Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
ORDINARY PEOPLE BY BLAKE ROSE
The next morning Bellamy dropped me off at my apartment after we ran together bright and early.
We didn’t sleep much, only bits and pieces of the night.
He picked me up and he didn’t even warn me, he just showed up at my door again and didn’t give me a single second to finish getting ready. He said he needed it to be casual.
He really meant casual because I am in sweatpants, and his shirt once again, that I still haven’t given back.
My hair is down and natural from my shower after our run, my face is bare.
He’s in a pair of running shorts, and a plain white shirt.
His casualness still looks just as good as his normal, and it’s completely unfair.
“Are you ever going to give me my shirt back?” He asks and I can see the smirk on his lips.
He obviously doesn’t want it back by the way he’s smiling. Knowing him it probably boosts his ego when he sees me wear it.
“I can give it back to you right now if you want it. You say the word.”
He shakes his head. We never exchanged a single word about last night, or about yesterday after the phone call with my mom.
“I’m alright. I can do without a shirt. Or two, or three. You can have all my shirts if you want them,” His hand is around mine as he drives, a comfort not only for him, but for me too, and my head is reeling over what’s going on with me.
When I said what I had said yesterday. About how we used to be friends. I’ve been thinking about it since he dropped me back off this morning. I feel bad for saying it, but I don’t think I want to take it back because it’s true.
I like Bellamy far too much in and out of bed to be his friend, and that’s why this can’t be more than what it is.
As much as I know these feelings will fade, the urge to want to sleep with him every chance I get won’t.
It’s funny just how little time can make so much change.
Bellamy Archer is decorating the walls in the corner of my mind that he’s taking up.
He’s making a cute cozy little home there, and I’m not cool with it.
“I was thinking, and I wanted to ask you before I did anything. I don’t think Caleb should be able to get away with what he did.
I know you’re not happy with the thought of me causing him any physical harm which is what I want to do.
So I thought maybe you could talk to the basketball coach.
Or the head of sports admin… Only if you’re comfortable, that way he doesn’t get away with anything like this again. ”
Bellamy’s intentions are sweet and come from a good place. I know him and I know that, but he’s thinking like a boy right now.
“Even if I wanted to say something, do you actually think any action would be taken? We’re a top ranking athletic school, meaning our teams are highly ranked across the country…
He’s the best player on the team, they won’t care if he committed murder…
They’d cover it,” I explain and Bellamy’s knuckles are white as he grips the steering wheel.
“I know that. I know how much they let people get away with, not just people but men. That doesn’t make it right.
I’m sure if they tried to cover it, and anyone got word of it that it’d cause an uproar.
Ryn, he should know what he did isn’t going to be tolerated.
The school should at least be warned so that if there’s ever another report, or if there was one in the past, maybe it’ll get taken seriously because of yours.
It makes a difference. If you don’t want to tell for other reasons, so be it.
It’s your choice, but I think that maybe it would be a good thing…
Just trying,” He shrugs, gently nudging me in the right direction.
“I don’t want the basketball coach, or any other coach looking at me in a bad light.
Thinking I’m causing problems or taking the side of Caleb instead of me.
This kind of thing could dig me into a hole I can never get myself out of…
If I’m running to the coach to tell on his best player,” I explain.
It’s not that I don’t want to. I would love for someone besides Bellamy and Lawson to know that the star basketball player is a scumbag. I just don’t know if the repercussions on me would be something I can handle.
“Then don’t say anything… Lawson can say something.
He already offered. He said he would when I was at home.
Let him talk to the coach, let him tell the coach what he saw, and he can say you have no idea that he’s saying anything.
As shitty as it may be, he might believe it more if Lawson tells him,” Bellamy explains, and there’s anger burning in my stomach at the last sentence he spoke.
Not at Bellamy, but at how truthful it is. That anger is enough to make me nod my head in agreement.
“Yes, I’d be okay with that. If Lawson wants to, you can’t make him do it,” I explain, and he shakes his head.
“This was Lawson’s idea. He wanted me to talk to you about it. I told him I didn’t want to push you, he just told me to ask so I did. I’m glad I did too. I’ll let him know,” He holds my hand, and squeezes.
