Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Roe returned to find the three of us silently sitting in the living room.
I had chosen to sit on one end of their L-shaped couch and Reid was at the other end.
He had taken off his leather jacket and laid it over the back of the couch.
His red shirt was pissing me off. It was too small, with the way the short sleeves hugged his tattooed biceps.
I was also mad at myself for wanting to stare.
Wyatt was sitting in the recliner. He had kept Reid’s focus off me by asking him questions about work, but that didn’t stop Reid from staring my way.
I’d felt his eyes when I’d moved to cross one leg over the other.
The movement had caused my skirt to rise a little.
Just before I’d gone to fix it, I’d glanced his way and seen he was taking in every inch of exposed skin between my thigh-high black socks and my skirt’s hem.
When he’d noticed that I had caught him, I couldn’t have stopped the smug smirk that had graced my face even if I’d wanted to.
Reid had turned away, looking irritated.
If Wyatt had noticed that small interaction, he hadn’t said anything.
Roe stared at us, taking in the vibe of the room. “What’d I miss?”
“Not much,” Wyatt said, pulling out his phone from his pocket. “We doing pizza tonight?”
Roe came over and sat right next to me. “I figured. Reid?”
“Yeah, that’s fine,” he said as he got up and went over to a gaming console that had wireless controllers next to it. He grabbed all four and began passing them out. He held one out to me.
I looked from the controller to him. “I don’t have to play.”
“Do you not want to?” Reid asked.
“I don’t know how,” I reminded him.
“Not what I asked,” he shot back.
I took the controller from him.
“Now that’s settled, what do you want on your pizza, gorgeous?” Wyatt asked as he tapped the screen on his phone.
I shook my head. “You don’t have to get me anything.”
“You’re hungry, Lottie,” Roe said. “And before you say you’re not, remember we go to the same school.”
I sighed through my nose as I raced to think of what went on pizza. Feeling their eyes on me, the weight of them, and the pressure to come up with something quickly made my mind go blank. “I’ll take whatever.”
“What do you like?” Wyatt asked. “The place we order from has a crazy variety of toppings.”
“I’ll just have whatever you’re getting,” I told him.
“You don’t have to settle,” Roe said. “We’ll get whatever you want.”
“I—I don’t know,” I blurted.
“You don’t know what?” Roe asked.
“She doesn’t know what toppings she wants,” Reid said.
I glanced in his direction, and he was frowning at me. I wasn’t sure, but something in his eyes told me he knew. My hands squeezed the controller. What I wouldn’t have given for my textbook right then.
Roe and Wyatt went quiet for a few heartbeats.
“Are you indecisive?” Wyatt asked me.
“Um.” I was so pathetic. They were going to think that, too.
Roe leaned forward and turned toward me slightly. He cupped the back of one of my hands and put his other around the controller. “Let go of this,” he said softly.
I let it go, but an ache remained.
He set it aside and took each of my hands in his and began massaging my palms with his thumbs. “What’s wrong?”
Fuck it.
“I’ve never had pizza before,” I admitted. Of course, I had heard of and seen pizza before. I wasn’t completely sheltered. But to Mother, it was an unhealthy food and strictly forbidden.
They went quiet again.
“I had a feeling that was the case, but even hearing you say it is still hard to believe,” Reid said, breaking the silence.
I met Roe’s eyes. “I’m not lying.”
He stared back at me. “I know.”
“Personally, I like pepperoni,” Wyatt said, acting like what I’d just admitted was no big deal.
Pepperoni! That’s it! I can’t believe I couldn’t remember freaking pepperoni!
“I like pineapple and ham on mine,” Roe said as he continued to knead my hands.
Wyatt groaned. “That’s because you have weird taste. Pineapple doesn’t belong on pizza.”
Roe rolled his eyes. Then he tilted his head in Reid’s direction. “Reid likes a buffalo chicken pizza that has chicken, bacon, and buffalo sauce on it.”
“They also have a ton of veggies and meats to choose from to create your own,” Wyatt said.
“Just pepperoni is fine,” I said.
Wyatt went back to typing on his phone.
Roe let go of my hands and retrieved my controller. As he handed it back to me, he asked, “Ready to play?”
“Sure.”
For the next half hour, Roe and Wyatt explained the buttons on the controller and what they did and how to play the game. We were a team, and we had to kill other players in the game. It was very violent, graphic, and bloody, but a lot of fun.
I tried to remain composed and dignified. That all went out the window the moment I was finally able to kill someone after dying ten times in a row. I’d never thought there would be a time that I’d say, sounding very happy and surprised, “I did it! I finally killed someone!”
