80. willow
CHAPTER 80
WILLOW
THE MOTHERLOAD OF BAD NEWS
When Kassie invited me over before the hockey party, it was the first visit that twisted my stomach into knots. Ryan walked through the door and my heart leaped to my throat. The moment he caught sight of me, he sighed.
"Not one of your teammates," Kassie reminded him.
"I’m not mad at you, Willow." He went to the kitchen and started rifling from the fridge. "It’s King I have the problem with."
"I don’t want you to be upset with King," I said softly.
"Well, I wish he wouldn’t have been so fucking stupid—" He cut off his words and I could hear him dump ingredients into the blender. "Either of you want a smoothie?"
I shook my head, but Kassie asked for one.
"Almost everything King was up to in high school wasn’t made public because he was a minor," Ryan explained. "But Coach made sure that didn’t happen. We owe a lot to him. King owes a lot to him."
I nodded.
"When Coach asked us to keep an eye on you, that didn’t mean fucking around with you and your feelings."
"We knew each other before I got here."
"Well, he lied to you, and he shouldn’t have done that—goddammit, he lied to me ." Ryan whirled the blender and stopped it. "He’s been covering for Adam—why am I the last person to find out about shit? Every time?"
Kassie took the smoothie from him. "You know about Jade the Architect, Adam still doesn’t know."
"Yeah. That’s pretty cool." He sat down and pulled her legs over his. "You know what pisses me off the most? Willow, you’re the only reason Kassie’s not spending the summer alone. Okay? I’ve gotten attached to you."
Kassie threw him a look. "I’m fine on my own."
He ignored her. "I don’t see this working out with you and King. You’re one of the most emotional people I’ve ever met. Ever. I mean, if my mom got married to a football coach, I’d be psyched, but you have all these feelings you deal with. And King’s been emotionally stunted for years. It’s going to be uncomfortable when fall rolls around because you two have this big breakup and we have to trade weekends?—"
My mouth fell open but Kassie shrugged. "Want to bet? I think they’ll stay together until senior year."
"Willow’s or King’s?"
"Willow’s."
"That’s a bet."
I interjected. "Can we not bet if my relationship’s going to fall apart?"
"Sorry." Ryan cleared his throat but nodded to Kassie, clearly confirming the bet. "The point is, right now, I’m pissed at King because he hurt your feelings, he kept shit from me about Adam, and for being a fucking idiot and messing around with the coach’s daughter."
"Are you…upset he didn’t tell you about us dating earlier?"
"Fuck no, I wish he didn’t tell me at all. If I could pay money to not know shit about this, I would."
"I’m sorry, Ryan."
He stroked Kassie’s legs. "The only thing you did was not tell Coach about King being an idiot. Which was nice, thanks for that."
"So…we’re okay?"
"You and I are good. King and I are not good."
At least I could hang out with Ryan. Adam tiptoed around me for days and that made spending time with him and Piper too awkward. Piper told me Adam was hurt that King never broke it to him that I was the girl he was seeing.
It was all so uncomfortable.
I couldn’t imagine spending the upcoming year like this.
Maybe that was why I was so excited for the hockey party. It was a break from the weird tension.
The party meant the Gladiators, really good party food, getting to see my hot boyfriend who’d meet us there, and hanging out with Elijah. The first real smile of the day tugged up on my face as I slipped into his car.
"I have a work thing tonight," I told Elijah immediately, buckling my seat belt. "It’s at eleven but I only have to be at the bar for an hour. After, I can meet up for midnight bowling, and?—"
"I found out shit about King."
"Can we talk about bowling? "
"Pruitt, I found out the motherload of all bad shit about him."
"How about your sister? Her internship? Sloane? Your team captain? Gossip— something? " A sigh burst out of me. "Everything is falling apart, I want something good right now, let’s talk shit about classes!"
He pulled out of campus. "You need to hear this."
Clearly, Elijah wouldn’t let this go. I slumped in the seat, trying to figure out if I wanted to entertain the bullshit, before I decided to see what ‘motherload of all bad shit’ actually meant.
"Fine. What is it?"
"In high school, King broke a classmate’s arm in three places."
" What?! "
"Yeah."
"Wait…why?"
"What do you mean why?"
"People don’t go around breaking other peoples’ arms."
"There’s always an exception. This one’s King-sized."
