Chapter 14
What’s Going On?
Bentley
My phone has been annoying this morning. It’s been buzzing and pinging nonstop. The one morning I want to sleep in and get my body to agree, the world won’t leave me the heck alone.
Suddenly, it dawns on me it could be Zah. She might need me to wish her luck before her meet. Not wanting to disappoint her, I sleepily reach for the phone to answer.
“Hello,” I say after I take in a sharp breath.
I’m still trying to clear the sleep fog from my head. I went for a run last night after I left that party, allowing me to blow off steam and make the decision to sleep in this morning. To be honest, I miss Zah so much and didn’t want to run without her.
“Bentley,” Erica says on the other end of the line.
The sound of her voice brings me wide awake. If someone hurt my sister, I’ll be on the first thing smoking to her. I was disappointed when she didn’t come here like she said she wanted to. I couldn’t believe she didn’t get in. I’m still questioning that.
“Do you know this asshat cheater Zah has been dating? I want you to kick his ass for me. No one makes my best friend cry like that.
“She said she didn’t want me to call you, but after thinking about it. Fuck that. This is my bestie and you’re my big brother. You’re there and this is Zah. I want you to kick his ass,” Erica rants.
My brain is so confused. Zah is my girl, but why would she think I cheated? I would never cheat on her. She was crying?
My heart begins to ache with the thought of her in tears over anyone. However, the thought of me causing her pain guts me. I haven’t done anything, so I’m even more hurt and confused.
“Wait, what the fuck are you talking about?”
“Zahirah called me last night, crying. She said the guy she was seeing cheated. She was balling her heart out. I think she really liked him. Bentley, please, can you do something? I hate not being there for her.”
My heart aches even more to hear how upset Erica is. My sister and Zah are tighter than tight. When we were younger, you couldn’t find one without the other.
“Have you spoken to her today? What makes her think this guy cheated?” I ask, trying to gain some clarity.
“No, she’s locked in for her meet. We only texted once this morning. She said she’d call me after. I don’t know any more than the fact that she had sex with the douche, and he cheated. You’re going to kick his ass, right?”
I groan and close my eyes. What the fuck is going on? I don’t tell Erica that I’m the guy. Clearly, Zahirah chose not to. I’m going to respect that until I can talk to her to straighten this all out.
I rub at my chest. This can’t be happening. I was looking so forward to our date tomorrow.
I have it all planned out. It was going to be epic. How is this happening?
“Yeah, I’ll make it right. Let me know when you speak to her again. I’m going to find out what’s going on.”
“Thanks, Bent. Love you. You’re the best.”
I scoff as I hang up. She doesn’t realize I’m the guy she’s trying to get fucked up. I can’t believe my baby was crying, thinking I cheated on her. I would never, could never cheat on Zah.
My brain begins to fully wake and clear. I groan as I remember Pacey trying to throw herself at me and Carly watching with that shit-eating grin on her face. I’d bet my career on those two being the source of this problem. This is some bullshit.
I knew I shouldn’t have gone to that party last night. I throw my legs over the side of the bed and go to text Corey and Jason to see if they might know something. Before I can open my phone to send a text, I see all the text messages waiting for me.
Jason and Corey have been blowing up my phone trying to find out what’s going on. I open Corey’s text first and find a screenshot of a picture of me and Pacey. When I read the caption, my head nearly explodes.
“Son of a bitch,” I growl.
I glance at the clock and note I have about nine more hours before Zah makes it back on campus.
While I would love to spend that time tracking down Carly and Pacey, I focus my attention on how I’m going to prove the truth to Zah.
I shoot a couple of texts off in reply to all the messages from Corey and Jason.
“Fuck,” I roar once I’m done and it all sets in.
We haven’t even made things official yet. I’m supposed to be proving myself. This is going to go a long way to kill that for sure.
I can’t allow that to happen. I love Zah. That’s it … that’s how I fix this. I need to show her how serious I am about her, how much I love her.
With a clear plan in my head, I rush to take a shower and get dressed. I have a lot to get done in the next nine hours. After I’m showered and dressed, I make my way to my first stop. I can’t help checking my phone every five seconds to see if Zah or Erica calls or texts.
I have to force myself to focus after I almost rear-end someone in town. I toss the phone into the glove compartment and keep my eyes on the road. My mind is a mess as I think of how fucked up this is.
“You’re going to pay for this shit,” I growl to myself as I think of Carly and her stupid friend.
Zahirah
I won both my races and broke another three records. After crying myself to sleep last night, I woke this morning and channeled all that heartache into my superpower. I ran like I was running from all the pain and hurt. I ran as if Bentley was chasing me to laugh at me.
