17. Nolan #2
It takes several seconds for me to register it hasn’t moved, and then I toss my bag of laundry at it for good measure.
The toy snake rolls sideways.
I grin and retrieve the rubber snake. With my backpack and snake, I head upstairs, catching Katie's expression as I head up to the second floor. I stop at Hadley’s door where I knock twice.
“Come in,” she calls.
I push the door open, and my smart-ass comment about the prank dies on my tongue at the sight of Hadley on her bed, hair tied up, wearing a pair of cotton shorts and a baggy long-sleeved shirt. It’s the most casual I’ve seen her, and it triggers the desire to see her like this every damn day.
She looks at the snake and her shoulders sink. “I didn’t know what time you’d be here. I should have studied down at the kitchen table. I was planning to hide in your room so I could record your reaction. Tell me you jumped. Was there a scream?”
“So loud, I’m surprised you didn’t hear me.”
“You weren’t scared at all?” She slides off the bed and walks toward me, taking the snake. “It looks so real. How’d you know it was fake?” She slithers it, playing with it like a child.
“I’ve never seen a snake inside.”
“I have,” she says. “We once had a rattlesnake get in through the doggy door. It got under the oven. My dad thought my mom and I were hearing things, and then one night when he was getting water, it poked his head out.” She pushes the snake's head toward me an inch.
“Needless to say, he believes us now when we say we hear something.” She grins.
I return her smile.
“He’s been down there, waiting to haunt you for over a week. That was rather anticlimactic.”
“Have you been icing your ankle?”
She glances at her taped ankle. “I was just about to.”
“You’re full of bullshit.”
She flashes another smile. “I was thinking about it.”
“Lay down. I’ll grab an ice pack.” I head back down to the kitchen, digging around until I realize they don’t have a single damn ice pack and instead grab a bag of frozen peas.
I return to Hadley’s room and hold the bag of peas up as I stand at the foot of her bed.
“What?”
“Peas don’t suffice.”
“Nice word choice.”
“They don’t stay cold long enough.”
“Would you believe me if I told you this was my first sprained ankle?”
“Holbrook is one of the best trainers in the country. You should listen to him.” I shake my head and grab one of the pillows and tuck it under her knee and a second one under her foot. I strip off the tape before dropping the frozen peas on her ankle.
“Are you always this bossy?”
My gaze snaps to hers and I raise a brow. “You have no idea how damn bossy I can be.”
She stares at me, her playfulness turning to inquisition as she narrows her eyes. “Do you even know when you’re flirting or is it a default setting?”
I snicker, tossing the wad of tape into the garbage beside her desk. “Set a timer for twenty minutes.”
She rolls and grabs her phone, setting a timer before grabbing her laptop and setting it on her bare thighs.
I bring my bag to the side of her bed and sit beside her, pulling my laptop out.
“What are you doing?” she asks.
I fold a pillow behind my lumbar and lean back, trying to get comfortable on the queen-size bed. “Homework.”
She stares at me for a moment, and then opens her laptop.
“Why does the house smell different?” I ask.
“Hannah’s really big into seasonal scents. She was burning pumpkin spice candles, but after you told me you hate pumpkin, I got her apple-spiced ones to burn.”
“You didn’t have to do that.”
She shrugs, looking at her computer. “I prefer apple, anyway.” She begins typing.
I open the assignment I managed to outline while Holbrook iced my back this evening and get to work.
We type until the timer goes off, then I move my computer to the end of the bed and lean forward to look at her ankle. I close her laptop, ignoring her objection as I move it to the bed beside her and settle with my back against the wall. “Give me your foot.”
“You’re not rubbing my foot. It’s fine.”
“Hadley.”
“Nolan,” she mocks.
“It’s going to help it heal.”
“It is healing.”
“Can I just help? I invited you to that damn event.”
“It was a freak accident. I completely absolve you of any responsibility. You weren’t even there.”
“Exactly.”
She shakes her head. “It wasn’t your fault. You couldn’t have stopped it.”
I’m one of the fastest guys on the team, renowned for my fast reaction time. I could absolutely have prevented this.
Hadley huffs out a gentle breath, then gently swivels, setting her foot on my lap. “My mom jokes that I have superpowers when it comes to healing. I’ve never broken a bone, and I hardly bruise. It will take a lot more than an extension cord to cause damage.”
I lace my fingers over the top of her foot and press my thumbs into the heel of her foot. She moans, a deep and throaty sound that sounds so damn dirty and good, I repeat the action.
“I lied. My foot’s broken and I need this every day.”
I smirk, rubbing a circular motion over her heel. “The tradition at the theater doesn’t involve running.”
She scowls. “I don’t think I like your implication, Payne.”
“Oh, Cutlass. You don’t have to.”
“What’s the new tradition?”
“Are you coming to the game Saturday?”
“Is it happening afterward?”
I shake my head, and when she narrows her eyes, I press the pad of my thumb over her foot again.
“I might,” she says, closing her eyes. “Someone invited me to a party Saturday.”
“Someone being Luke?”
Hadley opens her eyes long enough to smirk at me again. “You’re kind of a jealous friend.”
“Is that a yes?”
“No, it was an observation.” She’s quiet for a moment. “Hannah invited me. It’s a neon party. You’d hate it.”
“Why would I hate it?”
“Because you hate being told what to do and they have a dress code.”
“When you’re me, there isn’t a dress code.”
She scoffs, but it’s half-hearted.
“You can come to the game and show up to the party when it’s over. We can go together.”
Hadley swallows, and I think she’s going to tell me no, that we can’t keep blurring things and that we’re testing the bounds of friendship.
“I didn’t really know Katie or Hannah last year.
Our fourth roommate, April, and I were close and did everything together.
” She blinks, turning her gaze away and then back to me.
