15. Sadie #3
"We're here every morning," Maya says to Lileah, pulling my thoughts away from Miles. "Basically, every morning. You should just join us."
"Every morning?" Lileah looks delighted. "What time?"
"Depends on practice. Usually between eight and nine."
"We have the same gap," Lileah says to Trixie. "We could…"
"Yes," Trixie signs immediately, and the only reason I know she said yes is because she nodded her head at the same time.
"Done." Lileah turns back to Maya. "We're joining your table."
"You're already at our table," Juno points out.
Everyone is now talking to each other. The guys are talking about their own thing. Us girls are talking about the guys on campus. Miles leans forward, his arm brushing mine, then turns to Lileah.
“I’ll find out who you’re talking to and ruin him before he can even think about kissing you.” They both lock eyes for a while.
Mason says, “We could break his legs, that’ll be fun.”
“Will you both stop it, I’m not talking to anyone.” Lileah turns back to us, and there’s a tension between Lileah and her brothers. I’d guess Juno will break the tension first, but it’s Maya.
"You should all come to regionals." She looks around the table. "We never get much of a crowd. It's always just parents and the occasional professor who feels guilty."
"When is it?" Lileah asks.
"Seven days. Next Saturday." Juno says.
Lileah doesn't hesitate. "I'm coming."
"You don't have to…" I start.
"I want to," she says. "I love watching people who are actually good at something. It's genuinely one of my favorite things."
Trixie nods.
The table settles back into its hum of conversation for a moment. I pick up my coffee and lean back in my chair.
Miles does the same, then he says, "What event are you most nervous about?" It’s so low only I can hear him.
I look at him. He's staring at me, and God, I can look at his face all day. I see my reflection in his glasses, but I look at his eyes. They’re beautiful. I glance down at his lips but quickly answer his question.
"Beam," I say. "The floor I trust. The beam I'm still working on."
"Why the beam?"
"There’s less room for error. Every tenth of a degree matters and you can feel it when something's off, but by then it's already too late to correct."
He nods once, and I’m not sure if it’s because he has no idea what to say, or because he’s said enough.
"You'll land it," he says.
I look at him for a moment. I can hear conversations around us, Lileah is laughing at something Mason said, and Declan and Trixie in their own quiet world.
"Are you coming?" I ask. The words are out before I've decided to say them. "To regionals, I mean." I can’t believe I asked him. Why would he want to be there? He’s definitely going to say no.
He looks at me.
"I'm not doing anything that weekend," he says.
It’s not exactly a yes, but it’s not a no either.
Something in my chest jumps with joy, but I try to hold my excitement and look back at my coffee.
"Okay," I say, as if it doesn't matter.
We all look at the door when it opens. Hayden is walking over to us, before I can stop myself, I say. “Is there like a gene in the Crawford family, that you can only be sexy?”
I drink my coffee when Miles smiles and leans in closer. “Nice to know you think I’m sexy.”
My eyes move to Hayden before I start blushing. He pulls a chair from a neighboring table, drops into it between Miles and Mason, accepts Lileah's coffee without asking, and looks around the merged table with mild approval.
"Lileah's doing her normal thing," Mason says.
"Obviously." Hayden looks at Lileah. "Mom said we’re having family dinner tomorrow night. Cain's coming."
"I know," Lileah says. "She texted me."
"Dad confirmed it this morning." He looks at Declan. "Cain called and said your prints are back, and you need to go down tonight.”
Declan nods once, and whatever that was about, is finished without another word.
Hayden turns to Miles last. He leans in slightly, not far, and says something just low enough that it drops below the table's general noise level. Whatever he says takes four seconds. Maybe five.
Miles goes still. His jaw does something almost imperceptible. His hand on the coffee cup doesn't move.
Then he nods once and sits back. He picks up his coffee, and acts completely normal, like nothing just happened.
I watch him for a second from the corner of my eye. I should make a move on him, shouldn’t I? I’m single, I think he's single. We would look good together. I go to move closer to him, but his phone beeps, and he pulls it out of his jeans pocket.
Without a word, he gets up and looks at his brothers, and before he goes Mason shouts his name.
“Fucking sleep asshole, you’re starting to look like shit, and that’s a bad name on me because we look the same.” Miles tells him to fuck off and sticks his middle finger at him, making the brothers all laugh.
“Has he shared anything else about it?” Hayden asks Mason.
“He won’t let me or D in, he said he needs to focus.” Mason grabs his coffee, drinking the last of it. Clearly, he’s done talking. I turn back to the girls.