Chapter Seven #2
And then she sent a follow-up with her phone number. I smiled to myself at the messages. It was impossible to ignore that she seemed to have the same exact brand of bluntness that her sister did; it was just much more bearable, if not just extremely cute.
I copied her phone number over and texted her.
GJ
Oh yeah? You think that’s a good idea?
She didn’t take her time responding.
Leah
Of course it is
GJ
Your sister isn’t going to mind?
Leah
Fuck my sister. I’ll send you where I am. I need someone to walk me home and you did a good job at the last party.
I bit back a smile. She really had put me under some kind of spell. I didn’t even recognize myself. Smiling at my phone because of a text message? I felt like Theo.
My phone vibrated again with Leah’s location.
GJ
I’ll be there in ten.
It wasn’t difficult to find where Leah was.
Once I was back on campus, I realized I knew the exact house she was partying at because I’d been there before.
It was a huge honor to be considered one of the best houses on campus—an honor that came with some exclusivity—and it wasn’t at all surprising that Leah and her friends would’ve been invited in.
It also helped that pretty much everyone on campus was headed to this same exact place.
I followed along the sea of students dressed in various levels of winter-appropriate wear.
Most people were depending on an alcohol blanket for warmth, which I appreciated.
I stuck out as very clearly having just come from a workout.
When my Find My Friends circle was nearly on top of Leah’s, and it was obvious she was in the backyard of the house I was standing in front of, I pressed the call button on my phone.
Leah answered after two rings. “Hello?” she raised her voice over the music that was pounding from the house.
“I’m here, out front,” I said.
“Perfect.” She hung up without warning.
She didn’t give me enough time to get nervous about seeing her again or think about how stupid this might be.
A minute later, she wandered out of the house and walked down the front yard to see me.
The green maxi dress she was wearing fit her perfectly, but it didn’t exactly seem like typical day drinking wear.
We looked ridiculous together—the girl who was too dressed up for the setting, and the girl wearing basketball shorts.
“Thank you for coming to my rescue.” She took in my outfit. “Practice?”
“Just some shooting in the park.”
Leah nodded with appreciation, her eyes tracing my exposed arms and the basketball against my hip. I’d worked up enough of a sweat walking over here that I wasn’t cold yet. “Hot.”
I smirked. “You look nice.” And she did—if anything, she looked ridiculously beautiful.
Her nose and cheeks were flushed pink, either from the cold or from drinking.
The green of her dress brought up little bits of green in her brown eyes.
The way the afternoon sun was catching her made her practically glow.
Leah looked down at her dress like she’d forgotten what she was wearing. “Oh, thanks. Brunch with the family.”
“That’s one way to kick off some day drinking.”
“Also great inspiration to keep drinking into the late afternoon.” She giggled to herself.
“Are you drunk?” I asked, laughing. The answer was obvious, but I had to tease her at least a little bit.
“Not anymore,” Leah said and then thought it over. “I don’t think I am. Maybe I still am.”
I smiled. She was doing a decent job of playing sober, but the alcohol would definitely wear off in a few hours, and she’d realize she’d been drunk the entire time. I knew Leah was bold, but messaging me to retrieve her from a party was a big move. “Right.”
“Can we go back to your place?” Leah asked.
I blinked at her. “Uh, yeah. If you want,” I said. “I still need to shower since I wasn’t planning on seeing anyone after being out.”
“Just save it for after,” she teased.
Even though the meaning behind her words was clear, and it sent a wave of desire through me, I knew we weren’t going to get into any of that.
I’d take her back to my place since she’d asked, but with the intention of getting her something to eat, some water, and probably some Ibuprofen since her hangover was going to be a bitch.
“You’re sure you don’t want to go home?” I asked. “Not that I don’t love the company, I just want to check.”
“I definitely do not want to go home. I don’t want to be anywhere near my home or my family right now.” Her tone was as serious as I’d ever heard it. Clearly, it had not been a good brunch.
I nodded, knowing this wasn’t the time to ask follow-up questions. With a half-salute, I said, “Rodger that.”
We walked in silence, Leah doing a poor job of walking in a straight line and bumping into me occasionally.
