6. Hook, Line and Sinker
6
HOOK, LINE AND SINKER
OLIVER
We sat in that bathroom for an hour in silence, just drinking the bourbon, being there for her. Every once in a while she got up to wet the cloth again, pressing it into my knuckles. But I didn’t care. Come Monday, I'm going to have to pay for what happened, and I will. I’ll take whatever punishment they dish to me, because I'm not sorry.
Eventually, Mallory got up and said she wanted to leave, but didn’t want to go home. I need to get her laughing again, and since she was a little drunk, I knew the perfect place to go. When we emerge from the bathroom, everyone is still outside. Including Marcus and Damon, who insist that the police and the dean will hear about it. But like I said, that’s Monday's problem.
We’re walking down the street to the mystery location. Mallory’s ahead of me, chatting and laughing with the girls. A small smile tugs on my lips. She’s laughing.
“Did Gus check in?” Cory asks, shoving his hands into the front pocket of his jeans.
“He texted a few times when we were in the bathroom. She didn’t immediately respond, but he knows she’s okay. ”
“Is she?”
“She will be. I’m going to fucking make sure of it.” Shawn moves a little closer to me as we both watch Tommy, a six–foot–three hockey player, wander off and skip down the sidewalk like a delicate twelve–year–old–girl. He pulls a funny face at Juliana, making her giggle.
“What happens if you get suspended?” Shawn asks, addressing the elephant in the room.
“Then I'll get suspended.” I say matter–of–factly.
Tonight definitely didn’t go the way I planned. As soon as I saw her outside the house, I knew something was wrong. That smile she gave me when I asked her about Gus? Faker than Quinny Cooper’s tits. Something is definitely wrong with her, and I'm going to find out what. But right now, she just needs to be distracted and not think about anything for a while.
We walk a little faster and catch up to the girls, but when we get a whiff of their conversation, I fucking wish we hadn’t.
“What was your stance on cowgirl?” Jules asks, looking at Mallory.
“Normal cowgirl is fun, reverse not so much. But I get why people like it.”
“You do?”
Oh dear fucking god.
“Well yeah, not every guy is a boob guy. Some prefer asses. So the guys that prefer ass over tits would want the reverse, wouldn’t they?”
“But then he’d just want to do doggy, surely?” Juliana replies. I look over at Tommy and try not to laugh as he’s covering his ears, quietly singing along to his favourite green day song, trying so hard not to hear his twin sister talk about sex .
“No, because doggy requires the guy to actually do work. If she’s on top, then he doesn’t really need to do anything.”
“Except admire her ass, apparently.” Jules giggles.
“Why the question, J? Another disastrous sexcapade?”
Juliana shakes her head. “No, it was Court who asked me.” All three of the girls peer around to look at us, then try to speak in hushed tones so we don’t hear. They don’t do a very good job.
“Is Shawn trying to make you do a new position?”
“No, we just tried a new one the other week and now we’re kind of on a kick to try more, you know?”
“Oh trust me, I know.” Julina replies, doing a full body shiver. “Every time I hang out with Cory all I hear is thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.”
“Maybe you should hang out with Cory less,” Courtney teases.
“Or maybe you should shut the fuck up.” Cory pipes up. Courtney flips him off without even turning around. Juliana turns around, smiling slightly at Cory. He responds by tugging the corner of his lips up slightly.
“Where are we going anyway?” Cory asks, prompting Mallory to turn to smile at me.
“Somewhere fun.” I say.
Being captain of the hockey team has it’s perks. One of those perks is having the spare key for one of the school's ice rinks. Covington has two; one for the figure–skating team and one for us. They used to have one key that opened both rinks, until a few years ago when one of the figure skaters cheated on her boyfriend, who was a hockey player, so he trashed their rink. Now there are two keys, and we do not share. At all.
Once we’re actually on the ice, I remove my hands from their position on her waist. I let them dangle at my sides, flexing my fingertips. I have to do something to stop myself from reaching for her. I touched her waist for like a minute and i’m freaking the fuck out. I’m seriously pathetic.
