I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. I wanted to at least hear what he had to say for himself.

I was about to stand up, but a warm grip stopped me from moving.

A tattooed skull stared up at me as I looked down at Stone's large hand on my thigh. His hand covered the width of my leg with warmth. His fingers curled around my thigh and gently squeezed.

The pressure was not painful, but it was firm. It was enough to make me bite my lip to keep a noise from escaping my throat.

It was obvious Stone disliked the quarterback.

For some unknown reason, I did not want to upset Stone, so I did not remove his hand from my thigh.

I offered the giant next to me a close-lipped smile before I stood up.

My thigh and the whole of my body went cold as I watched Stone move his hands into fists. He rested his clenched hands on the table.

Chase headed towards an empty table, and I followed behind him. We both sat down on opposite sides of the bench.

"What do you want?" I quietly murmured, aware of the dark eyes watching every move of mine.

"I never meant to say what I did at the party." Chase quickly excused and he almost sounded genuine.

"You didn't?" I scoffed.

"Ella, I am sorry." He apologised before trying to deliver his reasons "I was mad, and it was in the heat of the moment—"

I cut him off with a question "What is your excuse for the other times then?"

Chase sighed "I know, and I am sorry."

"You like to show off with your friends at my expense and I am not going to sit back and take that."

"I know you shouldn't." He agreed, his eyes not meeting mine "I feel like shit that I made you feel like that. You have enough to worry about with your dad."

I really did not want to get into that conversation with him again.

"We can try to be friends but that is all there is between us." I quickly disclosed.

The quarterback blinked twice before he bit out "Is it because of him?"

"Who?"

"Your tattooed buddy that is watching me like he is seconds away from turning me into his own punching bag." The blonde chuckled humourlessly.

I resisted the urge to look back at my table and back at the giant.

"There is nothing going on between Stone and me." I voiced while crossing my arms over myself and slouching in my chair.

"Good." He replied like he was telling me off for doing something bad "You don't know him."

I raised my voice slightly as I rebutted "And you do?"

"You also don't know the other guy that is into Lana." Chase pointed at my table with a frown as he kept talking.