39
It Is Literally October
Kylie
I wake up Saturday morning in Nash’s bed with my nose cold, which means one thing.
The window is open. Again.
It’s fucking October, and I am apparently a big baby.
I pull him closer to me because Nash Kennebeck has the body temperature of a hundred degrees, and I need his warmth.
He’s still asleep. He doesn’t move when I pull him closer.
I could probably crawl on top of him, and he’d still stay asleep.
Eventually, I find the strength to close the window.
“Kylie,” he mutters in his sleep.
I turn around. His eyes are still closed. His face is still in the pillow.
“You’re not even awake.”
“Open the window.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
He catches me around the back of my thigh, and then I’m being hauled sideways onto the mattress with absolutely no ceremony whatsoever, and he rolls half on top of me and puts his face in my neck.
“Nash—”
“It’s hot in here.”
“I’m freezing.”
“Put more clothes on.”
I get my feet on his calves because they’re freezing, and I have a point to prove. He makes a noise into my neck and tries to move away from me, but I hook both ankles around him so he can’t.
“You’re right. You are freezing,” he says.
“Let go of me.”
He doesn’t let go.
We end up like we always end up, which is me lying across his chest while he pretends to go back to sleep. He’s got one hand up under my shirt on my back, his eyes are shut, and the room is freezing, and I’m warm from my chin to my knees.
I reach over him for my phone off the windowsill.
My hand goes flat on his side on the way past. All the way across it, the smooth part and the part that’s gathered up and the deep end of it down by his hip, and I don’t stop, because I’m reaching for my phone.
He doesn’t move. Not his hand, not his breathing, not one muscle in his whole body.
I check the time. It’s seven. I put the phone back.
“It’s only seven,” I tell him.
“Mm.”
I put my head back down on his chest and listen to his heart go and let him have another twenty minutes.
For breakfast, we take over the long table by the windows in the dining hall.
Nash and Rafe, who both eat like animals.
Koda. Kenzie and Bianca. Tessa has refused all invitations since the football game.
Offense has been taken because I liked her, whoever she morphed into that weekend.
Mathers is here, too. He sits next to Kenzie and has been talking to her for ten minutes about a movie.
Paige is at the other end. She comes in late, in sunglasses, holding an iced coffee, and she looks down the table and sits at the far end next to Bianca. Not the two open seats in the middle. The far end.
Koda’s at the opposite end with his back to the windows.
They do not look at each other once.
And I mean not once. I’m watching, and it’s actually impressive. Koda doesn’t say much. Paige eats her eggs, scrolls on her phone, and doesn’t look up.
I watch her, waiting for her to reveal something. Nothing. She turns her phone over and says, to Bianca, “Do you want the rest of this?”
Under the table, Nash’s hand lands on my knee and stays there. I look at him, and he’s eating. He hasn’t noticed a single thing.
Okay.
Still weird.
He walks me back to Corvin Hall, and then he’s got recovery at eleven and video after, because there’s a game Tuesday and he’s dressing for it.
I keep having a small ridiculous feeling about that all morning, and he doesn’t seem to be having it at all, which is very Nash. He served it. It’s done.
At the bottom of the stairs, he takes my chin and kisses me.
“What are you doing today?” he asks.
“Laundry.”
“Should I meet you in there for old times’ sake?”
I smile up at him. “It’s four loads. One of them is entirely towels, because somebody leaves them on the back of a door.”
He touches my bottom lip. “Are you doing my laundry now?”
I bite his thumb.
“Don’t do my laundry,” he says quietly. “Seriously. I can do it.”
“I don’t mind.”
He pecks my cheek. “You don’t have to, babe. I’ll help you bring down your baskets.”
I release his thumb and smile. “Really?”
He kisses my lips. “Yeah.”
Later that day, there are five girls in my room, and I keep forgetting that I need to swap over the laundry.
The group chat has been going since last night about Halloween. It’s six days out. The girls have ideas.
“Okay,” Kenzie says. “Hear me out. The four elements.”
“There’s five of us,” Bianca says.
“There’s a fifth element.”
“No, I’m not coming,” Tessa says from her desk, without turning around.
“Yes, you fucking are!” I snap back.
She looks at me shyly. “I’m really not, okay? Count me out.”
Bianca wants us all to be different versions of the same thing. I say I’m fine with whatever as long as it’s warm, because I’ve learned some hard lessons about October in this state, and Kenzie says that’s the worst attitude she’s ever heard.
“What about Nash?” Bianca says.
“He said no.”
“To what?”
“To everything. He said no before I finished my sentence.”
Paige scoffs. “He’ll do it.”
“He said—”
“Kylie.” She points her water bottle at me. “He carried you out of a house. He’s made you his girlfriend. He’ll put on a fucking costume, trust me.”