I look around the rink to see Shawn and Courney skating together, as per usual, Shawn is holding her waist so she doesn’t fall on her ass, which she’s done before. Multiple times.
Juliana is currently clutched onto Cory’s body like a baby koala bear, holding onto him like she’d fall the minute she stopped. Which Cory would never let happen. Cory takes the leap of faith and moves backwards, heading to the centre of the ice.
“Gorgeous, calm down I’m not going to drop you.” Cory says, which just makes her cling to him tighter than before.
“You might!”
Tommy skates past them, making a comment about how Cory needs to keep his hands to himself, which just makes both of them flip him off.
She’s scared. Everyone can see it. I’m not sure how you could be the sister to someone who loves skating as much as Tommy and not know at least the basics of it, but Juliana looks like she’s allergic to the ice. Cory slides onto ice, watching Tommy carefully as he lowers his hands to her thighs, gripping them while he slowly skates further into the rink.
“She can't skate,” Mallory says, skating up to me. “Well, she can, just not well. The first time the boys dragged her to the rink and made her skate, she got scared and climbed onto Cory like that. She said it was helping her, because she knew he wouldn’t drop her. Now, every time one of us forces her to come here, Cory is always there to carry her until she’s confident enough she won’t end up like bambi and fall.”
“Why don’t one of you girls just help her?”
She shrugs. “We try, but she responds better to Cory.”
“And Tommy’s okay with that?”
Mallory throws a look at me that says are you joking? “As far as T is aware, they’re friends. He’s just her brother’s best friend.”
“Isn’t he? Just a friend?”
She doesn’t answer. We both know why. “Maybe we’ll find out one day.”
“You can do this,” Tommy says, slapping my back. But I just shake my head, rubbing my jaw.
“No no, it’s – it’s a fucking stupid plan, bro.”
“It’s a fucking great plan, I’ll have you know,” he retorts.
I turn around, looking back at Mallory who’s skating with Jules and Courtney. She’s giggling, laughing, looking so goddamn beautiful.
“It’s such bad timing bro, considering what happened tonight, and it won’t work.” I say, still staring at her.
“This is the perfect distraction. Just you being here is helping her. She would only let you in the bathroom for fucks sake. Now is the perfect time and it will, trust me. It’s easy. Just go over there, make some sort of bet with her that ends in a punishment. The loser will have to go on a blind date. When she loses, make sure she loses, tell her the guy is meeting her there, then you show up and bam! Instant love. You both live happily ever after. You’re welcome. ”
“It’s so fucking stupid, T.” Shawn says. “You agree with me, right C?” Cory doesn’t respond because he’s too busy looking at something — someone — on the other end of the rink.
I nudge him in the ribs, making him remember where he is right now, and more importantly, who is here with him. “I agree T, this plan is fucking nuts. But , that doesn’t mean it won’t work.” He adds.
“You’re both fucking idiots.” I say, shaking my head, folding my arms across my chest.
“Come on man, you know better than any of us how stubborn she is. And how she always keeps her promises. If she loses, she’ll go. Then at least you’ll finally get your answer on whether she likes you or not.”
“Which she does.” Tommy says.
“Oh 100%.” Shawn and Cory both say in unison.
The boys skate back over to the girls, leaving me alone to mull over my thoughts. This plan is so fucking stupid. She’d see right through me. Even if I came up with some way to get her to do something that would make her lose, there’s still no telling if she’d actually go on the date or not. Or whether she’d see me and think it’s a joke or a prank. I think that would hurt a lot more than me just flat out asking her if she has feelings for me.
I know she did, once upon a time. Before Cole and the breakup. That summer, I knew she felt something. But I blew it, and now we’re too deep in the friend zone to ever leave.
Plus, I need her. I don’t remember what my life was like without Mallory in it, and I never want to find out.
I take a deep breath and skate over to her, this is easy. I just have to come up with something that’ll make her want to bet on something. Something like…. Bingo .
I skate over to Mallory and Jules, catching the end of their conversation.
