Do Not Fall For The Baseball Captains (Victoria and Elijah) novel Chapter 99

Victoria’s POV

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A boisterous, chaotic explosion of voices instantly flooded the apartment, shattering the tense silence into a million pieces.

My brows knitted together in utter confusion. I slowly lowered the knife, setting it down on the counter with a soft clatter as I tiptoed out of the kitchen and into the living room.

Standing in the entryway was the entire group. Jace, Nate, Leo, Miles, Alison, and Adele were all crowding into the small foyer, shaking off their jackets and carrying an absurd number of backpacks, energy drinks, and text documents.

“Guys?” I asked, completely dumbfounded as I stopped at the edge of the rug. “What in the world are you all doing here

“Tori!” Alison and Adele shrieked at the same time, completely ignoring my confusion as they rushed forward and threw their arms around me in a tight, suffocating group hug.

“We came to rescue you guys!” Adele said. pulling back with a bright smile. “We all decided we were going to do a massive group study session tonight because everyone is losing their minds over finals.”

Elijah stood by the open door, his arms crossed over his chest as he stared at the crowd of people currently invading his living room. He looked completely baffled.

-We don’t even take the same courses. Jace is in communications, Leo is doing business, Nate is barely passing statistics, and Alison literally already graduated. What are we studying?”

“The art of solidarity, Carter,” Jace replied smoothly, walking past him and dropping his massive duffel bag straight onto the sofa. “Besides, your apartment has the biggest table and the best air conditioning.”

“Wait a minute,” Nate said, suddenly stopping in his tracks and sniffing the air like a hound dog.

His eyes darted between Elijah and me. finally settling on our outfits.

“Are you two wearing matching aprons? And is that… flour in your hair, Carter?”

The entire group went completely silent, their eyes locking onto the white powder smudged across my cheek and the unmistakable white handprints on the front of Elijah’s navy apron.

“Oh my god.” Adele gasped, a massive, knowing grin spreading across her face. “Were you guys baking something?”

“Midnight baking!” Leo cheered, pushing past everyone and heading straight for the kitchen. “I knew I smelled sugar. Step aside. Zhen, the boys are hungry.”

Elijah’s entire posture shifted instantly. His jaw tightened, and he shot Leo a sharp, warning glare.

“Don’t call her that. That’s exclusive to me.”

“Oooh, the entire group chorused in unison, a collective roll of teasing echoing through the foyer.

Heat rushed to my face, and I could feel myself blushing furiously under their sudden scrutiny.

Miles let out a low, amused chuckle, leaning his shoulder against the doorframe as he looked at Elijah.

What did you copyright the word, Carter? Is it exclusively yours now? Because otherwise, we can all call her Zhen. She really is precious.”

He shifted his gaze to me and winked.

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11:38 Sat, Jul

Chapter 101

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My chest warmed at the unexpected sweetness, and I caught his eye, softening enough to whisper, “Thank you, Miles.”

I braced myself. fully expecting Elijah to snap back with some sarcastic, possessive comeback to shut Miles down.

But surprisingly, he stayed completely calm. He didn’t snap, he didn’t argue-he just held Miles’s gaze, almost as if he silently agreed with what Miles had just said.

Within two minutes, our quiet, tense sanctuary was completely overrun.

The kitchen became a loud military line as everyone washed their hands and began rolling out the rest of the cookie dough

Jace accidentally dropped an entire egg onto the floor, which resulted in Nate yelling at him while Miles tried to sweep it up with a napkin.

Alison slipped into a barstool, immediately cracking open a red energy drink and looking thoroughly entertained by the

mess.

Eventually, the first batch of cookies was shoved into the oven, filling the apartment with the warm, rich aroma of vanilla and chocolate.

We all piled around the massive dining table, dumping our various books and laptops into a giant, messy heap.

For the next hour, it was a strange mix of actual studying and complete nonsense.

“Can someone explain to me why the supply curve moves to the right when there’s a technological advancement?” Leo groaned, slamming his head flat against his economics binder.

