11. Noah
CHAPTER ELEVEN
NOAH
RECOMMENDED LISTENING ‘LOCAL BOY IN THE PHOTOGRAPH’ BY STEREOPHONICS
The next day
Ares grunts as he lifts the edge of the bedframe in my room and shoves it against the wall. His tattoo sleeve gleams a ghostly black in the predawn light.
I dive down and pick up my prize possession, a tiny wooden box with markings on the head. I rub my thumb against the one shaped like a star before I place the box carefully on the end table.
Ares brings the bed back into position. Then he puts his hands on his hips. “I need you to explain to me, like I’m a very small child, why you’re giving up your room for this chick?”
“What’s there to explain.” Fox competently vacuums the pine-width floor. “While we were drunk cliff diving, Noah was busy getting…well, busy. And had the enormous misfortune of being caught on tape. So, he can’t even deny it, like the politicians do.”
He gives me a small smile, but it does not reach his eyes. Fox is not happy. I told them last night about the arrangement I made with Queenie on the spur of the moment. But one that, for practical purposes, solves both of our reputation ‘problems’.
I curl my palm into a fist as a shot of adrenalin courses through me when I think of Queenie. Hellcat is the right name for her. How on earth I thought her pretty and charming is unfathomable. She’s so prickly and defensive, like a cactus sitting on a porcupine. All thorny and growly.
And the nerve she has telling me I took advantage of her…
Just thinking about her telling me to fuck off makes my blood pressure shoot up ten points. And I’m trained to keep cool under difficult conditions.
Ares chuckles richly. “I’m fairly confident politicians will deny even if they are caught on tape.”
“If you are done making fun of me, can we get on with—” I nod at the unmade bed. “The show?”
Fox neatly wraps the vacuum cords up and comes to help Ares and me with the fitted sheet. “Much as it pains me to agree with Ares, he’s right, I still do not understand why she has to live here. With you. Or rather, take over your room while you crash on the couch.”
Ares holds the mattress up and I kneel down to fit the damn sheet. “I’d call it squatting but that’s splitting hairs. She has to live here because she’s…in a temporary non-housing situation. I offered to help her out with it, if she pretends to be my loving girlfriend for the summer. I told you this already, De Rossi. Why are you making me repeat myself?” I grunt the last words out as the sheet slips out of my hands and Ares almost drops the mattress on me.
“If it’s about money, then pay her? Isn’t that the more expedient option?” Fox suggests logically. He easily slides his end on and moves to the next corner, the bastard.
“Yeah, but what if she takes the money and runs?” Ares argues.
“She’s not the kind of woman to take money for…services,” I grit out, as I finally put the sheet on. God! This is hard work! “And I need her to be all lovey-dovey with me. I told you; she’s Coach Devgan’s goddaughter. He’ll kill my career dead if I fuck around with her.”
“Did you?” Fox stops working and gives me an unblinking stare.
“Did I what?” I stop working too.
“Fuck around with her.”
Ares huffs out a breath. “Fox, maybe?—”
“Fuck you, man. How can you even ask me that?”
It’s one thing for Queenie to think badly of me…the evidence does not look good. But Fox has known me half my life, he can’t think I’d ever do something like that with a woman.
Hurt sneaks up on me again and knocks against my chest. I want to rub at the ache there, but I don’t. I just stare him down.
“Look, I’m just being practical here.” Fox finishes his second corner. “I need to know how…hostile this Queenie is going to be, if she thinks you really messed around with her.”
“Queenie’s not your problem. She’s mine,” I say shortly.
And the worst part is I mean it. Queenie is mine . My girl. Even if it is all for show. Her kissing me before we said hello to each other, to us ending on that damn video, warped us together in a way that’s highly irregular. Highly abnormal. Highly… personal.
I don’t like her, I definitely don’t trust her, and she spikes my BP just by existing in my orbit, but she is my problem, nonetheless.
“And if this is all too much for you, then I’ll be happy to find another place for Queenie and I.”
“Noah!” Fox begins, shocked.
Ares smooths the sheet over. “Let it go, Fox. Noah’s dead serious about this chick. So just let it go.” He pats the bed. Then he gets a moony look in his eyes. “Maybe she’s one of those domestic goddesses who puts on an apron and cooks four-course meals?—”
“She’s not the maid or the cook but another roommate,” I snap out. “She’s not going to do shit, Ares. And speaking of ladies--” I give them both a stern look. “You keep your bedroom activities in your rooms or away from the cottage, okay?”
