53. Bailey
53
Bailey
Monday
T hat morning, I woke to heavy arms wrapped around me and a body pressed against my back, though the body itself wasn’t the only thing hard. I didn’t open my eyes, but I could tell by the feel, it was Ethan. I wiggled myself closer to his warmth, his arms constricting around me. “We are going to be late if you don’t stop moving like that,” he said, his voice heavy with sleep.
There was a short laugh, and I opened my eyes to see Chase lying right in front of me, phone in hand. “You better not be taking pictures,” I hissed. “My parents would kill me if they knew you were both in here.”
“No one will see but us, remember? Boyfriend support.” Boyfriend support. My boyfriend, I smiled. His phone buzzed. “Hey, Eth, Lachlan wants to know why you look so pained.”
“Why are you both in here?” I asked, wiggling out of Ethan’s arms, so I could lie on my back and look at him.
He cleared his throat. “You talk in your sleep. It didn’t sound nice, and Chase said you slept soundly when you slept on his chest before.”
“Yeah, mine ,” he complained. “I get tonight.”
I rolled my eyes and got out of bed.
“She slept just fine after I came in,” Ethan said. “Plus, this bed is much more comfortable than sharing with you.”
“You were still sharing with me. We just had a barrier between us, instead of the pillow wall you built. News flash—you snuggle in your sleep, not me.”
Smiling at their banter, I grabbed my clothes, opting to get dressed in the bathroom. Chores went by fast, and before long, we were all running out of the house with pancakes in our hands. First stop was Lachlan’s.
“When are your parents going to adopt me, so I can sneak into your bed?” he asked as soon as he got in.
“Morning,” Chase said, holding two pancakes out to him.
“Mom make these?” Lachlan asked.
“Yep,” Chase replied.
Lachlan let out a long, dramatic breath. “Fine, I guess I forgive you.”
“Boys.” I shook my head and smiled. Ethan’s hand slipped to my thigh, giving a little squeeze before leaving it to rest there.
I was in my bliss, until I saw Nolan.
“Is he limping?” Lachlan asked. “Why’s he limping?” Lachlan got out of the truck and let Nolan slide into the middle.
Ethan pulled out as soon as Lachlan closed the door, but the cab was silent. Nolan glanced around at all of us staring at him. “It was late when I got back last night. He stopped the back-to-back runs, so I had to get up early to run. I didn’t see a stick on the path—”
“Because it was pitch black at four a.m.?” Chase scoffed.
“Three.” Nolan let out a long breath.
Ethan squeezed my thigh without seeming to realize he did it. Chase held out his last pancake to Nolan. “Take it, the carbs taste good, and Bail’s mom puts maple syrup in them. It’s the shit.”
“Yeah, maple syrup is like all natural, so the sugar doesn’t count,” Lachlan said.
Nolan barely managed a smile as he took the pancake and ate it, relaxing into the seat and leaning a little on Lachlan.
Practice was smooth, which meant we were absolutely beat and sweaty afterward. I wasn’t sure how Nolan pushed himself, after what happened this morning. He was good at hiding his limp with the coaches as well, throwing in a skip now and then to make it look more intentional. It bothered me.
I may have lingered in the shower a little longer than necessary, trying to figure out what I could do. How could I help him? Nolan liked his father—it was obvious he would do anything for the man—and he’d even said pretending to be Nick made him feel closer to the brother he lost. But pretending was hurting him. Did he not see that?
When I walked out of the girls' change room, Nolan stood, leaning with his back against the wall, arms crossed in front of him. Hadley and Katie were on either side of him, talking while leaning close, Hadley’s hand touching his bicep.
Nolan shook his head at whatever she’d said, but his smile was tight and awkward, and he made like he was stretching, but it was obvious he was just moving to get her hand off him. It didn’t work the way he planned as Hadley slid her hand down his chest, almost to the waistline of his jeans. Nolan jumped and stepped through the two of them.
I could feel the anger building up inside of me, my vision tunneling. It wasn’t so much that I felt she was touching what was mine—because Nolan wasn’t exactly mine. It was that he was obviously uncomfortable, but she ignored that.
“Waiting for me?” I asked.
“Yes!” Poor guy was distressed. As much as Nolan pretended to be Nick, these interactions were hard for him. “The others already headed down for breakfast.”
“Noley!” Hadley whined. “What about homecoming?” she asked as we’d already started to walk away from them.