I shot him a look. "Why would King break a classmate’s arm? What’s the reasoning here? Psychotic break? Bullying? Prank gone wrong? How would he still be on the football team if he was going around, breaking people’s arms for fun? Why would he do that?"
"Uh…I don’t know."
"Who was the kid?"
"I don’t know that either."
"Who told you this?"
He shifted uncomfortably. "I can’t tell you."
" What? " I blinked. "Why not?"
"They don’t want you to know I told you."
What the hell did that mean? At the minimum, it meant someone was going around, spreading rumors about King. But if they didn’t want me to know…that meant they knew me .
Maybe Ryan and Adam were pissed off at King, but they wouldn’t go around saying stuff like this to hurt him.
Who told Elijah?
"There’s more, Pruitt."
Exhaustion hit me. Listening to more alleged crimes wasn’t going to be the fun hockey party I envisioned. Beyond that, it’d been days of back-to-back shows, working on the album, hanging out with Dan and my mom, all while getting the house ready for my brothers coming, not to mention all of the friend group drama.
"Elijah, I don’t think I have enough…mental space for this right now," I confessed, my voice small.
"I’ll give it to you quick."
"No, I can’t do this and the hockey party."
"What do you mean?"
"Let’s skip the party and talk. Because I can’t freak out and then go dance, like nothing’s going on in my head. I can’t."
"I don’t want to skip the party."
"Then can we drop it? Please? I just want to spend time with you."
"Pruitt. You need to break up with him."
"Right now? "
"He’s been to jail. Did you know that?"
"Yes and you’ve also been to jail."
"That was for fights. Doesn’t count."
"You’re not serious."
Elijah pulled down a new street. "You’re my best friend outside of hockey. This guy is fucking dangerous. You’re stressed out. Break up with him."
"Elijah—"
" Pruitt. "
The moment I spotted the rusty red pickup truck that barely chugged up the highway, my heart knocked around in my chest. I leaned up, trying to catch a look at King. It’d been a long day of not seeing my boyfriend and that needed to get rectified immediately.
I slipped out of the car. "Hey, whose place is this?"
"June’s old house," Elijah explained, matching my stride. "The guys got together and rented it for the party."
"Aw."
That was what I wanted to talk about. Not whatever nonsense Elijah drudged up about my—my?—
My boyfriend?
I stared in confusion at the driver’s seat of the truck. Because that wasn’t my boyfriend at all, it was June, waving back at me. "Hey, Willow!"
"Where’s King?" I asked. "Please tell me he’s making it."
"He’s right behind me."
Right behind…?
My eyes flickered to the only other car driving down the street, a dark green I fell in love with the second I saw it in the lot, but no bumps, no scratches, no dents. My hand flew to my mouth. "Oh my god—oh my god! "
"That motherfucker," Elijah muttered behind me.
"That’s my baby! My Keyland Aurora!" I ran down the driveway, arms pumping at my sides until I came to the perfect parallel parking job King effortlessly pulled into. Before he could take a single step away from the car, I threw my arms around him, hugging him tight.
I was supposed to be Elijah’s date, but Elijah didn’t fix up my Keyland Auror.
"You—you?—"
He rubbed my back. "This was supposed to be a present when your dad came but I told him how everything’s been."
"I thought it was in Laredo?"
"It was. Rusting in a guy’s backyard, they didn’t want to let it go, we had to pay more to get it out. Your dad and I worked out a deal. He gave me the address, I picked it up, he paid for the parts, and I’ve been working on it since Austin."
I squeezed him tighter, so touched. King went out of his way to connect with my dad and fix my car. I had no idea what Elijah was talking about. Number seventy-two had my heart. It was that simple.
He slipped the keys into my hand. "You haven’t seen the best part."
"What’s the best part?"
Once I saw it, the smile dropped off my face. I threw him an exasperated look because I knew he didn’t do this.
"I am going to burn Kassie’s sketchbook."
"Ah, don’t do that." He grinned. "Pose, I’ll take a photo for her."
I stood next to my array of bumper stickers, that were my favorites, and threw up my middle finger next to the new pink one with a cartoon me behind the wheel.
Campus Barbie On Board!
"She went through all that trouble of making you a bumper sticker." He laughed.
"Hey." Elijah stepped into the conversation, his tone curt. "The King."
"Elijah." The smile stretching on King’s face was a genuine one. He held out his hand. "I want to say sorry. I haven’t been treating you fairly, and that’s not cool. Thanks for inviting me, man."
