport, I only got myself a girlfriend during the off-season. I treated them well. Made sure I did right by them while I was beside them. But they were never a priority and once the season was back on, I'd lock myself away back in my own world where only the gridiron and myself mattered. I let them decide whether they wanted to stay around or go. They usually left within a month, their departure often going unnoticed. Then, I'd repeat the process once championship was close and the season would end with a victory. And a long hard fuck.

Our process may differ, but our intention was the same. Convenience. Existences outside of ours could only be tolerated for as long they were convenient. Otherwise, they were dead to us. Artemis St. Clair loved herself and her own world above all things. Devoted so much of herself to her sport, she has literally broken and bled for it. Just like I used to.

How could I not be attracted to the only other person I've met who lived this cruel way of life religiously? I may no longer have the ability to devote myself to my sport to the severity as I once did, but I still carried the same principles. My ego was still so fucking grand, I couldn't not fall for a woman I saw so much of myself in.