“Sorry, already have plans.” Nolan gave an apologetic smile that was still sweet, and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.
“Is it really homecoming already?” I never partook in the event, but the student council went all in, so it was hard to ignore.
“Yes. This weekend, we have the two away games in the next county. So, next weekend's game will be homecoming. Did you ever go to homecoming before?”
“No. The school usually does a half day for those wanting to go to the prep rally, so I always just went home to work.”
Nolan grinned. “It can be a lot of fun. After the prep rally, game, and dance, someone normally hosts a party after.”
“I’m out. I’m done with parties.” I held up my hand. “I don’t care that Ethan and Lachlan will likely never let me out of their sight at one again. I’d rather skip all that drama.”
Nolan chuckled. “For the record, I wouldn’t let you out of my sight, either.”
I stopped walking just outside the cafeteria. “How do you say those things but don’t mean anything deeper?” I asked. “It just seems more intimate than platonic friends.”
“No matter what I choose, I will always care about you. Maybe the problem is, Ed forced you into something you were too young to handle. Maybe you just don’t know how a friend can be caring, and love you, without being romantically intimate.”
I thought about it for a moment and shrugged. “That’s plausible. One more question before we go in there. Why not just be you all the time? This Nolan? Why not tell Hadley and Katie to leave you alone without having to cover your rejection with a smile to ease it?”
“I’m the quarterback,” he said, as if it were obvious. “I have a role to play. They are head cheerleaders. I may have to do some things at the prep rally with them. I did say no to stripping, for the record. Apparently, my body will be sure to rile them up .”
“You can be Nolan and a quarterback. You don’t have to fake it and be Nick in order to be a quarterback.”
“It’s what people expect.”
“Is it, though? Or is it what Nick’s old friends and Nick’s old school expected? You have friends of your own now, Noley.” I wrinkled my nose at him in a cutesy way and reached up to ruffle his hair playfully.
Nolan laughed. “Don’t say it like that.”
As Nolan and I grabbed our food, I tossed a couple of sausages onto his plate, and he rolled his eyes at me but didn’t take them off. Then I buttered up a piece of toast and said nothing as I stuck it on the plate and turned around to head to the table.
The guys were deep in a conversation about this weekend's game. We would be staying at a hotel, having a late game on Friday and an afternoon game on Saturday in the same county. Driving arrangements were discussed, including whether we should drive ourselves or take the charter bus the school had rented. Coach sent an email saying we had to let him know by the end of today. We had a late game on Friday, and it was a long drive, so in the end, we voted on taking the charter so we could rest before the game.
“Hey, Bailey.” Sam was only a couple of spots down from me. “Are you going to the homecoming dance next week?”
“I haven’t decided yet,” I answered truthfully. “I might just go home after the game.”
“You’ve never been to the dance before,” Beth accused. “Actually, doll, I don’t think I’ve seen you at any school dances.”
“I suck at dancing—did you see me at the last party?” There was a round of chuckles that made me realize most of the team, and girlfriends, were watching me. “Plus, no one has asked me before,” I mumbled, shoving another forkful of eggs into my mouth in a very unladylike fashion.
Ethan was doing his best not to look at me. Chase was frowning, and I could almost sense an argument on the tip of his tongue. Lachlan had a smirk on his face, and I couldn’t quite decipher the meaning. Nolan seemed to be looking between the three of them.
“Has anyone asked you yet?” Kell asked me, but he was side-eyeing Chase. Everyone thought Chase and I had hooked up after he broke things off with Hadley.
“No. Like I said, I might not go.”
The bell rang, and I quickly finished my plate. Nolan had guiltily eaten his toast, but he’d seemed happy while he was eating it. He drank down his protein drink, shivering like he didn’t like the flavor.
“Bailey!” Sam ran up behind us, pushing between Nolan and me. Lachlan glared at him, but I didn’t think he noticed. “I don’t have a date to homecoming yet. How about I take you? We can check it out, and if you don’t like it, we can ditch and do something else.”
“I, uh.” This was a very awkward situation.
“We’re going as a group,” Chase said with a bit of an edge to his voice.
“I thought—” Sam started, but Chase cut him off.
“You thought wrong. This is our class.” Chase grabbed my hand a practically yanked me into the classroom, not stopping until we got to our seats at the back. “You could have told him no.”
