In the midst of my morning haze, right as my eyes fluttered for the first time, two thoughts struck me. Firstly, that I was in a hotel room in Williamsport instead of the comfort of my own bed back home. Secondly, that Nathan kissed me goodnight after we watched my favorite childhood movie.
The vivid memory flashed in the forefront of my mind as my shaking fingertips brushed along my lips. And then I remember partially telling him about my vendetta against Thomas, and the ice cream carton we finished together, until the entire night had replayed in my thoughts. My lips curled into a small smile at the memory.
I sit straight up and try to understand why he kissed me goodnight when there as nobody else around. When I draw a blank, I shift my focus onto what it was going to be like seeing him today. After he stole a secret kiss that I had been willing to give him for months.
I manage to shower, brush my teeth, and dress myself before Stephanie finally stirs from the bed. She hadn’t been there when I spent hours recounting the memory of that kiss before I eventually fell asleep last night. I lean against the doorframe of the bathroom and smirk at her as Steph lifts her head and meets my gaze.
When she sees my smirk, she promptly drops her head back onto the pillows, and lets out a discouraged breath. “It’s creepy to watch other people sleep.”
I chuckle and sit on the edge of the bed. “What time did you get in this morning?”
“Six,” She mumbles into the pillow. “Before the coach got up. I didn’t want him or any of the other guys to see me sneak out of Justin’s room.”
“That’s understandable.” She finally pulls herself into a sitting position. “How was your night?”
Finally, a smile slowly begins to pull on her lips, and all her attempts to squash it are absolutely futile. I see a giddy, childlike excitement spark in her eyes when she looks at me, and I can already guess what happened.
“He asked me to be his girlfriend,” Stephanie says after a beat of hesitation.
My smirk alters into a full on grin at the news. “Steph! That’s awesome!” She just grinned wider until her cheeks squished into her eyes. “It was bound to happen eventually. I’m just happy Justin stopped being so slow on the uptake.”
Stephanie giggled and looked at me suggestively. “You want to talk about boys who are slow on the uptake?” I already knew what she would say based on the smirk on her lips. “I’ll give you a guess.”
I feigned confusion and asked innocently, “The Pope?”
“Nathan,” She asserts immediately. I knew it was coming. “That boy has got to man up and ask you out. If this were a book, he’d be friend zoned for the majority of the chapters.”
“I think you’re mistaking Nathan and I,” I finally point out. “I’m the one who’s friend zoned, remember?”
Stephanie shakes her head and gives me a goofy grin. “You should see the way he looks at you.”
I want to tell her what happened last night, the movie and the ice cream and the kiss and all of it, but before I can start, a knock slices through our conversation. I just let out a breath and stand up. “We’ll continue this later.”
She trudges off to the bathroom as I walk toward the door. Another quick rapt on the door sounds and by the time I pull it open, Nathan has his fist raised to knock once more. I expected that my heart would flip a bunch of times in my stomach when I saw him or I wouldn’t be able to form a coherent thought. But neither of those things happened.
“Are you two deaf or something?” Nathan snaps rudely. “I’ve been waiting for minutes.”
When I caught sight of the annoyance blazing in his eyes and the coldness masking his expression, I knew he was in a bad mood. And this bothered me greatly. You don’t kiss a girl one night and then greet her so rudely the next day. That’s not what happens with normal people. But then again, Nathan Rhodes was far from a normal boy.
“That’s an exaggeration,” I mutter as a flare of annoyance lights inside of me. I step over to let him come through, and when he does, I ask in a clipped tone, “What do you want?”
Nathan glances back at me with a hard stare. “Check out is in an hour. My room is all packed up and I’m waiting for you two.”
I nod stiffly. “Well, Stephanie just woke up and I have to pack.”
“What are you waiting for?” He asks breezily, his voice ice cold. I stare at him incredulously for a moment, shocked that he was acting so rude, and he narrowed his eyes at me. “What are you looking at?”
I glanced at the bathroom door fleetingly, where Stephanie had stumbled into as I got the door, and then back at Nathan. My eyes were set in a heated glare at him as some confidence and curiosity mixed together for a deadly question. “Why did you kiss me yesterday?”
Some anger fades from Nathan’s expression and, more unfortunately, is replaced with nothingness. “To pretend to be your fake boyfriend.”
“No,” I shake my head and keep my gaze trained on his. “Last night before we went to bed. There was no one else in here.”