Now, as we make our way back to school, I’m balling all over again. I have my hoodie on with the strings pulled tight as I sit in the back of the bus, curled up in my seat. My AirPods are in as I listen to sad songs, wondering how I got here.
A part of me is trying to wait to get back to campus to address this. Then there’s a part of me that wants to call Bentley and yell at him. He’s been texting, but I refuse to read any of them yet.
This is so embarrassing. Arlene has texted me to check on me because she saw the pic as well. I just want to get home and curl up in my bed.
The app on my phone says we’re five minutes away from campus. I wipe my nose and start to gather my things to be one of the first off the bus so I can do just that. I wish I had a bathtub to soak in.
“What the heck is going on?”
I pop my head into the aisle to see everyone moving to the other side of the bus to look out of the window. Not caring what’s happening outside of the bus as long as I can get off and head home, I turn back to gathering my trash and putting my books away.
“Zahirah, I think you should come see this,” one of my teammates calls.
I knit my brows and stand, slinging my backpack onto my shoulder. I walk up the aisle a few rows before I find an empty row and look out the window. I scowl when I see what’s going on.
The school band is the reason the bus is having trouble pulling into the lot. They are surrounding the bus as they march in place. The drum major points when I come into view and the band begins to play.
They are playing “Can’t Help Falling In Love”. I frown and purse my lips. The band changes formation and that’s when Bentley comes into view. He’s sitting on the roof of his car with a huge teddy bear in his arms.
I guess Corey and Jason are the official sign holders. This time, they are holding a sign that says I love you, Zahirah Nickels. I turn from the window and go to storm from the bus.
I mumble to myself the entire way. This makes him look guilty. I hate him for continuing to embarrass me.
Clearly, he’s trying to get ahead of his bullshit. Why do all of this if he’s not guilty? My blood is boiling as I go to get off the bus.
I step off the bus and head straight for my car. However, I stop in my tracks as my parking spot comes into view and it’s empty. Confused, I look around, trying to figure out where my car went.
My dad had it shipped to me a week after I made it to school. I know I parked it in this lot in spot number eleven. I remember because that’s Bentley’s number and I smiled to myself when I took the spot.
“I called in a favor. I had a feeling you were going to try to run off. Besides, I would prefer if you ride with me for our getaway,” Bentley says in my ear as he comes up behind me.
“Where’s my car?” I bite out.
“It will be in the student lot when we return Monday morning. Congratulations, baby. I heard you killed it,” he says, his hand splaying across my belly.
I close my eyes and curse my treacherous body. Shaking my head, I pull away and turn to face him. Tears are soaking my face again and I can’t stop them from falling.
“Zah, come on, baby. Please stop crying. That picture was bullshit. Pacey is Carly’s friend. They set that shit up. They’re trying to break us up,” he says as he palms the side of my face and swipes at my tears with his thumb.
I shake my head, not able to speak words just yet. He moves closer to crowd my space. I look up at him as he searches my face.
“I love you so much. Don’t let them take you from me. She had her arms around my neck. I wasn’t touching her. I left the party right after she pulled that stunt and tried to get me to hook up with her.”
When I still don’t say a thing, he tugs me to him and takes my lips. I don’t kiss him back at first. My mind is all over the place. I think back to the photo and remember what I saw.
He wasn’t touching her, but her arms were all on him. I want to believe him. If I didn’t need to focus on my meet, I would have called him last night to ask him about it.
“Zah, listen to me. I didn’t even know about the picture until this morning. I’ve been going crazy for over nine hours now.
“I can’t lose you. You make me so happy. Why would I ever cheat on you? You’re amazing,” he says against my forehead.
“Why did you do all of this if you didn’t do anything wrong?” I ask.
“Because it dawned on me I haven’t told you how much I love you and I wanted you to know. Erica might have called me to kick your boyfriend’s ass too, I knew I needed to fix this if you called her crying.
“I never want to hurt you, Zah. Say you believe me, so I can take you on the date I have planned. I want to celebrate with you. Please.”
I search his eyes and see the sincerity within them. As if knowing I believe him, he wraps his arms around me and crushes my lips with his. I lift on my toes and wrap my arms around his neck. We both laugh when the teddy bear hits us in our faces.
Bentley breaks the kiss. “Are we good? Will you come with me?”
I bite my lip as I look up at him. Then I give him a small nod. “I love you too.”
“God, baby. I was going crazy thinking they took you away from me,” he croons before kissing me again.