Chapter 5 #2
Less than twenty-four hours ago, I’d told him to leave it to fate.
I’d said if we were meant to cross paths again, we would.
At the time, it had felt safe. The kind of thing you say when you don’t expect to be tested on it immediately.
And yet, here we were. The thought didn’t scare me.
It didn’t thrill me either. It made me curious.
Curious enough to wonder whether fate had a perfect sense of timing, or if she had heard me personally testing her.
I didn’t step back. I didn’t step closer.
I just let the moment exist, filed it away as something to pay attention to later, and waited to see what he would do with it.
Then Killian spoke, shattering the moment. “Portwood?”
Killian’s voice snapped Austin’s attention away. His smile faltered, slipping into something closer to irritation. He kept his eyes on me for one heartbeat longer before finally turning toward Killian. As he did, he stepped back, his hands falling away from my skin.
“What’s up, man?” Austin asked. His tone wasn’t friendly. The irritation underneath it was unmistakable.
“And Levi, what the hell are you guys doing here?” Killian continued, completely missing every hint Austin was giving him.
It wasn’t until Killian said his name that I noticed Levi standing beside Austin.
He wore an amused expression, a smirk tugging at his lips that stood out against the warm brown of his skin.
He nodded at Killian, his face otherwise unreadable.
“Actually, it’s great that you are,” Killian went on.
“I was going to call you tomorrow anyway. I need to pick up.”
“Levi wanted to catch the game,” Austin said quickly.
“We don’t have anything on us.” He turned back to me as he finished the sentence.
My brows lifted before I could stop them.
I knew exactly what Killian meant. Drugs.
Austin seemed to catch my reaction immediately.
He shook his head once, sharp and deliberate, then raised his hand to his mouth, his thumb and index finger pressed together like he was holding an invisible joint. Weed. Not what he knew I was thinking.
I tilted my head, still studying him. Austin sold weed, apparently.
The realization settled surprisingly easily.
It felt like another piece clicking into place.
He hadn’t been at the drug house because he was an addict.
He’d been there because he sold weed. And selling weed was worlds away from the twisted, cold, deadly reality of opioids.
“The real question is, what are you doing here, Yellow?” he asked after a beat. His smile returned, but something else flickered behind it. I was probably imagining it, but it almost looked like suspicion.
“I work here,” I said, shrugging instinctively.
A small wave of self-consciousness washed over me as the words left my mouth.
Austin and I came from different worlds.
His was wealthy, polished, only minutes away but somehow an entirely different universe.
In his world, teenagers didn’t need jobs to survive.
“You work here?” Austin repeated, his eyes drifting toward the restaurant before returning to me. “Wearing this?”
“Wait,” Killian cut in, looking between us. “You two know each other?” I understood his confusion immediately. Austin and I didn’t just come from different worlds. We were different kinds of people entirely.
Austin spoke before I could open my mouth. He let out a chuckle first, then said, “Well, we should. She was in my bed last night.”
Silence settled over the four of us as his words hung in the air.
Killian’s gaze bounced between us like we were a math problem he couldn’t quite solve.
Levi’s teeth showed as his grin stretched too wide to contain itself.
He was clearly enjoying this. Austin, though, just looked at me like he was daring me to argue.
The awkwardness hit me all at once, and I rushed to explain. “Cherry was there too.”
Killian’s eyes widened even more. Austin’s smile grew, his lips pressed together as he fought back laughter. We all knew why.
“It wasn’t even your bed,” I added quickly. The moment the words left my mouth, I knew they were wrong. Killian’s confusion only deepened. “It wasn’t that crazy,” I shook my head. “We barely even spoke.”
Austin finally lost the battle and laughed.
“No, I mean,” I tried again, my cheeks burning as heat rushed to my face. “It was just me and Cherry all night.”
Killian’s cheeks turned pink, his mouth falling open. I covered my face with my hand, painfully aware of the image he’d probably formed.
“What Blair is trying to say,” Austin cut in smoothly, “is that Cherry and her crashed at my house after the party.”
