Chapter 25 #2
When Gianna sees me, her face goes through three things in two seconds. Surprise. Then anger.
“I’m working right now,” she says to me.
I walk over. “I’ll help.”
“Benson—”
“Hey, Reeve!” That’s Kev, from the wall, with a roll of pre-wrap in his hand. He doesn’t feel the temperature of the room.
“Hey, Kev.”
“Dude. Dude. That tip-in last night.”
“Thanks, man.”
“Coach said it’s going on the highlight reel for the season.”
“Nice.”
“Like, Reeve, that is one of the best second-effort goals I have seen in this rink in fifteen years. Direct quote.”
“He’ll deny it later.”
Kev grins. He goes back to the pegboard. Gianna does not look up from the jerseys.
“What number am I sorting?”
She seethes, “I’m working.”
“G.”
She whispers, “I’m working, Benson.”
“I’ll help, and we can talk while I help.”
“I don’t want to talk.”
“I’m trying here.”
She picks up a jersey, sets it on the seven stack. She picks up another one and sets it on the eleven stack.
“What did you do?”
“I’m trying to talk to you, and you keep pushing me out, G.”
“What did you do, Benson. What did you do this time?”
I look at her and take a Camdenth in. “Did you talk to Lucy this morning?”
She stops with a jersey in her hand. She looks up at me.
“Yes.”
I take that as the answer to the part she is not saying out loud, which is yes and she told me everything, and I take a second Camdenth in.
“G.”
“Don’t.”
“G. I really fucking like her.”
Her eyes glaze over as she looks at me. “I don’t care.”
“We’re not in high school anymore. This isn’t Madeline.”
“I do not care, Benson.”
“I’m trying to do this right. I am trying to talk to you about it instead of going around you.”
“Oh, you’re trying to do it right. That’s what we’re calling sneaking my best friend out of the apartment at midnight after I went to bed. You are doing it right.”
“G.”
“Let me guess, Benson. You took her to your bedroom.”
Kev, at the pegboard, is no longer pretending to hang tape. Whoever is behind the stick rack has gone very still.
I lower my voice. “G. Can we keep it down?”
“No.”
“There are people in the room.”
“I do not care.”
“Please.”
She slams a jersey onto the stack. “I don’t care, Benson.
I don’t care who hears me. I don’t care what people think.
I have been telling you for years what my one rule was, and you have, in the last month, broken it, lied about it, fought a guy in your house over it, and now slept with her and dropped her at her door at two-thirty in the morning so she could sneak back into the apartment where I live with her. ”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. Jesus Christ. “I’m not — that’s not the point.”
“What is the point, Benson?”
“The point is I really fucking like her.”
“Benson. Focus on hockey. You are about to be a first-round draft pick. You have, by every account, the easiest senior year a captain has ever had ahead of him. All you have to do is play. And instead you are spending your time fucking my friends—”
“G.”
“What is wrong with you?”
I look around. Kev is openly staring at the pegboard now without pretending to do anything else. The guy behind the stick rack has straightened up, and I can now see that it is one of the freshmen.
“G. Will you please just—”
“I don’t care what you do anymore, Benson.”
“And what about Lucy?” I ask.
She picks up an empty duffel and slams it into the stack of duffels behind her hard enough that one of them topples.
“Looks like I need to find a new roommate.”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I am extremely serious. I have been talking to Mara about it. Mara can move in within the week. Our rent is already cheap, and Mara has been wanting a cheaper place. It works for everyone.”
“G. You are not throwing Lucy out of the apartment.”
“I am not throwing her out, Benson. She can move out. I’m sure she’ll be much happier with the male version of me.”
“Gianna,” I warn. “You are not kicking her out because of this.”
“She wants to sleep with my brother? Watch me.”
“This is — this is not fair to her.”
“Don’t talk to me about fair, Benson.”
I stare at her. She can’t be serious right now.
She turns her nose up and says, “I am working, Benson. If that is everything you needed to say, please leave.”
She turns back to sorting jerseys. I walk out without saying anything else. I walk down the hallway. Kev does not look up at me as I pass. The freshman behind the stick rack doesn’t look up at me either. Frank is at the front desk and waves bye to me.
I get into the truck and need to get to Lucy to make sure she’s alright. I fooled around with her last night and still don’t have her damn number.
I park in front of the Vietnamese place. The lights are on now and the chairs are down. I get out of the truck, go up the steps, and press the buzzer.