I held my breath and lowered my head. “Sorry.”
“Don’t.” He reached out and put his finger under my chin, tilting my head back up. “I didn’t mean it like that. I meant, if you don’t want to go with Sam, you can say no. You don’t have to be a people pleaser.”
I had just had this conversation with Nolan. “I wasn’t being a people pleaser.” I frowned. “I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. What if he had no one to go with? I didn’t want him to be left out. Sam is nice, he’s my friend.”
“ Sam has turned down three girls. He will have someone to go with. Maybe not his first choice, but he will have someone. If someone asks and you don’t want to go with them, just tell them you’re going with us as a group.”
“So, we are going? As a group…Ethan as well?”
“I doubt Ethan will miss you in a dress.”
“I wear skirts all the time,” I pointed out.
“Yep. And I promise he doesn’t miss out on that, either. Apparently, neither does Lachlan.” I bit my lip, my cheeks burning. Chase smiled and turned his head to face the class as the teacher called everyone to attention.
Chase’s advice worked. In art class, a guy that wasn’t even on the team asked me to homecoming. I gave a polite smile, said thanks for the offer, and told him I was going with my group of friends. Lachlan and Nolan just stared at me. I asked if I was too mean, but they both shook their heads and told me no before returning to the project at hand.
Throughout the day, it got easier to turn down the offers to homecoming. Especially when Thomas made a show out of asking me right in the middle of the hall. I hid as much as I could behind Ethan, hating having attention on me. Ethan said a very easy, “She’s busy,” and guided me toward history class.
By the end of the day, I was absolutely exhausted. We all piled into the truck, and I turned on them. “Did I miss something? Is there a bet going around to see who can get me to go to homecoming? Why did no one ask you guys?” I asked.
“Two,” Ethan said.
“Six.” Chase was indifferent about it. “Seven, if you count Mrs. Turner asking if I’m going to be at the dance.”
“Thaaaat’s wrong.” I wrinkled my nose.
I turned around so I could see Lachlan. He shrugged. “None.”
“Okay, now tell her how many walked away after you glared at them without saying a word.” Nolan elbowed him.
“Don’t care.” He grinned at me.
“And you? How many asked the hot-shot quarterback out?”’ I asked, although I was nervous to know.
Nolan’s eyes ran over my face for a moment, searching for what, I wasn’t sure.
“Most of the cheerleading team,” Lachlan answered for him when he didn’t speak fast enough.
“Not true.” Nolan rolled his eyes. “I don’t even know. Maybe two, but I wasn’t counting. I’m not sure I will be going, anyway.”
The next day was no different. No, it was worse. Word got out that I was turning every guy down, and now they did make a bet to see who would convince me to go. Chase was miserable, snapping at anyone who stepped up to me in the halls. Ethan was my own blockade. Lachlan mainly laughed, unless someone went to touch me, then I had to remind him that breaking hands wasn’t a good thing.
Nolan was silent, more than usual.
“Hey.” I bumped into his shoulder as we walked down the hall. “What ya thinking about?”
“Nothing.”
“I say we all just skip this whole homecoming thing and get some drinks and camp out in the back forty,” I said.
Chase grinned. “That sounds much better to me.”
Leaning against his locker, Derrick leered at me, sending a chill down my spine. His eyes skimmed my body, and I found myself leaning more into Nolan. He wrapped his arm around me in response.
I hadn’t seen much of Derrick since he got back to school. His arm was still in a cast, but most of his face had healed. “Ready for the game this weekend?”
Chase fell forward, landing directly on Derrick and slamming him into the lockers. “Oh, shit. Sorry, man, didn’t see you there.” He threw more of his body weight into him until Derrick cursed.
“I was talking to you guys, not her!”
Chase pushed off him and walked along with us.
“We used to be friends!” Derrick called.
“Get laid,” Chase shouted back.
When we all got into the truck, I turned around to face Chase. “You don’t hang out with your friends anymore. You used to always have a group around you.”
“They were never my friends, Bails. They stayed around me for the money and parties. The moment they caught wind that my father exiled me, they all left.”
I frowned. “How did they know?”
“Aristocratic, political bullshit. Don’t worry about it. I found my place and I’m liking it.” He leaned forward, capturing my lips with his and snaking his hand around the seat, trying to pull me into the back.
“Seat belts,” Ethan grumbled. Chase chuckled but let go of me, so I could buckle up.