RUSH

Ch. 26: Intentions

-Bennett-

"I'll beat his ass," Eve assured me.

And she seemed quite set on it too, pacing beside our table while indignantly chomping down on a breadstick. Coincidentally, the one class we shared had been cancelled; although, we hadn't realized until we were already on campus and saw the hastily written notice taped on the door.

Eve had arrived earlier and realized I probably wouldn't check my e-mail either, so she'd patiently waited outside of class. She was beaming when I showed up a few minutes before class was meant to start... just as she'd expected.

Typically, I'd just head down to the gym earlier if any class were cancelled, but Eve had dragged me off before I could even process what was going on. So, we'd bought some food and settled down at one of the park tables near the far edge of the campus cafeteria, which was conveniently settled right over a large tree's pleasant shade.

I was languidly resting against the table, using my backpack as a makeshift pillow, while slowly sipping on my smoothie and entertaining myself with Eve's phone. Eve, on the other hand, was a bit too fired up for that, which was more or less my fault.

Quite frankly, I hadn't actually meant to spill my guts about what had happened last night, even if I'd spent most of the night spiraling while trying to decipher Mason's intentions. But one look at me and Eve had immediately asked what was wrong, and it hadn't taken much to get me to crack. Still, that sentiment of regret had only deepened when, by the end of my vent, I realized that I'd unintentionally set Mason up as some kind of villain...

If it had even been unintentional.

Because, really, I couldn't ignore the twinge of irritation that stirred up at the reminder that Mason had asked to train me... as if I didn't work at a goddamn gym. After growing up with an obnoxious gym rat of a father who'd spontaneously shove my shirt up to measure my body fat and conducted weekly weigh-ins, it almost felt like a cruel joke to have my knowledge questioned like this. And I knew it wasn't fair to just assume the worst, to expect Mason to know, but then I recalled the way he'd inspected my body while offering his help...

"I'm not some helpless victim," I complained while lifting my head up, as if I hadn't spent the last hour playing the part. "I think I'm just... I don't know. Maybe I'm taking it the wrong way."

"Bullshit."

"What if he just wanted a workout buddy?" I offered as a harmless option, wincing when she halted and glared at me, pointing the half-eaten breadstick in my face.

"Then why do you look like a kicked puppy?" Eve accused.

I just pouted, huffing up at her. "I don't."

"You're not helping your case. Or his."

I settled for focusing back on Eve's phone, spiritlessly scrolling through her timeline. I hadn't realized just how much I missed my phone until she handed hers over so I could put some music on. And now I refused to give it back. I kept switching between her social media apps, more entertained than before while somehow still insatiably bored.

"I mean it. I'll kick his ass. You said he's a Business Economics major, right? I'll go find him right now!" she declared.

I tugged on the back of Eve's hoodie as she started heading in the wrong direction, grumbling under my breath. "Please don't. That'd be so embarrassing."

I'd fled rather swiftly last night after agreeing to let Mason be my personal trainer, not waiting for Eric to rejoin us. He seemed nice, really, so it'd mostly been out of worry that he'd convince me to stick around any longer. I'd made up some excuse about needing to get some work done and went to hide out in the break room. Though, to be fair, at least it had given me some time to work on some assignments using Jonah's laptop.