Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter
twenty-eight
I HAVE TO TELL MY friends. I have to tell my friends. Those were the words that circled my brain as I headed to school the next morning. I’d been putting it off, but it was time because they would see us together. I actually wasn’t sure what kissing Theo meant as far as school life went. We had discussed nothing about how public or private we planned on being with this after spending the weekend kissing.
The day before, we’d spent another hour at the stadium. Every ball I’d tried went through. We’d kiss between kicks and water breaks.
I’d dropped him home that day without either of us saying anything like So we’re cool with the general public seeing us do this or no? I wasn’t sure how I felt about going public. I still had the very valid fear that people would think I was only with Theo to get back at Jensen. Maybe it would be better to keep the kissing to ourselves for now, like the whole kicking thing.
On my way to sleep, my brain decided that Theo was a private person anyway, who liked to keep his relationships private. After all, I’d never seen him in a relationship. But he was Theo Torres, he had to have been in one. The way he kissed proved to me he’d done it before. But regardless of how little I wanted the school to know, my friends still needed to.
I wanted them to. I wanted them to be excited for me. I wanted Maxwell to squeal and Lee to tell me to trust again and Deja…I just wanted her to be okay with this. To not actively be against it. I didn’t think that was too much to ask.
I parked my car and waited, my nerves buzzing while I watched for their cars. I’d gotten here early. I hadn’t planned on it, but my energy was heightened this morning.
Maxwell and Lee arrived together, only parking a few spots down from me. I got out of my car and waited for them to do the same.
“Hey, girlie,” Maxwell said, giving me a side hug. “Looking cute today.”
“Thanks.” I looked down at my jeans and green sweater.
“How was your weekend?” Lee asked. “How’s the training going?”
“Good. I can kick a football.”
“Nice,” he said. “Operation Revenge is getting closer.”
“Yes, for sure. Oh,” I said. “Also, I found some pictures of the surfboard this weekend.”
“You did?” Maxwell asked. “Show us!”
“Show us what?” Deja asked, joining us.
“The surfboard. I have actual pictures of it.” I swung my backpack around and took my binder out. I’d slid the pictures inside the front protective pocket.
Her eyes lit up. “What did your grandma say?”
“I haven’t shown her yet.” I had wanted to do a podcast the day before, revealing the pictures to my grandma, but she was having an off day. I hoped that sometime this week she would feel up to it, because I was so excited.
I handed Deja the pictures, and she looked at them, flipping through as the boys peered over her shoulders.
“Oh, wow,” she said. “It’s cooler than I even imagined.”
“Right?” I said.
“We have to find it now.”
“Where did you get these?” Lee asked.
“Alice answered my DM and told me about a shed her mom had. Theo and I went over on Saturday and looked through it. We didn’t find the surfboard but found those.”
“You and Theo?” Deja asked.
“Yes,” I said. “After training.”
She handed me back the pictures. “We wanted to help you find the board.”
Maxwell nodded.
“I didn’t think you’d want to dig through a dirty shed.” The truth was, I was being selfish. I had wanted to be alone with Theo.
“I’m the one who has been listening to your podcast forever. I’m the one who was excited about the board. You took Theo?” She was hurt. We hadn’t even gotten to the bigger admission.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, realizing my misstep. I really should’ve brought my friends. I hadn’t thought anyone would care this much. I was surprised when Theo asked to join. I tucked the pictures into my binder and zipped my backpack shut.
Then, in a show of terrible timing, a pair of arms wrapped around me from behind and a kiss was planted on my cheek. “Hey,” Theo’s low voice said into my ear. “Good morning.”
My eyes were on my friends who all had varying degrees of shocked looks on their faces.
“And I’m out,” Deja said, and with a flip of her hair, she walked away.
“Wait,” I started, taking a step to go after her. But Theo’s arms were still around me, holding me in place.
“Just give her some time,” Lee said, putting his hand on my shoulder.
Theo dropped his arms and slid into place beside me. “What happened?”
“This happened,” Maxwell said, pointing between us, his shocked expression turning into one of pure delight. “I need all the details.”
“I thought you told your friends,” Theo said.
I closed my eyes. If I had to see one more hurt expression this morning, I was going to have to take a sick day.
“I had started to text them but decided it was better in person. I was just about to tell them,” I said. “And then…”
The first bell rang, and I looked up, like the sky had made that happen.
“I’ll work on Deja,” Lee said. “You can tell us all about it at lunch.”
I nodded as he grabbed Maxwell’s hand and they walked away. Maxwell looked over his shoulder and mouthed OMG along with a silent scream. I smiled but only halfway. I’d screwed everything up.
“I’m sorry” was the first thing I said when they were gone.
“Do you regret this weekend?” he asked.
I turned to face him. “No. Not at all. Do you?”
“No.”
“Theo!” someone called as he walked by. “Scrimmage today after school?”
“I’m busy after school!” he called back. “I’m in for Wednesday.”
“Cool!”
Theo turned his attention back to me.
“What are you doing after school?” I asked.
“I’ll be with you,” he said.
“You will?”
“When are you going to realize that I just want to be near you, Finley? All the time.”
My heart leapt in my chest.
He looked at the ground and popped one eyebrow. I had taken a step back when he was talking with his friend. Things seemed to click inside his head because he said, “You don’t want anyone to know about us?”
“No, I…I wasn’t sure what you wanted. And I didn’t want everyone to think I was only with you because of…”
“Are you?”
“No!”
“What do you want?” he asked.
“I…” I thought I was done caring about what people thought. That I was trying to be more authentic. I knew how I felt and why I felt it. It was time to stop worrying about how everyone else would perceive the things I did and start doing what made me happy. “I like you. A lot.” I closed the distance between us, grabbed hold of the straps of his backpack, and used them to pull myself up onto my toes. It wasn’t some passionate, tongues-blazing kiss. Just a soft, simple touching of lips. And yet my whole body reacted, every hair standing on end.
The late bell rang, and we pulled apart.
A group of people walking by were staring. I recognized one guy as one of Theo’s friends from the library. His eyes tracked back and forth between us, and then he laughed. I averted my gaze.
“You didn’t tell your friends either?” I asked.
“I told my friends,” he said. “They didn’t believe me.”
“Why?” I asked.
“After the way you ran out of the library that one day, they figured you weren’t a fan of mine. I mean, technically speaking, you weren’t.”
I laughed. “Yeah, that day I wasn’t.”
He smirked. “See you later?”
“Yes.”
Theo mumbled something about Jensen that I couldn’t quite make out, and then he was gone. I scanned the area, but there was no Jensen. He must’ve known, like I did, that with a school full of gossip lovers, Jensen would find out about our kiss before the day was over.