Chapter 23
It’s Monday morning, and I’m sitting on Julien’s bed, waiting for Jayson to get out of the shower.
I still can’t believe that I let them convince me to wake up an hour earlier so we could grab breakfast before school.
Julien is video chatting with Elijah, and I am propped back against his headboard reading on my tablet.
I swear, Jayson’s worse than a girl when it comes to getting ready.
He takes for-freaking-ever, whereas I am ready in about fifteen minutes.
The irony is not lost on me. Julien taps my shoulder to get my attention
“Yeah, we’re getting ready to leave in a few,” he tells Elijah and turns his phone toward me. “Say hi and bye to E, Liz.”
Elijah’s grinning face greets me on the screen. “Good morning, Liz! I still can’t believe they were able to get you up this early.” He chuckles.
I groan and put down my tablet so I can hold Julien’s phone. “Hey handsome. Yep, it’s a miracle upon miracles.” I roll my eyes. “I can’t turn down a free breakfast. Hey, are you coming with?”
“Nope. It would take too long to drive there and back. Would be easier if we all went to the same school.”
Julien and I hear the shower turn off in the adjacent bathroom, and Julien plops down beside me so that both of us can be seen on the video screen. “Babe, I got to go,” he tells Elijah. “Love you.”
“Love you too, J. And you too, Liz,” he adds when I pout. Julien hits the button to shut his phone down.
“God, you two are so cute,” I tease.
He kisses me on the nose and pops up off the bed as Jayson enters, a towel around his waist and steam billowing up behind him from the bathroom. I take a moment to ogle his gorgeous body and I bite my bottom lip.
“Keep looking at me like that, princess, and I won’t be responsible for my actions.”
Julien takes that as his cue to leave.
“Okay, I’ll meet you guys downstairs. Ryder said he was on his way so no hanky-panky, kids, as we’ve got to go.
You have ten minutes,” he says and walks backward out of the room doing that finger to eye thing that says he’s keeping a close eye on us.
Jayson laughs and flips him off before closing the door and locking it.
He turns around and looks at me with a cocky grin plastered across his face. Oh boy, I’m in trouble.
“Jayson, what are you doing?” I think I already have a pretty good idea, and my heartbeat picks up with excitement at his possessive smirk.
“He said ten minutes. I only need five.” He grabs me by the waist before I can dash to the door and hauls me against his still damp body. I should care that he’s getting my clothes wet, but I don’t.
“We need to be quick,” he whispers close to my ear.
Jayson and I haven't had sex since before the party.
Even though things are better between us, I'm not ready to be intimate with him again just yet.
He seems to be okay with it, but he's a guy.
So any chance he can get to kiss or touch me, he's taking it.
I grab his shoulders and he leans in to capture my lips with his. He kisses me deeply and I sigh when we pull apart. “I wouldn’t mind waking up early every day for that,” I tell him.
Jayson kisses my neck and nibbles on the bottom of my ear. “One day soon, I’m putting my ring on your finger.”
Jayson’s been saying things like that a lot to me the past couple of weeks.
Thinking about getting married when I’m still so young makes me nervous and apprehensive.
We haven’t even graduated high school. I want to go to college and travel.
There’s so much I still want to do and see before I even consider marriage.
When I don't reply, he grabs his clothes off his bed, dropping his towel to pull up and zip his shorts and tug on his T-shirt.
I go into the bathroom to look in the mirror so I can smooth down my hair and adjust my clothes until I feel presentable enough.
He takes my hand, and we make our way downstairs to where Julien is waiting for us.
Julien looks down at his wristwatch. “Nine minutes. I’m impressed.”
Jayson grabs his car keys off the hall table and punches his brother in the arm. “Let’s roll.”
Ryder passes me the yellow packets of sweetener, and I rip two of them to pour into my coffee.
“Coach told me there would be a couple of scouts at the game next week.” He’ll play against Highland High, and the thought of seeing or being anywhere near Marshall again makes my teeth clench with anger and my stomach turn over with trepidation.
“Are you ready?” Ryder asks Julien, while shoveling a ham biscuit in his mouth.