I do not need Queenie thinking we’re all sexed up man whores.
Ares puts his hands up. “Alright, man. Done.”
“I’m serious about moving out,” I tell both of them. I touch my box for comfort and warmth and strength. To calm the adrenalin punching my heart out. “If this is all too much for you, I’m happy to move out.”
“But you bought this place,” Fox says thoughtfully.
“With the last of your salary from the local league,” Ares adds.
I shrug. “It’s just a place. I can live without it. What I can’t live without ,” I emphasize on the last two words. “Is being chucked out of Triskelion. What I can’t live without is the chance to get selected for the Australian team.”
I include my best friends, my brothers, in the hardest look I have ever given them. This confession I never wanted to make. “I can’t live with being blacklisted by Padric and Aiden and Rohit. I can’t live with never getting to play this game I love so damn much and sacrificed so much for.”
Fox rubs a hand over his face. “Fuck,” he mutters, rattled. “I need coffee to deal with this much drama at four fucking am.”
“That’s because we have practice at six am and Queenie’s coming by with her things later on,” I say to his back. Then I turn to face Ares. “Do you need coffee too?”
Ares shakes his head. “I’m alright, mate. I just hope you are too.”
I don’t answer him, and we continue packing my stuff up and stashing it in the spare space on the ground floor. It’s a tiny storage space near the family room so it can only hold my clothes, four cricket kits and cricket books I try to read in my downtime. I’m going to have to shower in the guest bathroom and sleep on the pullout couch.
Hello backache, my old friend.
Fox joins in when I’m done making the room look decent and empty. He carries the last of my bags down.
“Listen, this is your house,” he begins awkwardly. “I’ll sleep on the couch and move my stuff to the storeroom. You take my room.”
Ares rolls his eyes. “Can’t you just apologize to him for being a dick instead of being all noble and self-sacrificing?”
Fox grins, reluctantly.
I chuckle, a miracle considering my foul mood. “I’m not happy about any of this, dude. But I saw a problem and I found a solution. It was the right thing to do. And it doesn’t mean you have to give up your room for me. This is our house, okay?”
I pull him in for a one-armed hug.
“Sorry, man.” Fox hugs me properly, tight and comforting. Like he always does. He did it when I was twelve and I told him mom’s news.
And because it is Fox, I forgive him instantly.
“So, touching.” Ares wipes a fake tear when we break apart.
Fox and I share a grin. And pull him in for a bear hug. Then we give him a knuckle sandwich, which he tries to avoid by kicking at us. We stop horsing around when we hear a loud knock on the double-wide doors.
“Are we expecting company?” Fox tries to peer through the frosted glass doors.
I make out a hazy shape on the other side.
“No,” Ares replies. “Practice is in less than two hours. I don’t have time for company. But you know what I don’t understand, Noah?”
“What?” I ask him as I jog toward the door. I am yet to have more than a protein shake and my designated cup of coffee, so I’m not pin-sharp right now. “What don’t you understand?”
“What is so special about this girl, that you disappeared all night with her and want to help her even after she almost ruined your chances at camp?”
I give him an impatient look. “It’s not like that.”
I open the door. And find my nose attacked by a piece of paper. The hand holding the paper belongs to Queenie Madhavan. A frazzled Queenie, with the rumpled curls to match.
Hooded lids shoot disdain at me. She barks, “For the record, this is a catastrophically bad idea. And I don’t want to do it. But since I have to, I’m going to protect myself. So, you’ll sign this agreement before we go any further, Noah Dumaine.”
My brothers flank me on both sides, always my wall.
Her mean eyes widen. Her jaw drops. “Who—” Her voice shakes a little. I love that. “Who are they? And why are they here at five in the morning?”
Fox pulls out the De Rossi Charm and holds out his hand. “I’m Fox. Fox De Rossi, your new roommate. And I’m so chuffed to meet you. Welcome to the cottage, Queenie.”
Ares just gives her a narrow-eyed look. Then he looks at me and says, “You know what? I take back everything I just said.”
I lower the paper from my nose and regard the new bane of my existence. I smile sweetly. “Hello, roomie. Guess I forgot to mention one or two things…”