Roe and Wyatt both praised me, “Good job.”
Reid, on the other hand, said, “Pay attention. You’re about to die again.”
Just as I glanced back at the TV, I was killed for the eleventh time.
After a few more matches, the doorbell rang. Wyatt jumped up to answer. It was the pizza. With four pizza boxes stacked in his hands, Wyatt headed for the dining room. Roe and Reid got up to follow. When I tried to get up, Roe stopped me. “I’ll bring you a plate.”
Are we not going to eat in the dining room? I wondered.
When all three of them returned with slices of pizza stacked on paper plates, I got my answer.
Roe held out a plate to me. I was relieved to only see two slices of pizza on it instead of mountains of slices like theirs.
It smelled delicious. I had to mentally prepare myself to eat.
It was easier this time than it had been at Noble’s Pub.
Mother will never know, I told myself as I picked up a slice by the crust. It was still warm. All the cheese and slices of pepperoni looked greasy. That should have been a turn off. If my mouth hadn’t been watering, it might’ve been. I took a bite of the pointy end.
Oh, wow.
I stared down at the slice I had just bitten as I chewed, brows lifted, eyes undoubtedly wide. It was better than I’d imagined it would be. There was something magical about melted cheese. Did it taste this good on everything? I took another bite, slightly bigger than the last.
“I think she likes it,” Wyatt said.
I froze and glanced around. They were watching me, even Reid. They had yet to touch their own pizza. It made me feel a little awkward. At least this time I hadn’t embarrassed myself by moaning.
I quickly chewed and swallowed. “It’s good.”
My verdict seemed to please Wyatt and Roe. Reid looked indifferent, but after hearing it, he started eating. They all did.
“Are we all going to act like it’s not strange she’s never had pizza before?” Reid asked as he ate.
“Reid,” Roe said with a tone.
I paused as I was about to take another bite.
Sighing, I set the slice back on my plate.
He was really getting on my nerves. I’d used to have patience, resilience.
I still bore the scars that had helped instill that discipline.
But lately I could feel those parts of me withering. “I’m on a strict diet.”
“The last thing you need is to be on a diet,” Reid shot back.
“There are expectations of me—”
“To starve yourself?” he cut me off.
“What the hell, Reid!” Roe and Wyatt said at the same time.
Reid set his plate on the round wooden coffee table in front of the couch and looked right at his friend sitting next to me. “What are you doing, Roe?”
I felt Roe go stiff and he looked away from Reid to stare down, his jaw clenched.
Wyatt grabbed my plate off my lap and set his and mine on the coffee table. He held out his hand to me. “Take a walk with me, gorgeous.”
I put my hand in his. “I think I should leave.”
Wyatt helped me stand and didn’t let go of my hand as he led me toward the door. “You don’t have to. They just need a minute to work out their shit,” he said as we walked out the front door.
Just as we stepped outside, the night sky made me realize how much time had passed. I hadn’t checked my phone. It was still on Wyatt’s desk. I didn’t know if Prue had reached out to me about Clay.
Before we could get far, I tugged on Wyatt’s hand. “Wait. I need my phone. It’s in your room.”
Wyatt stared at the front door, debating. “I’ll go get it. Wait right here.”
As soon as he opened the front door quietly and snuck in, Reid and Roe’s voices carried out. When Wyatt didn’t close the door all the way, I stepped closer so I could hear.
“What about the plan, Roe?” Reid asked.
“Nothing’s changed,” Roe insisted.
“She will change it,” Reid snapped. “You don’t bring girls around, Roe. You don’t bring them to your house, to your dad’s bar, around us. Especially not spoiled rich girls from the other side of the bridge. Do you have any fucking idea who she really is?”
The door opened then. I quickly took a couple of steps back. Wyatt came out and shut the door behind him. He held out my phone to me with a tight smile. I looked to see if I had any notifications. There were none.
We walked down the sidewalk in silence for a little bit.
The neighborhood was quiet and dark. The only light came from the coach lamps on the fronts of houses.
The toe of my black uniform loafers stubbed on something, causing me to stumble forward.
Wyatt’s arms came around me, catching me before I could fall.
“Whoa, there. Your fancy school shoes aren’t the best for walking in the dark,” he said as I righted myself. “Do you want to hold my hand?”
I looked ahead. The dark sidewalk didn’t get any brighter. I nodded and slid my hand into his before we continued walking. “Reid doesn’t like me.”