His eyes were guarded but I could still see the anger completely subside into genuine surprise. He clearly hadn’t expected me to confront him about it- I mean, up until a few seconds ago, I never thought I actually would- and now he looked stuck in the crossfire.
Eventually, he shrugs, his eyes watching mine. “Because I wanted to.”
All of my annoyance melted into a bigger vat of confusion. The bathroom door swings open before Stephanie trudges out looking reborn and promptly interrupts our strangely frustrating conversation.
When she looks up to see Nathan, she raises her eyebrows. “What are you doing here?”
His gaze shifts to her and I can practically see the hardened mask return until he built layers of steel walls around him. “Check out is in an hour.”
“Are you ready?” Steph asks Nathan patronizingly. “I’m not going to cough up any money if we get charged an extra night before we weren’t out before check out.”
“I’m the one that’s reminding you to be ready,” Nathan snaps. “Of course I’m ready.”
Before their bickering gets any worse- and partially because I was still cross with Nathan- I step in this time. “Nathan, stay out of our way and we’ll be done in ten minutes.”
I turn and robotically begin grabbing things and placing them back into my suitcase beside my bed. I didn’t really unpack to begin with, so I merely had to collect my toiletries and put away the clothes I wore yesterday.
Stephanie was done two minutes after I was and we were headed toward the lobby ten minutes later, as promised. I handed my room key to Nathan and told him to return it to the front desk so Steph and I could sit on the plush couch in the lobby.
While we’re waiting, a plethora of voices getting louder and louder reaches the lobby. The football team was scattered amongst the room near the front desk as the coach and assistant coach took care of check out. A moment later, Justin broke from the crowd and walked over to Steph.
He wraps his arms around Stephanie’s shoulders from behind the couch and plants a big fat kiss on the corner of her lips. She moves her face and they begin full on making out, and my eyes widen before abruptly looking away. “Alright, that’s enough. There are children here.”
They part a moment later and Stephanie is giggling while Justin smiles smugly at me. “That’s payback for making me watch you and Rhodes make out at the game.”
Justin’s words have my cheeks flaming in embarrassment until I have to look away and mumble, “Whatever.”
They laugh at my dispense and I survey the lobby while my cheeks finally return to their natural shade. My eyes lock on Nathan as he walks toward me and when his gaze meets mine, a beautiful grin breaks out on his face. Because we were arguing the last time we spoke, I just blink back at him dumbly.
My gaze slides over Nathan’s shoulders and I see Thomas standing right there with a clear view of the couch and suddenly everything clicks. I get up from the couch and stand behind it to meet him there, and when he’s a few steps away, I grab Nathan’s shirt and pull him forward so I can crash my lips against his.
Usually when I’m kissing Nathan, everything else fades away. All the sounds and smells of the outside world dissipate around us and all I can acknowledge are his lips on mine. But something about this kiss was different. I could hear the players murmur until they began hooting and hollering as they noticed us.
When I can’t breathe anymore and my embarrassment at being seen wins out over my false confidence, I pull away and blink up at Nathan hazily. His lips stretch into a soft smile to match the softness in his eyes and on his face that looks like the most sincere thing in the world.
I wish I could say that I was pretending when I smile back lovingly, but sadly, I am not. Excitement bursts through me as the prospect of our display finally sets in and I sneak a glance at Thomas to feel a large smugness resonate within me.
“You’re right,” Nathan whispers in my ear and I glance back up at him. “The look on his face really was satisfactory.”
I grin and resist the uncannily overwhelming urge I had to draw his lips to mine again. Instead I settle for whispering back, “I told you so.”
“Rhodes,” I hear the grunt of a familiar voice as he spits Nathan’s last name as if it were poison. I take a small step back when we turn to Thomas to see his hands clenching into fists with his eyes ablaze in anger. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
Nathan smirks lazily at him. “I don’t know what you mean, Clark.”
Despite his cool attitude, Nathan straightens and edges his way in front of me. I could still see the scowl on Thomas’ face as he sneers, “You think that you can kiss my girl without getting your skull reshaped?”
The threat makes Nathan smile. He looks down at me with that mischievous look in his eye before he wraps an arm around my shoulder and pulls me closer to him. I hold my breath because I think that there’s no way a person could fake that kind of smile while Nathan smirks at Thomas. “She’s my girl, now.”