I nodded, silently thanking him for finally telling the story correctly. Killian’s expression shifted as understanding clicked into place, the confusion draining from his face at last.
“Is she here?” Levi interrupted. “Cherry?”
“Yeah,” I smiled at him. I’d noticed the way he looked at Cherry the night before, and it wasn’t how boys usually looked at her. Most boys saw her as a wild ride, something to experience. Levi looked at her like he wanted to keep her safe.
“She’s in there with Lucas,” Killian said, his voice edged with something sharp. He’d noticed it too. “They kind of have a thing going on.”
“Oh, they do?” Levi didn’t look worried in the slightest. “You can let him know he’s not doing a very good job of being there for her, then. After last night—”
“Last night when Cherry lost her phone,” I cut in quickly, shooting Levi a look. Cherry would be furious if anyone knew more than she wanted them to.
“Right,” Levi said, picking up on it immediately, though his brows knit together as he did.
“Well, if you’ll excuse us,” Killian continued, the edge still there, “they’re waiting for us.” His gaze dropped to my hand, and I could tell he was debating whether to take it. I wasn’t sure why. He’d barely worked up the nerve to ask me out a few minutes earlier.
“Actually,” Austin said, his voice confident and unhesitating, “now that we’re here, we’ll join you guys.”
“Um,” Killian started. But for some reason, I spoke first.
“That sounds fun,” I said, the corners of my mouth lifting before I could stop them. Austin’s smile in response was instant and infectious. He looked at me like those three words alone had just made his night.
“Lead the way,” he said with a wink.
I nodded, suddenly at a loss for words. My stomach fluttered with something that felt a lot like nerves.
I shrugged slightly at Killian, who wore a sour expression I didn’t need to question.
It was obvious. He saw Austin and Levi as competition, and I think he knew that he and Lucas simply didn’t measure up.
We turned back toward the entrance when I felt something against my back.
I startled, then realized it was Austin’s hand.
He’d placed it there lightly, so lightly it almost felt imagined.
I wanted to turn and look at him, but I didn’t.
I kept my eyes forward. Instead, I wondered how it was possible that his touch was so subtle.
He wasn’t even touching my skin, just the tight red shirt I wore, and yet it was all I could feel.
If he wasn’t really touching me at all, then why did it feel like it reached my entire body?
If the tension that formed when we reached Cherry and Lucas at the table hadn’t been so awkward, it might have been funny.
Cherry’s reaction was immediate. Her smile dropped as she tore her gaze away from Lucas and focused on us instead, her expression cycling through emotions at warped speed.
Confusion came first when she noticed Austin and Levi beside me.
Her eyes widened as they flicked to me, then a flush crept up her cheeks when she spotted Levi.
Panic followed almost instantly, her alarmed gaze snapping back to Lucas, before returning to me a second later.
She raised her eyebrows, a slow smirk forming on her lips.
That’s when I realized she wasn’t really looking at me.
She was looking at my back, more specifically at Austin’s hand, still resting lightly against the red fabric of my work shirt.
To me, it felt like minutes passed while I watched her process it all.
In reality, it happened so fast I wouldn’t have been surprised if no one else noticed.
But judging by Lucas’s expression, his jaw tight and brows drawn together, he definitely had.
Cherry recovered effortlessly. A flirty smile bloomed across her face, her eyes sparkling as she spoke. “And who do we have here?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but Levi beat me to it. “We ran into Blair outside,” he said smoothly. “Austin and I came to catch the game. Figured we’d join you.”
I pressed my lips together as Levi’s voice rolled out in a low, sultry purr, completely different from the tone he’d used with me earlier.
It had the desired effect. Cherry’s face lit up as she bit her lip, her gaze sweeping down his body without subtlety.
Lucas who? And Lucas clearly noticed too, because he spoke up quickly, glancing at Killian, who still stood awkwardly beside us.
“Actually, if you guys don’t mind,” Lucas started, trying to sound more confident than he felt, “we were kind of—”
“Oh, we don’t mind,” Austin cut in easily. The contrast between their voices was stark. Lucas sounded like he was forcing confidence. Austin didn’t have to try.