“I had no idea Hannah liked Ethan or that she’s programming a videogame in her spare time.
And I had no idea Katie loves foreign films. I’m trying to be a better friend and a better roommate. ”
“April’s studying abroad?”
She nods, but her lips are pursed, and though I’ve known her just shy of a month, I know something’s bothering her and that she doesn’t want to talk about it. “Want to watch an episode of Only Murders in the Building or will that be hard to read through my class notes?”
I grab the remote from the bedside table and flip on the TV that’s diagonal from us, atop her dresser. “I’ll read them tomorrow.” I load the next episode and set the remote down so I can massage her foot some more.
“Did you see the pictures April posted?” Hannah asks, coming into the room, head down, scrolling through her phone. “This guy looks so much like Ezra—” She stops, looking between me and Hadley, a smile forming. “Sorry, I didn’t realize I was interrupting.”
“You’re not interrupting. The trainer said rubbing my ankle will help it heal faster,” Hadley says, but as she sits up, she slides over a few inches.
Hannah frowns. “Is it pretty sore?”
“No. It’s not that bad.”
“I’m going to go game with Colin a little. He’s online.” She points toward the door. “I’ll see you guys later.”
I should probably care what Hannah thinks, and be concerned that she might go say something to Katie that is seemingly innocent but serves as kindling to my sister. But there’s a more pressing question that has me hitting pause. “I thought Ezra graduated and moved to Florida?”
Hadley swallows. “He did. Technically. His parents live there. But then he went abroad with our roommate.” She lifts her gaze to mine, allowing me to see her pain before she shrugs. “It’s okay though. I’m okay.”
“You guys broke up before they got together?”
“I don’t really know all the details. I struggled to listen—or struggled with my willingness to listen—but from what I pieced together they started seeing each other about a month before I found out.”
Her story hits too close to home. I feel offended and outraged on her behalf as well as my own that someone—two people—who she trusted would betray her like that. “He cheated on you?”
“Honestly, it was the breakup with April that hurt more.”
“You didn’t tell Katie and Hannah?”
Hadley shakes her head. “Maybe it was my pride or the fact she was going to Scotland, or that I didn’t want to cause them to pick sides since April was closer to both Katie and Hannah? Maybe I worried they’d choose her over me? Maybe I just preferred ignoring it all?”
I slide my hands from her foot and pull Hadley closer to me, tucking her under my chin. It feels like the most natural instinct in the world. Like I am here to protect and shield her from all the fake friends and opportunistic guys who lay eyes on her. It feels right.
“I used to date Katie’s best friend.”
“When?”
I pull in a breath and hold it for several seconds before releasing it. “We started dating in high school when I was a sophomore, and she was a freshman.”
“How long did you date?”
“Until the spring of my freshman year here at Camden.”
“That’s a long time,” Hadley says. “What happened?”
“A lot. Long-distance relationships are hard. We had little to talk about and were constantly missing each other because of the time zone and my practices. She was positive I was sleeping with other women, no matter how much I tried to assure her, and every week we were fighting over something stupid.” I think back to the long list of arguments that ranged from forgetting the anniversary of our first kiss to not texting her between every class, to not being able to come home for Christmas.
“Over spring break, she was planning to come here and then decided to go down to Mexico with some friends. She was mad because she overheard a girl in the background while we were talking on the phone, and so she slept with another guy to get back at me.”
Hadley places her hand against my arm, leaving a mark that I feel all the way to my chest. “I’m so sorry.”
Normally, I hate telling this story, hate discussing my ex, yet the sting that usually comes after revealing how fucked up our relationship had become but sharing this failure with Hadley and letting her into this part of my life feels like removing my shoulder pads after a game, relieving.
“We should have ended things sooner. Things got toxic at the end and maybe if we’d broken up sooner while we were still friends and respected each other we could still be friends. She and Katie could still be friends.”
“It’s not your fault their relationship didn’t last.”
“It got too messy. Too complicated.”
“The cheated-on club is a crappy club.”
“The spiteful, anti-trust, arguing club wasn’t much better.”
Hadley cuddles closer, wrapping her arms fully around mine. “If you ever want to talk about it, I’m here.”
“If you ever need me to remind you that your ex was a fucking idiot, I’m here.” I let my words soak in as I reach for the remote and rewind to the part we missed when Hannah came in, then hit play.
Her eyes drift close within seconds.
“You’re falling asleep, Cutlass. Why don’t we turn it off.”
“Not yet.” She nestles closer. “And that’s a terrible nickname.”
“Yet, it fits you so damn well.”
The corner of her lips curl and then slowly relaxes as her breaths become deep and even.
“Just homework notes?” Katie asks from the doorway.
Hadley’s been asleep for well over an hour, more than enough time for me to have left. I’ve been lying to myself, claiming I don’t want to wake her when in reality, I just don’t want to leave. I’ve been reading through the notes she emailed me, trying to catch up on weeks of the missed class.
I glance at Hadley and then at Katie. “We’re fully dressed and on top of the blankets. Do you really think anything happened?” I say voice muted so I don’t wake her.
“Hadley has plans. Ambitions.”
“Relax, Katie. We’re just friends.”
Carsen appears behind Katie. “Night, guys.” He raises his shoulders when he notes that Hadley’s asleep. “Oh, shit. Sorry,” he whispers. He takes a step back, tugging Katie back toward the hall, their whispers disappearing before the click of her bedroom door.
I’m careful to not disturb Hadley as I stand and move her laptop to the desk. I move the pillows and pull the blankets up to her chin. The action has her rolling, and cuddling the blankets.
I take my school bag down to the basement, my thoughts in ten places as I pull the blankets back, and yelp as I jump back, finding another rubber snake tucked into my blankets.