“I happen to be a great friend to him, thank you.” Says Juliana. Mallory’s response is a snort, rolling her eyes. This is it, Ashby. Hook, line and Sinker.
“Oh yeah, like you're the best person to respond to this question, are you, Dolcezza Mia?” I say, causing her to whip her head toward me, scowling.
“And what does that mean?”
“Nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
I lightly skate away, smiling when I hear her calling my name over and over. Damn, it feels good when she says my name.
“No no, tell me what you were going to say? You think I'm a bad friend?”
Hook.
“Not a bad friend. Just that out of you two, Juliana is the better friend. Like you and me. I’m clearly the better friend in our relationship. But like I said, we don’t need to talk about it.”
I try to skate away when a firm palm gets pressed to my stomach.
“We are absolutely talking about this, Oliver Marco Ashby! I am the best friend!”
“Fine, Mallie, we know that I would move past this, but you as usual, are being so fucking stubborn so–”
“I am not stubborn!”
“Oh really? Prove it.” I skate up to her, looking down at her. “Admit right here, right now, that I'm the better friend.” She crosses her arms and shakes her head, not knowing that it’s pushing up her tits. Not that I'm looking. Her purple hair tie falls out of her hair onto the ice. I skate over to it, picking it up. I take her wrist and place the scrunchie on it, pinging it onto her skin. “See? Stubborn.”
“ You prove it.”
“Prove what?” I scoff, skating away from her, back to the guys. But before I reach them, I see her in front of me, her usual scowl on her face. I looked away for a second, how the fuck is she so fast?
“Prove you’re the better friend–”
“Because I am,” I cut her off.
“Then. Prove. It.” She leans up, getting up in my face, trying to intimate me. “Prove you are a better friend than me – which you’re not, and I'll admit it. The proof is in the pudding, Ashby.”
We get interrupted by a loud burst of giggling. We turn to find the source of the giggling and see Cory’s hands on Juliana’s waist edging up to squeeze her tits, which she quickly bats away.
That boy is just itching to get caught, I swear to god. One of these days, Tommy’s going to notice, and he’s going to lose his shit.
“How about we sweeten the deal, Marshmallory?” I skate to the edge of the rink, leaning on the barrier. Shawn throws a beer at me and I catch it, opening it over the carpet on the other side instead of the ice. I look over at her, and a smirk has covered her face. Shit, I know that smirk.
“If I win, I get to set you up on a date, which you have to go on and not leave half way. You’ll go, ask her questions and kiss her on the cheek goodnight,” She crosses her arms, smirking over at the girls. If Abi was here she’d tell me what was going on. Fucking hell, where’s Abi when you need her?
“And I know just who…” She pulls out her phone and starts texting.
Line .
“Fine, fine, but if I win , I get to set you up on a date. Which you must also partake to the fullest, including a kiss at the end and actually texting him too.” She narrows her eyes at me, but she’s not thinking it over. I know exactly what she’s thinking.
“No.”
“Sorry Mallie, those are the official rules, no exceptions or exemptions. You could just… admit I'm the better friend…” she narrows her coffee eyes at me, and suddenly, she’s in my face again.
“Deal.” she skates back slightly, and spits on the palm of her hand, holding it out for me.
“Um, gross? I’m not fucking touching that.” I point to the saliva which is currently dripping onto the ice.
“Shake my hand Olive Oil.” She skates up to me, raising her hand at me while I try and dodge her kung–fu moves. I never should’ve introduced her to the world of Bruce Lee. That’s on me, and I take the blame. I shake my head, knowing she won’t step down until I do it.
I clasp my hand around hers, shaking it, stitching my fingers with hers, waiting for her to pull away.
She doesn’t. She just smiles at me, a shit–eating grin plastered on her face. But if you look close enough, you’ll see it waver. Because, barring whatever the fuck was going on between her and Gus, she hasn’t been on a proper date since Cole, she’s scared.
But what she doesn’t know is that the guy I fully intend to set her up with, is me.
Hook, line, sinker.