72. willow
CHAPTER 72
WILLOW
THE INTERVENTION
Reality kept bubbling up as I made my way to Gianna’s, lightheaded and fresh off two orgasms. King got a tattoo for me. Twisted around his ring finger, tied tight .
I should’ve been concerned. Astounded at his lack of common sense and foresight but the only thing I could think of was how he took care of that tattoo when he got it, and even when he said he was done, he still needed some part of me, a permanent reminder.
Elijah’s laugh broke through my haze and he gave me a once-over. "Dude, did you get laid?"
Speechless, I nodded.
"Fucking awesome." He stretched out his fist and I bumped it, mind still whirling. "Fuck you for being late, but if I was getting some, I would’ve been late too."
Gianna’s wasn’t that busy and it didn’t take long for us to grab a booth. As soon as I took my seat though, the door opened, and Adam strode through by himself, which was weird. His eyes flashed to mine and he grinned, until they settled on Elijah.
"Marrs Manwhore," Elijah snickered.
I frowned. "Marrs what?"
"Adam Russell’s nickname."
"They call him the Marrs Manwhore?" I frowned. Every time Piper and I went to get our nails done, Adam was constantly blowing up her phone. How was he known as a manwhore? How did that make sense? "Are you serious?"
"Before his girlfriend, yeah—oh, there's Sloane?—"
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I glanced to the side, to see her with drinks in hand, stalling by one of the tables while she stared at ours, eyebrows raised.
"She’s coming over," Elijah whispered and I could feel the excitement pulsing from him. "Act natural."
"You’re the one who looks like a puppy in the window."
"Shut up."
Sloane placed a hand on her hip. "Welcome to Gianna’s ."
"Hi." Elijah grinned and reached for my hand, dropping it instantly, and fumbling for it again. He was too sweaty. It was like getting grabbed by a dead octopus. "My girlfriend wants—wait, what do you want?"
"Water’s fine."
"I’ll take a Big Red."
Sloane kept glancing over her shoulder as she walked away, Elijah leaning too far out of the booth to be subtle. I snapped my fingers to get his attention.
"When she calls tonight, what are you going to do?"
"Get her pregnant."
" No. Give me your phone." I took it from him and blocked her number. "If you want to graduate from being dick on demand, you can’t be on demand."
"You’re so good to me."
"Every day, babe."
"I’m glad you finally got your lady parts checked out, I was gearing up to talk to you about King."
It was quiet between us. I cleared my throat. "Uh?—"
"No."
Oh, shit.
"Look, Elijah?—"
"Come the fuck on, Pruitt. If I warn you there’s a shark in the water, why is it when I turn around, you’re fucking the shark?! Why are you fucking him?!"
"His tongue goes past his chin."
"Ugh, you know what I mean."
"He means a lot to me, and you don’t know him."
" But Daddy, I love him, " Elijah mocked. "Do you hear yourself?"
"Your hand is so far up my personal business I feel like a Muppet."
"I didn’t want to have this conversation but guess we’re in it now." He whipped out his phone and started scrolling. "I did some research on where the apple fell from the dangerous, poisonous, shit tree. Do you know about his dad? Travis Stetson?"
"Yes," I replied coolly.
"Open your eyes, Pruitt." Elijah flashed an article and the headline jumped out at me. "His dad is a shitbag. A violent fucking shitbag?—"
"I’m a girl in the twenty-first century, Elijah. I Google people too."
"So you know."
"I know."
" And? "
I shrugged. "I’m dating King, we’re in a secret relationship so it doesn’t hurt his career, my dad knows, he’s not happy about it, and I’m honestly not looking forward to telling my mom because I think she’s going to have the same concerns as you. I’m constantly keeping my mom’s husband from finding out, and our mutual friends. Which is what I’m dealing with at the moment." I came three inches away from jabbing him in the chest. "You’re my ‘not involved with the craziness’ bestie so you’re supposed to be supporting me with boxes of chocolates, big hugs, and no judgment."
"I don’t want to be the no-judgment friend. I have a lot of judgment."
"Well, you won’t say anything about it," I warned him. "Because the second you even make a joke around Lawson, I’ll tell everyone about this little arrangement we have."
"Fuck."
"And that one time you drunk texted me ‘Sloane’s thicker than a Snickers and my dick has a sweet tooth’ because I’m sure she’d love to hear that."