There is a long minute. Then her voice, scratchy with sleep.
“Hello?”
“It’s me, Benson.”
The buzzer goes, so I push the door open. I take the stairs two at a time. By the time I get to the second floor, she is standing in the doorway in pajama shorts and one of her own sweatshirts. Her hair piled up on top of her head with a clip.
She looks at me. “Are you okay?”
I shake my head.
“Come in.”
I come in. She closes the door behind me. The apartment smells like the Vietnamese place underneath because the walls do not insulate the smell in any season. There is a koala mug on the kitchen counter with steam coming off it.
“Yeah. What’s going on?”
“I just talked to Gianna.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“Is everything alright?”
“Did you tell her about last night?”
She blinks at me. “No.”
I scratch my forehead. “I don’t understand. You didn’t tell her?”
“No. I haven’t even — I just got out of the shower. She was already at the rink when I woke up. I haven’t seen her since last night. Why would I tell her before she goes to work?”
I run my hands through my hair. “Wow. Okay.”
“Benson. Can you tell me what is going on?”
I sit down on the edge of the couch. “She knew. I went to the rink because I wanted to talk to her in person about it instead of letting her find out some other way. She was working. I asked her if she had talked to you this morning, and her face — her face did a thing like she knew, and she said yes.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. She knew that you weren’t home, and that you came back.”
She sighs. “She probably heard me come in.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Well, shit. Does she normally check on you?”
She shrugs. “I have no idea.” She sits down on the couch next to me. She puts her hand on her own forehead and Camdenthes out.
I look at my hands. “I went over there because I was trying to tell her that I really like you. I cannot — I cannot do this with her standing in the way of it. I cannot keep letting her run my life because she is afraid I’m going to ruin one of her friendships.
I’m not. I’m not going to do that. Not with you.
I love that she’s your best friend. She’s my sister. ”
She looks at me with red cheeks. “I really like you, too, Benson.”
I lean over and cup her jaw. I stare into her eyes and then kiss her.
Her hand finds the front of my hoodie, and she pulls.
I lean her back against the arm of the couch.
She lets her body fall under me. Her head lands on the throw pillow, and I press my body against hers.
I want her all over again. My dick hardens in my pants, and I press it against her.
She kisses me back, bucking her hips to feel me.
I groan in her mouth. She’s going to be the end of me.
Her other hand is on the back of my neck, and her legs are coming up on either side of my hips.
She is wearing tiny pajama shorts. Pajama shorts are, it turns out, a different situation than the jeans were last night. I groan in frustration.
“Bens,” she says, and I swear she’s about to tell me that we can’t do this here. I’m telling my body to calm down. I just had her last night. “Want to go to my room?”
My dick stands to attention. My heart even jumps, but I slow my roll. “Are you sure?”
She nods.
“Do you have a condom?”
She shakes her head. “I’m on the pill.”
Precum wets my boxers. I lean back, adjusting myself.
I take a look around the apartment, and my chest flickers with pressure.
We need to make this fast. She leans up, pecks my lips, and drops her shorts as soon as she reaches her bedroom.
Her panties are blue today. I walk over to her, close the bedroom door, and grab her ass.
The apartment is too quiet. I can hear my weight creaking on the floorboards.
I press my dick against her ass and groan when she pushes it against me.
“Did you lock it?” she asks when I turn her chin and kiss her.
I look behind me and answer, “No.”
She runs over to it and turns the lock. Then she takes off her shirt. Her bare tits bounce as she drops it on the floor. Her pink nipples are begging for me to suck on them. My mouth waters, and then she drops her panties.
Shit. I stare at her naked body as she walks over to the bed. Each movement makes me want to chase her down and kiss every inch of her.
“Your turn,” she says, sitting on the edge of the bed. “We don’t have a lot of time.”
She’s right. Her crazy ass roommate is going to be home in a few hours.
I pull the shirt off my back and drop my pants.
She chews her bottom lip as I kick off my boxers.
My dick salutes to attention. I walk towards her and stop right between her legs.
She looks down at my cock and licks her lips.
There’s a moment where she hesitates, and then she grabs my dick and kisses the tip.
“Lucy,” I groan as she pumps my dick a few times. “Lay back.”
She crawls onto the bed, and I watch her beautiful tits as she settles herself on the twin-sized bed. I rest my knee on the bed and then hover above her.
“Just like this?” I ask as she lifts her legs and spreads them for me. So fucking beautiful.