Julien's doctor cleared him for play, so next week's game will be the first time he's played since his injury.
I nibble on my scone to allow time for my coffee to cool down enough, so I won’t burn my mouth trying to drink it. Jayson’s arm rests along the back of our booth, and he’s playing with the ends of my hair.
“You know,” he says, “we need to decide which college we all want to apply to, that is if we still want to stick together. Right?”
Julien throws a sugar packet at his brother. “There’s no rush to decide, Jay.”
“We’ve always talked about Carolina University.”
Another sugar packet hits Jayson in the chest. “Seriously, we’re not even seniors yet. Chill.”
I roll my eyes. Jayson and Julien have been obsessed with CU since I’ve known them. I should count myself lucky that Jayson let me have his favorite CU T-shirt, which I stole and refuse to give back to him. I like to sleep in it.
The waitress drops our check on the table and Jayson pulls out his wallet. “On me today. We need to head on out if we want to make it before the first bell.” Jayson slides out of the booth and reaches for me. “Jules, you with us or Ry?”
“I’ll ride with Ry.”
I hug Julien and Ryder, and Jayson opens the passenger side door of his truck for me to get in. It’s not like I won’t see them again today. Since I work at the library after school today, Jayson’s going to drop me off and pick me back up once I’m done.
The choir director emailed me and the rest of the singers last night about before-school practice sessions.
Our choir group will compete in a big national competition in the spring.
We’ll be up against about one hundred other show choirs from schools across the country.
Mrs. Deagle, our choir director, has already contacted me about performing a solo piece of my own work.
Once we get to school, we park in the senior lot.
Maria is already waiting next to the walkway that leads from the lot to the school building, and runs over to Ryder’s car when he pulls in.
I watch as she jumps up into his arms as soon as he steps out of his car, plastering a big kiss on his face.
He puts her down, and I notice he doesn’t take her hand or put his arm around her.
If I wasn’t watching so closely, I would have missed the scowl on her face. I climb out of Jayson’s truck.
“Maria,” I call out, and she jogs over to me.
“Hey chica!”
Jayson bends down to place a quick peck on my lips and walks over to meet the guys. I loop my arm with Maria’s and grab my bag.
“Skip walk,” I tell her, and we begin to skip arm and arm down the paved sidewalk.
Our silliness gets a lot of looks from other students, but we don’t care. That is, until two of those looks come from Samantha and Jacinda, who are standing in the quad with the rest of the cheerleading squad.
“Skank alert,” Maria says loudly.
“Who are you calling a skank?” Samantha sneers as we skip past them. Maria stops and pulls away from me.
“You,” Maria tells her.
“Maria, let’s go.” I try to tug her back, but she isn’t budging.
Jacinda joins Samantha and looks at me. “I don't get what Jayson sees in you. Guess he got bored, and that's why he wound up with me," she taunts, flinging her long ponytail over her shoulder.
Her words are like hot daggers to my heart. Even though I'm cringing inside, I refuse to let her see it. “Do you always have to be such a vapid bitch?”
Samantha gaze flicks over my shoulder, and she elbows Jacinda.
“Do I need to tell Fallon you're messing with Elizabeth when he specifically told you to stay away from her?”
What is he talking about? At the mention of Fallon’s name, both Jacinda and Samantha back off and retreat to the safety of their group. Okay, that’s weird.
Ryder looks down at Maria. “Come on, Maria. I’ll walk you to class.” Without saying bye to me, Maria follows Ryder into school. Jayson takes my hand and Julien takes my bag.
“Jayson, what did Fallon do?”
“Nothing for you to worry about. Come on, or we’re going to be late.”
“Julien?”
“Uh. Nope. We are not playing good parent, bad parent.”
I snort. “Seriously?”
I’m met with silence.
We get to my locker, and once I drop stuff off and lock it, Jayson walks me to my first class, which Julien and Ryder are also in.
We find four seats next to each other and sit down.
Mr. Carmichael walks in and tells us to get our textbooks out.
I'm already looking forward to the end of the school week.