“I told you, I wanted to meet you. I’m Jack Carter. ” He reached out his hand and I looked at it, my arms firmly crossed against my stomach.
“I know who you are. ” I pretended not to care. He was beautiful. And he was charming. And a man-whoring pig. God, what is wrong with me?
“So you’ve heard of me, huh, Kitten?”
My lips suddenly felt like they were filled with lead as they turned downward in disgust. “You did not just call me ‘Kitten. ’ Do I look like a stripper to you?”
He looked me up and down and then did it again. “Well, now that you mention it. ”
“You’re an asshole. ” I pushed past him to walk away, but he grabbed me.
I tore my arm from his grip. “It costs fifty cents every time you touch me. Don’t do it again. ”
“Oh, so you’re not a stripper, you’re a whore?”
“Oh, so you’re not only an asshole, you’re a piece of shit,” I responded as I stomped away.
“I like you,” he shouted at my back.
“So you’re dumb, too,” I tossed over my shoulder with a glare. “I’ll add it to the list of your many redeeming qualities. ”
I heard him laugh before I entered the house to search for Melissa. I finally found her in the backyard, drinking something out of a red plastic cup and talking to a group of people I didn’t recognize. I appeared at her side before she realized I was there.
“Oh my God, Cass, what did he say to you?” She ushered me toward an empty clearing in the yard.
I grabbed a drink for myself off a nearby table and rolled my eyes. “Nothing. He’s a jackass. ”
“I told you. ” She smirked and shrugged her shoulders. “Well, he’s clearly gotten over you already. Look. ”
She pointed toward an open window where Jack was attached at the lips to a scantily clad blonde. One of his hands gripped her backside, while the other pulled at the back of her head. I shook my head in disgust at his public display of man whoredom.
“And then what? He’ll just never talk to her again?” I asked, trying to figure him out.
Melissa turned to eye me, curiosity lurking behind those baby blues. “No. They’ll talk. I mean, unless she gets all pissed off at him for…being him. But he won’t ever hook up with her again. He never hooks up with the same girl twice. ”
“And the girls…they know this?” I was shocked. Seriously, do these girls have no self-esteem?
“They know. ”
“Pathetic. ” I frowned and looked back at Jack just in time to see him leading the girl away by the hand, a smile plastered all over her perfect little face.
*****
And that was my first introduction to Jack Carter.
Jack fucking Carter.
The next big thing in the world of baseball. Word has it he throws somewhere between ninety-three and ninety-four miles per hour when he’s on the mound. That’s fast. Real fast. Especially for a lefty. And you can’t teach speed. You either have the ability to throw that fast or you don’t.
And apparently he had it.
On and off the baseball field.
*****
Two days later I walked into the student union, scanning the area between the bowling lanes and the bar for Melissa. Everyone on campus seemed to congregate there since it’s where the lone pizza restaurant was located. When it came to college and college students, pizza seemed to be on everyone’s diet menu.
She spotted me and waved her tanned arms frantically above her head. Melissa looked like a lunatic and it made me laugh out loud. I waved back, then grabbed a tray and bought my lunch before weaving my way through a crowd of other students toward her table.