And because we’re talking about relationships, Kenzie says, “What are you and Koda doing?”
Paige looks pissed at that. “What?”
It comes out so fast that it lands in the middle of the room like something dropped.
Nobody says anything. Bianca looks up from her phone.
“There is no me and Koda,” Paige says.
And then she asks Kenzie what the fifth element is supposed to be, and the room moves on, and I sit there on my own bed with my mouth shut for once in my life.
I finally swap the laundry at five, after the girls all leave. I’m coming back up from the basement with a basket on my hip when I hear voices in the stairwell.
“Paige,” Koda says.
I stop on the landing below. I can see them through the gap in the railing. She’s already three steps up with her keys in her hand.
“Paige.”
She doesn’t stop.
“Are you serious?” Koda says.
She turns around.
I’ve known Paige for two months. I’ve seen her scream at a referee about a play that happened forty yards away from her. I’ve seen her get in a girl’s face at a party over a coat. I have never seen her face look like it looks right now, and it isn’t angry.
“Not here,” she says.
And she goes up the stairs and through the door, and it shuts.
Koda stands there with his hand on the railing. Then he starts walking up to his floor on five, and the door shuts behind him.
There are about nine questions sitting in my head right now as I work my way up to the third floor.
I put my laundry away, and then I go to Nash’s to do my homework. His bed has become my study spot.
Rafe’s getting ready to go somewhere. He’s ironing a shirt on a towel on his desk, which is an unhinged thing to see a scary hockey player do.
“Where are you going?” I ask him out of curiosity.
“Out.”
“Wow. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” Rafe says.
The door opens and a freshly showered Nash comes in with his bag and his hair wet. He comes straight across the room, leans down, and kisses me. Then he looks at Rafe for a second. Then he turns back to me.
“Hungry?”
I shrug. “Maybe a little. Are you?”
He mocks my shrug. “Maybe a lot.”
I swat at his shoulder. He kisses me again.
Rafe unplugs the iron, puts on the shirt, looks at the two of us for a second like he never wants to see us again, and leaves.
Nash sits on the edge of his bed and peeks at my laptop.
“Six days,” I say to him.
“Until what?”
“Halloween.”
He doesn’t care. I can tell by the look on his face that this holiday doesn’t matter to him.
I smile. “It might be really fun.”
“No.”
I put my book down on my chest. “What if it’s sexy?”
“What’s the costume?” he says.
“Now you’re interested.”
“What’s the costume, Kylie?”
“I don’t know yet. Kenzie wants elements. Bianca wants—I don’t actually understand what Bianca wants.” I pick the book back up. “Also it has to be warm.”
“That’s not sexy.”
“What if—” I say, putting my book back down. “You and I dress up together?”
“And why would I do that?”
I lift a shoulder and pout my lips. “Because you love me?”
There’s a moment that follows where I hear what I just said, and I can’t believe I just fucking said that. I want to hide my face. I want to take the words back. I force myself to give him the same puppy dog eyes, so I can watch him squirm.
But he’s not squirming.
He’s staring right at me.
Then he says, “You’re right.”
I stop breathing.
I’m right?
He loves me?
He says, “Halloween is in six days.”
I roll my eyes and push him. Then I start laughing. “You fucking asshole.”
He grabs my pushing hand and lifts it over my head, forcing me back onto my pillow.
“My laptop,” I shriek, but he doesn’t care.
He crawls over me, pressing his entire body into me. I sink into the bed and love it a bit too much.
He kisses my mouth, leading with his tongue. I gasp, and he lets go of my hands. I reach for his shoulders and pull him closer. He nips on my cheek, going to my ear.
He whispers, “Say it, Kylie.”
“Say what?” I ask, feeling his hard dick against me.
He loses all his patience. “Tell me you fucking love me.”
He reaches under my legs and pulls me flush to his hips.
“God!” I gasp. “So fucking demanding!”
“Don’t say shit like that,” he warns. Then he waits. He waits two seconds, and then he’s reaching for my clothes. “Fine. I’ll fuck it out of you then.”
I giggle under him, lifting my hips to allow his hunger to lead the way. He pulls my jeans all the way off. Then when he’s unbuttoning his pants, I sit up on my elbows and watch.
“Nash—”
He pulls his dick out, and he doesn’t even pump it; he’s ready.
“I didn’t know if you felt the same,” I say quickly.
That makes him pause.
I look down at his cock, and my center pulses.
“I’ve been in love with you for weeks.” I swallow. “I thought that was obvious.”
“Then say it.”
I drop my expression and give him a look.
He pulls my body down.
I look into his eyes.
He stares back.
“I love you, Nash.”
“Mm,” he says, pressing his tip into me. “Still gonna fuck you.”