"I didn’t invite you."
I threw Elijah a hard look and he reluctantly took his hand.
"So, Travis, we better get inside."
"Elijah," I warned.
"That’s right, you don’t go by your first name. Why is that?"
King kept smiling. "Personal preference but you can call me whatever, I don’t mind."
"No." I put a stop to that immediately. "Elijah, you’re going to call him King, like everyone else."
The tables were turned. King was relaxed and happy next to me as we met June up the driveway while Elijah was frosty and irritable at every attempt of conversation King made. I’d never seen him so bothered. At least he was being somewhat civil. Usually when Elijah was upset with someone, he poked and prodded them until they tried to beat the shit out of him.
Before I could step inside, Elijah grabbed the back of my shirt, and I motioned King and June to go on without us. "What?"
"King found out. That’s why he’s doing this."
"Found out what?"
"Don’t you see?" he demanded. "Big, extravagant gifts?"
"He fixed my car, he didn’t buy me a new one."
"Pruitt, he knows I know what he’s done. That’s why he planned this. He figured it out. Are you not hearing these alarm bells?"
I squeezed my eyes shut. "If you’re going to be like this, I don’t want to be here, Elijah."
When he didn’t say anything, I opened my eyes to see where his focus was. Right behind me. Over my shoulder, I could see Sloane walking up with another hockey player.
But what did that mean for us?
Elijah raked his hand through his hair and finally nodded, dropping the argument.
Finally .
The Gladiators may have had an unlucky losing streak but they knew how to throw a party. It was basically indoor tailgating with more liquor. The music was good, the food was great, and I ate nachos with some of my favorite guys in the world, egging on their beer pong tournament.
I did my fake girlfriend duties. Danced with Elijah while Sloane watched, cheered him on when he won a shot contest, and paraded around in his Gladiator’s jersey for everyone to see.
King was the best sport about it.
He waited for me with a bowl of pretzels, and it was hard not to cozy up to him. Especially in the jacket that I picked out for him and with the haircut? Swoon.
"The guys are doing midnight bowling tonight," I whispered. "I’m going after the show, but I want you to come too."
"That’s pretty late, is your mom cool with that?"
"I told her I’m spending the night at June’s."
He grinned.
I popped a pretzel in my mouth. "Thank you for the invitation to your dorm."
"You don’t need an invitation."
"I would like one."
"Okay. Can you please come over?" His eyes trailed down my face. "Please? It’d make me happy, and I’ve had a long day."
"Do you want a back massage tonight?"
"A penis massage would be awesome."
"Is that the one with the hot rocks?"
"Jesus, no."
I burst into laughter, but it tapered off as I caught sight of June and Bear talking in the corner, their heads bent. My eyes flickered back to King.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Mm."
"Bear is June’s ex’s brother, right?"
"Mm-hmm."
"She was dating the guy since high school and up until January, but that means she was dating her ex during your fake relationship. If she was dating someone, why couldn’t you…?"
"I could," he said automatically. "I could’ve been with somebody."
"Then…why…?"
King shifted. "I didn’t really talk to June beyond the PR stuff for the first—I don’t know—month I knew her? But then, my mom had a really bad episode after a game in Alabama, I flew back early, and June found out. I finally had money, but I didn’t know what to do with it. June’s family helped me find the doctors that took my mom seriously and the medication she needs. I can’t ever repay them enough for that."
It was so hard not to hug him. I leaned a little closer, holding back every urge to touch him.
"The thing is, June and her boyfriend were together since high school, so we didn’t worry about Xavier slipping up but if I got with someone, and they released about the fake relationship…June’s family is in politics and they did so much for me. I couldn’t embarrass them like that."
"So you just…stayed by yourself?"
King nodded.
"I’m sorry," I whispered. "That must’ve been so lonely."
He shrugged. "It’s okay. I was just waiting for you."
My heart squeezed, only to be interrupted by Elijah, taking the attention of the party with two bottles of tequila. "Who’s down for a drinking game?"
"Some people are driving…" another hockey player reminded him.
"You can do pickle juice too?" June suggested. "Add in flavor."
"Yeah. That’s good." Elijah’s eyes slid over to me. "Pruitt?"
I hesitated. "I don’t really drink?—"
"Pickle juice, it is. Travis?"