His words send shivers racing up my spine as, one last time, I tell myself that this wasn’t real. It was just to piss Thomas off.
And, as I stole another glance at him, I could see that it was working.
His fists clenched dangerously tightly and he begins to lift them as he opens his mouth to reveal a nasty scowl, but all his actions are cut off the second the coach shouts in the middle of the lobby, “The bus is here. Everyone outside.”
Thomas only paused for a moment before growling, “You fucking-”
“Clark,” Justin says roughly and pushes the edge of his shoulder. “Let’s go.”
With a final look that could kill, Thomas slowly turns and rejoins his team as they exit the hotel. It was only as he was walking away did I realize that Nathan’s arm was still tightly around my waist and his hand rested casually on my hip.
“Come on lovebirds,” Stephanie says with a smug smirk and secretive wink thrown in my direction. “Let’s go home.”
. . .
I was particularly grouchy when I woke up on my couch in the middle of the night to sounds of an engine idling outside. I glanced over at the cable box and saw it was past two in the morning and as I realize I fell asleep reading, I also realize that someone was outside.
I begrudgingly climb off of my nook in the couch and drag myself to my front door to check on the unwanted visitor. When I peer through the thin curtain by the door, I see Holden’s BMW idling beside my car in the driveway.
My curiosity won over my exhaustion as I pull the door open and step outside. A gust of wind whips against my bare legs and reminds me that I was only wearing pajama shorts and a long sleeve. I wrapped my arms around myself as I walk toward his car and slowly the window slides down.
“Hello my feisty little princess,” Holden greets in a thick voice. “What do I owe the pleasure of seeing you in those sexy little shorts?”
I shiver, not from the cold but from the gross feeling of his gaze sweeping over me. I decide to ignore his comment and stay on track. “What are you doing out here?”
“Why?” A slow smirk crosses his lips. “Want me to come inside and keep you warm?”
I refrained from smoothing the crease between my eyebrows that came as I tried to keep my patience. “No,” I deadpan before backtracking. “Why are you at my house, Holden?”
Thankfully, this time, he doesn’t evade the question. “I’m waiting for Luke to get back from the tracks and pay up.”
I perk up at the slice of information and ask, “You weren’t there with him?”
“No,” Holden looks bored with the turn the conversation has taken but continues anyway. “I let him use my car to race tonight so he’s giving me thirty percent of his cut.”
The fleeting thought of my little brother racing at the tracks amongst all of those sleazy people made my stomach twist uncomfortably. But I knew he was doing this for money so I respected his wishes. Money for what, I’m not sure yet, but apparently it was dire.
“Thirty percent is a little steep, don’t you think?” I ask as an afterthought.
“He’s lucky I’m not taking fifty,” Holden grunts before the sickening smirk stretches across his lips again. “I’m sure we could work something out between us and I can lower my price.”
Luckily for me, the headlights of Cole’s car flash down the street as he approaches my house and thusly puts an end to our distasteful conversation. I take a subconscious step away from Holden’s car, already aware that Luke would be unhappy with me for talking to him, as Cole’s car comes to a stop.
I concede that it would be for the best to leave before Luke gets over here and turn to Holden with a fake smile. “Never going to happen.”
With that, I turn and start walking to the front door, but Holden calls after me, “We’ll see about that, sweet cheeks.”
I cringe at his throaty voice and walk a little quicker toward the front door. I can hear the hushed conversation between Luke and Holden and, when I get inside, I peek out the window to see Luke passing Holden a wad of money. My eyes widen when I see the thick stack of bills and I wonder how much he won tonight.
The second Luke walks in the front door with his eyes narrowed as if he’s about to lecture me, I jump at the opportunity to speak first. “What do you need the money for?”
Luke stares at me for a long moment before he shakes his head. “You wouldn’t get it.”
I frown as he starts walking up the stairs and leaves me by the front door. Quickly, I drag my feet to follow him and say coldly, “Try me.”
He stops in front of his bedroom door and turns around with an exhausted ghost of an expression covering his face. I see his resolve melt as he sees the determination in my eyes and, finally, he sighs in defeat.
“I’m flying to Florida to visit dad,” Luke says tiredly before abruptly walking into his bedroom and shutting the door behind him.
My feet feel glued to the floor as I stare at the wooden door in shock.
Well, I definitely hadn’t been expecting that.