I smile at him. Bellamy’s friends are almost as caring as he is, which is incredibly hard to do.
“Where are we going?” I change the subject.
We’ve been in the car for a while, and I don’t recognize where we are at all.
“Somewhere that I added to the list. A date of choice if you will.”
My stomach flips, “That’s against the rules.”
He looks completely unphased, “So was having sex in an unromantic way but we did, and having sex more than once, but we did that too. I’ve also been adding things to your undetailed list since we started. Rules are for losers.”
The mention of sex makes my cheeks heat up.
Why am I embarrassed to talk about sex with Bellamy?
Maybe because he’s so good at it? Maybe because he knows he’s good too.
Maybe it’s because the people I have sex with never speak to me after, and I have never in my life had to face someone who gave me an orgasm. Maybe that’s it.
“Fine, carry on,” I motion, and he turns off the road, and my eyes scan the area around us.
It’s dark outside now, and there’s not much happening around us, we’re practically in the middle of nowhere.
“Are you going to kill me?” I ask and he laughs. “This was your plan, a cute date, and then homicide?”
He doesn’t stop laughing.
“There were easier ways to kill me, you didn’t have to romance me first. An ax to the head would have sufficed.”
He shakes his head, parking the rusty old Jeep in the middle of an empty field.
“I’m not killing you, and I have no plans to,” He speaks through his spouts of laughter.
“Yet,” I say and he nods with a smile.
“Sure.”
It hasn’t felt weird since he picked me up, and I was afraid it would after the past day. He’s good at making me feel comfortable though, and that’s a huge part of why I haven’t run away screaming.
“A date to nowhere?”
He turns his car off, getting out. I don’t move, waiting for him to open the door for me.
He does, and helps me out, keeping my hand in his as he goes to his trunk.
He takes out not one but multiple large quilts and blankets.
He nods his head to the pillows, and I grab them, following him to the front of the Jeep.
He starts spreading things out and makes a giant palette for the two of us.
I’m still confused until I hear it. The engine of a plane, loud over us.
It looks like a star as it passes over, and I realize just where we are. The airport is near… It has to be.
“See now?” He asks as I sit down on the plush blankets.
“Where did you find this place?” I look up at the sky as Bellamy sits next to me.
“Freshman year on the team, all the seniors used to come out here and get drunk... They’d get all of us drunk actually.
Which isn’t very romantic but that’s how I found it.
Then I kept coming back every now and again because there was a good view of the planes coming in and out. I just thought it was nice.”
I feel a tinge of jealousy in my chest knowing there’s probably been other girls here before me. I see why, and I don’t fault him for bringing me either. It just annoys me when it shouldn't at all. I push the jealousy down.
“This isn’t from a romance movie,” I remind him.
“Do you know how many romance movies have a romantic airport scene? Do I need to list a few? Sleepless in Seattle, Love Actually, Garden State. There are probably a million more. We’ll just use one of those,” His knowledge of the movies only makes me more jealous.
I knew he had it but that mixed with the thought of him being romantic and bringing other girls here, I can’t help it. The taste is bitter in my mouth.
“Why do you look mad?”
“I’m not mad.”
His eyes are locked on me.
“Why are you mad, baby? Don’t lie to me,” He tilts his head to the side, waiting for an answer.
“Have you ever brought anyone else here?” I blurt out and wish it didn’t sound as crazy as it feels coming out of my mouth.
I don’t want to intrude. I honestly have no right to but my mouth works quicker than my mind in too many situations. He has a life outside of me, and he’s going to continue that. Especially with the rules I’ve set in place.
“I have never brought another girl here, Kamryn. If that’s what you were wondering,” He lays himself down, his eyes looking up, and I do the same thing, copying his movements.
I was wondering about that but I won’t tell him.
I don’t want him to know, he can be left to wonder.
We lay side by side, with no contact at all, just our eyes looking up to the sky, waiting for a plane to pass by.
I feel the anxiety I felt earlier creeping back up my throat.
The words I had said to him yesterday, and the silence sitting between us.
I press my lips shut, trying my hardest to stop myself, but I can’t.