"You cut me deep, Pruitt." He sighed. "Okay, King’s dad being a shitbag isn’t a smoking gun, but what if I found something about King himself?"
"Drop it."
"What if?—?"
"Drop. It."
Sloane came back with our drinks and took our orders, eyes still on us. Elijah took a little time to check her out before he turned his annoyance back to me.
"Pruitt—"
"I’m tired of the weird energy between football and hockey players. It doesn’t make sense. You’re playing for the same university. I want you to actually stomach each other so I don’t feel like I’m being yanked all of the time. Is that understood?"
Elijah slumped back in his seat. "No."
"Is that understood?"
"I have to hang out with football players?"
"And not make them want to kill you," I quickly added. Elijah grinned. "King’s coming to the hockey party, can you please make an effort? For me?"
"Why is he coming?"
"Because I’m going."
He scoffed. "Stalker alert."
"Wow. Wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?" I thumbed towards Sloane behind the bar and Elijah chuckled, finally breaking the ice between us. This was good. It was progress.
We pushed it a little with Elijah’s schedule until he really had to leave for a hockey thing. Before I could walk out, Adam caught me.
"Hey, Willow? Are you doing anything right now?"
I shook my head, and Adam pulled out one of the chairs.
"Everyone’s coming, can you stick around?"
With King in his gym slots, I didn’t have anything else planned for the day besides practicing with my guitar. So I took my seat as Piper, Kassie, Ryan, and June came in.
"Why are we changing the movie plans?" Ryan asked, pulling out his chair. "I already bought the tickets."
"We’re not, I didn’t want everybody to know what we’re doing," Adam replied.
I hesitated. "What do you mean?"
"I want to stage an intervention for King. This thing with the girl has gone far enough."
Sighs and long looks were exchanged across the table while I tried so hard not to blush, failing miserably.
"I’m not wasting time talking about this," Ryan said, his voice flat.
Piper folded her hands together. "Adam, I don’t like it, but I don’t think there’s anything we can do."
"Isn’t he happy right now?" Kassie pointed out.
"Here’s the thing." Adam dropped his voice. "This whole summer has been King skipping between the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Up in the clouds, buried in the dirt. It’s because deep down he knows it’s wrong. That’s why King’s felt shitty. We’re his friends, we can’t let this happen to him."
"Sometimes, you got to let your friends do the dumb shit they do," Kassie said.
Adam gave a knowing look around the group. "I care about the guy, and everyone knows how he is."
"How he is?" I asked quietly.
"He’d get hit by a car if he thought it helped one of us. He’s soft. Sentimental. This chick has him twisted around her finger and all she’s doing is fucking with him. His mood swings are insane, he’s falling asleep in meetings, he’s shutting us out. He deserves better than this."
His words seared across my skin, my eyes dropped to the table.
"I know who he’s seeing," June announced.
I snapped up.
Oh my god .
"June…" I said slowly and swallowed. Hard.
"You met her?" Adam frowned.
June wouldn’t sell us out. But what if she thought the relationship was a mistake? What if she agreed with Adam? What if she thought this was how she could protect King? My heart hammered in my chest.
"She’s a hockey player’s girlfriend at South Houston University."
Everyone froze, including me.
"She’s a what? " Adam demanded.
"There’s a big rivalry between the Gladiators and SHU—King’s in the middle of it. He got caught and the boyfriend beat him up, that's why he had all of the bruises."
"Oh, shit," Kassie whistled.
"An SHU hockey player beat up King?" Ryan repeated, dumbfounded. "A hockey player? Beat up King? Our King? Travis King?"
"Yep. He’s embarrassed about it."
"If a hockey player kicked me down, I’d rather transfer than tell someone," Adam muttered. "Our boy got his ass beat. What do we do? Do we…beat that guy’s ass?"
"Wouldn’t that be…more humiliating?" Piper whispered.
The topic was dropped. Everyone sat, uncomfortable, while I couldn’t be more grateful for June if she wrote me a check. Even if King wasn’t going to be happy about it, it was the perfect cover story to temper down everyone’s questions.
We ate a pizza before splitting ways but before June could leave, I wrapped her in a tight hug outside.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you?—"
"I got you both. Don’t worry."
"We have to move stuff up. We have to tell everybody."
"Soon, please. I don’t think I can come up with another ass-beating story."