Chapter 26
26
I head toward the building the boys and I agreed to meet at, practically skipping down the sidewalk. Seeing my guys standing at the bottom of the front steps, I speed up, heading straight for them. I bounce a little when I’m standing before them, Axel already smiling to match my energy.
I grin. “Hi, babes!”
“Ugh,” Axel groans, deflating dramatically. “You sound like Layla. Don’t remind me of my sister when I'm thinking about kissing you.”
I giggle at Bentley’s rolling eyes. “Got it. No babes. Hi, hotties?” I try and Bentley cringes.
“Better,” Axel muses. “We’ll workshop it later. I’m starving.”
“Let’s go then.” I start to head down the sidewalk toward the closest road leading off campus, but Bentley slides into my path.
“Wrong way, sunshine.”
My brows lower. “Aren’t we going to get sushi? The place is that way.” I point in the general direction I'm pretty sure the restaurant is in.
“Yes, but our ride is this way.” Axel calls, already heading in the other direction.
I turn around, Bentley stepping up beside me as we start walking. “Our ride?”
“You didn’t think we’d make you walk that far in the snow, did you?” He looks down at me like it’s ridiculous.
“It’s not that far.” I shrug, but I can already feel the tip of my nose going numb in the biting winter air.
We enter the parking lot beside the building, trudging through the slush around the edges of the cars. “Whose car are we taking?”
“Mine,” Bentley says, pulling out his keys and clicking a button. The lights flash on a black Mercedes, completely clear of snow. “I moved it over here earlier so we wouldn’t have to go far to get back to it.” Axel hops into the back, leaving the passenger side for me.
Bentley gets in behind the wheel, starting the car with the push of a button and cranking the heat in the backseat. I look around, smiling at the sleek interior. “You have a car. How did I not know you have a car?”
He shrugs, backing out of the space and putting his hand on the back of my headrest to look behind the car. “It was a graduation present from my grandfather.”
I whistle. “All my mom got me was a gift certificate to her favorite spa.” I run my hands over the dashboard. “I’ve never had a car.”
Axel sits forward, head appearing between the front seats. “You have your license?”
I nod. “Yeah, but I never had the time to get an actual job and Mom was too busy to look for a car for me.”
“How’d you get around if she was always out?” Bentley asks, watching the road, but side eyeing me for a moment.
“I didn’t really.” I shrug. “I went running a lot if I needed to get out of the house. And I would ride my bike to the park, but otherwise I took the bus to and from school and Mom had someone to drive me to events if she had to be there before I did.”
Axel stares at me from the side and when I look over, I feel overwhelmed by the compassion radiating off him. “There are a million reasons I wish you stayed in Maine.”
I laugh. “Layla used to write these really convoluted plans for me to run away and come live with you guys in her emails. She’d probably agree with you.”
Bentley reaches over and takes my hand, intertwining our fingers before bringing them up to his mouth to kiss the inside of my wrist. “I’ll buy you a car if you want.”
I balk at him before pulling my hand back from his. “You are not buying me a car.”
“Will you buy me a car?” Axel asks, batting his eyelashes at Bentley in the rearview mirror.
Bentley laughs. “You already have a car.”
“Yeah.” Axel shrugs. “But I’d be okay with having two.”
Bentley rolls his eyes. “What did you do after class?” He places his hand on my thigh as he changes the subject.
“Hung out with Mira, actually.” I smile when he turns his head completely over to look at me before snapping his eyes back to the road.
“Really?” He squeezes my leg with a smile. “How did it go?”
“Pretty well actually. We talked about boys,” I joke, waggling my eyebrows at Axel.
He laughs, shaking his head. “I hope my name came up then.”
Bentley glances in the mirror at him, smile falling.
His reaction sets my nerves off, but I push forward, knowing I need to tell them the juicy part. “Actually, it did.” I watch Bentley’s reaction as I say, “I told her I'm seeing Axel.”
“You did?” Axel’s posture shoots up, bright smile lighting up his face. I nod and Bentley continues to stare ahead, but I notice his teeth grind a little bit.
“I thought we weren’t telling people anything yet,” he mutters. Axel deflates a little at his reaction, looking over at him.
“She knew I was seeing someone, and I accidentally said that it was Layla’s brother,” I explain.
He nods once, pulling into the sushi place’s parking lot and focusing on finding a spot. Once we’re parked and the silence from the lack of car engine hum sets in, he turns toward the two of us. “That’s probably smart. She won’t think it’s weird if she catches you at our place now.” I nod, feeling relieved that he’s okay with it.
Axel sits back, biting the nail of his thumb. We both turn in our seats to look back at him, spread out in the middle of the back row.
“What’s wrong, Axe?” I reach out to touch his knee.
He looks up at Bentley, dropping his hand from his mouth. “You don’t want to tell Mira about us?”
Bentley glances at me. “We’re trying not to tell anyone right now, right?”
“Yeah, but it’s killing me not to tell Layla about this. The second you both are comfortable with it; I'm going to spill everything to her.”
“Everything?” I raise an eyebrow.
“Well, she doesn’t need the dirtier details, but yeah, everything I can.” He shrugs one shoulder. “But you don’t want to tell your best friend.”
Bentley glances over at me again, fear seeping into his features. “We’re still figuring things out. Getting solid. Janette wasn’t wrong that first day. The media is going to be brutal when this gets out. I just want to live in our little bubble for as long as we can.”
“And you think Mira will run to the tabloids?” He crosses his arms over his chest.
“No, of course not!” I place my other hand on Bentley’s arm.
“Then telling her wouldn’t be a problem, right?” He points at Bentley, eyes narrowing.
Bentley chews the inside of his cheek. “She’s got a lot going on right now. I don’t want to add to her plate. I know she’ll understand and be happy for me, but she’s not close with Janette and I don’t want her to worry about me and how this works for us right now.”
My chest squeezes when he mentions my relationship with Mira. It’s my fault he’s worried about his best friend’s reaction. I’ve started making progress with Mira today, but I silently vow to put in more effort so that he doesn’t need to worry about this anymore.
“I will tell her,” Bentley adds, resolve hardening as he stares down Axel. “After Thanksgiving break. I promise.”
Axel studies his face, seemingly finding what he needs. “Okay.” He nods. The tension lessens, but I can feel it still lying beneath the surface.
I squeeze both of them at our points of contact. “Now that that’s settled, let's go eat our weight in raw fish.”
Axel slowly smiles, nodding before sliding toward the door to get out.
Bentley watches him get out, taking a deep breath. I squeeze his arm again and he smiles at me, getting out too. I follow, jumping out of the car and rushing toward the restaurant to get out of the cold.