“Because right now, my brain cells are moving to the left.”

“It means production gets easier, you idiot,” Jace muttered from across the table, not looking up from his media ethics paper. “More stuff, less effort. Like how you use automated apps to text three girls at the same time.”

“Hey, that’s efficiency, not technology.” Nate chimed in, tossing a crumpled piece of paper at Jace’s head.

Alison, who was sitting at the head of the table with her feet propped up on a spare chair, let out a loud laugh.

“You guys are all going doing to much. Honestly, as a college graduate, I highly recommend just dropping out. The job market is terrible, but at least you get to sleep past seven.”

“Alison, shut up and leave,” Nate and Miles snapped at the same time.

“Some of us are actually trying to maintain a GPA here,” Nate added.

The oven timer buzzed, prompting a chaotic scramble as Leo and Miles rushed into the kitchen to grab the hot baking

sheet

We all took a brief break from the books, burning our tongues on the fresh chocolate chips and laughing until my jaw ached over a ridiculous story Jace told about one of his professor.

The man had accidentally mirrored his iPad to the lecture hall projector, putting an incredibly graphic, unhinged sext between him and his twenty-something side chick on full display for a class of two hundred students.

As the clock crept closer to one in the morning, the energy at the table finally began to dwindle into a quiet, exhausted hum.

People were slumped over their binders, the scratching of highlighters the only consistent sound left in the room.

Nate suddenly let out a long, loud yawn, stretching his arms high above his head before dropping them back onto the wood with heavy thud

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Chapter 101

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He blinked blearily at his phone screen, an unbothered grin spreading across his face.

“Man. screw statistics,” Nate muttered, sliding his phone into his pocket. “I think I’m just going to guess ‘C’ on every multiple- choice question and let the universe handle the rest.” Nate finished, rubbing his eyes blearily.

“That’s a bold strategy for a class that literally calculates probability,” Miles noted, not looking up from his laptop screen. “But fuck it, at this point, I support it.”

Adele let out a tired groan and dropped her forehead onto her open textbook.

“Guys… I swear I’m about to cry. I’m so fucking exhausted. Can we please call it a night? My eyes are on fire”

A general murmur of agreement passed around the room. Laptops snapped shut, papers shuffled back into folders, and binders were shoved into overstuffed backpacks.

The lively energy from an hour ago had completely evaporated, replaced by the collective, bone-deep exhaustion of a college group staring down finals week.

“You guys can crash on the floor if you’re too tired to drive back to the dorms.” Elijah offered, leaning back against the

kitchen counter.

“Nah. I need my own bed if I’m going to survive tomorrow’s cram session,” Jace replied, hoisting his duffel bag onto his shoulder with a heavy sigh. “Thanks for letting us hijack the kitchen, Carter. And thanks for the cookies, Tori.”

I looked out the window at the pitch-black sky, a sudden spike of worry hitting me as they all started gathering their respective items.

“Are you guys serious? You really want to drive back so late at night?”

Miles let out a soft snort, sliding his strap over his shoulder.

“We’re fine, Victoria. We came in two massive Escalades. Trust me, the cars alone are enough to pry any criminals off the

road.

He shrugged, completely unbothered.

I rolled my eyes at the arrogance of it and turned my gaze to Adele and Alison, hoping at least one of them would be the reasonable voice in the room.

Instead, they just nodded along, completely agreeing with him.

I still felt a lingering knot of worry in my stomach, but looking at them, it was obvious they had done this a countless number of times before. I didn’t push it.

We all swapped tired goodbyes and wished each other a good night.

I pulled Adele and Alison into quick, tight hugs before the whole group finally filtered out, leaving the apartment completely quiet as the front door clicked shut.

I leaned back against the edge of the island, letting out a long breath.

“Well That was a complete turnaround.”

Elijah turned around from the door, his eyes locking straight back onto mine. The casual face he’d put on for the guys

vanished

He didnt say anything at first-he just walked back into the kitchen and stopped right in front of me, looking down at me the exact same way he had before the doorbell rang.

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