I put an arm around her shoulders instinctively, doing what I could to keep her warm and keep her from accidentally stumbling into the street.
She leaned into me, wrapping her arms around my waist. It felt so scarily organic that I didn’t even recognize myself.
But I wasn’t about to be the one who stopped us.
I kept Leah as close to me as she wanted to be throughout the walk back, the silence comfortable.
I could tell she was deep in thought, but it felt intrusive to ask questions when it was obvious she wasn’t ready to talk.
She was drunk and most likely had gotten drunk because she was upset; she’d tell me if she wanted to tell me.
I keyed us into my apartment complex and opted for the elevator this time, noting that Leah’s feet might not hurt in her heels now because of the alcohol, but definitely would later.
Despite this not being our first time going up to my apartment together, my heart was beating in my chest like it was.
Seeing her during the day was intimate. I didn’t do things like this.
I’d made it a personal mission not to do things like this.
I didn’t date, I didn’t pick up girls from parties, and I didn’t plan on letting them crash in my bed.
If she’d been anyone else, I probably would’ve found a polite but passive way to remind her we weren’t dating and our time was strictly reserved for booty call hours.
But over and over again, Leah had ways of feeling different to me.
Maybe it was just me being under the spell of undoubtedly the most confident, self-assured, beautiful woman I’d ever met in my life.
Or maybe it was just her, that indescribable thing that people spent their lives trying to capture in movies and music.
After taking the elevator up to my floor and walking the hall, I pushed my apartment door open and gestured for Leah to lead the way. As she walked inside, I actually felt a little sweaty with nerves.
I rolled my eyes at myself. For the first time since Theo graduated, I was grateful she wasn’t on campus because there was no way she was going to let this go—and also no way I was going to be able to pretend to be normal about it.
“It’s so quiet here, it’s so nice,” Leah said. She kicked off her shoes and carefully placed them near my front door. I did my best to ignore how her dress fit against her ass as she bent down to move them.
“Honestly, it’s kind of weird. I grew up with sisters who love to talk, and I lived with teammates last year. I don’t think I’ve adjusted.”
She walked deeper into the apartment and leaned against my kitchen counter.
“I have the opposite thing. My house was always so…quiet growing up, but it was nice. The trouble always started when people started talking, so I love the quiet. But Mags can’t shut up to save her life.
And then Gemma is, like, literally always over. ”
“Are they a thing?” I asked as I kicked off my own shoes.
Leah’s head shot up. “What?”
Unlike Theo, I’d never felt weird about gossiping or potentially airing people out.
Especially when it came to Mags. She’d always done a good job of keeping her sexuality just vague enough that anyone could theoretically pine after her.
My gaydar had gone fucking nuts from the moment we met, so it wasn’t so much a question of if Mags liked women—it was if she knew, and which women she liked.
“They’re always together.” I knew better than to rope Theo and Maya into this—no one needed to know they were the ones who started the theory. “I’m just curious. A little secret teammate action or whatever.”
“As far as I know, they’re not, but that would be hilarious.
And it would make sense. They are obsessed with each other,” Leah said.
It wasn’t serious enough to inquire about, but I did think it was interesting that Leah didn’t seem to have much at all to contribute about Mags’s dating life.
It was kind of an impressive feat considering they were roommates and also sisters.
I’d known probably way more than I should’ve about my sisters as they dated through high school and college.
I couldn’t help but feel a little smug about how it suggested Mags probably didn’t actually get laid as much as people seemed to believe online.
Despite her reputation as being the hot influencer on the team and all of the rumors about how girls must literally chase her down on campus, she didn’t seem to partake really at all.
Even if Mags seemed to believe she was superior to all of us, at least I had game.
Leah sat down at the edge of my bed, leaning her weight back onto her hands. My eyes trailed her body, every cell in my body remembering in extensive detail the last time we’d been alone together here.
But no matter how much she wanted to, we couldn’t. Not right now.
“Water?” I asked.
Leah’s gaze wandered shamelessly over me, not looking anywhere near my face. “Sure.”
I got her a cup of water and then grabbed the ibuprofen from the cabinet nearby. I brought the two things over to her, dropping the pills in her hand.
She looked up with surprise. “What are these?’