“It’s Victor,” he said, his eyes darkening behind his glasses. He touched the bridge with a fingertip. “I need to go.”
I prickled. “What happened to Victor? What’s wrong? Can I go?”
Kota shot a helpless glance at Nathan.
Nathan’s face turned serious, a mask of granite. “I’ll stay with her,” he told him. “We’ll wait for the game to end and we’ll go with North and Silas.”
“But wait,” I said, dropping a hand on Kota’s chest to stop him before he could pull away. “What happened? Is he hurt? Should we all go?”
Kota’s mouth tightened. He took up my hand and squeezed it. “He’s fine,” he said, the calm and power in his voice thundering through me. “He’s not hurt. He just needs me right now. Stay with Nathan. Listen to what he says.” He picked up my hand, brought it to his mouth. His lips brushed against a couple of my fingers and he pulled away. He marched down the steps of the stands, weaving among other students and parents. Within moments, he was gone.
My heart sunk seeing him leave. Despite his promise that Victor was fine, I couldn’t imagine Kota needing to get to him so quickly. If Victor was fine, he wouldn’t have called for help.
“Peanut,” Nathan said. He sat back down on the bench. His blue eyes gazed up at me and he found my hand again, tugging it. “Come here.”
His tugging drew me in until he pulled me onto his lap. His legs were warm against my butt, that had started to feel numb on the cold seat.
“Is Victor going to be okay?” I asked, unable to help feeling worried.
Nathan stuffed his arms around me, his cheek pressed to mine. “He’s fine. If he was hurt or needed us, Kota would have made us all go. Since he didn’t, it must not be too bad. He just needed to go see him.”
“But why? What could be wrong?”
Nathan sighed loud in my ear. “Victor stresses at his concerts. There’s a lot of pressure on him to be perfect.” He repositioned himself until he was sitting with his legs parted on the bench. He positioned me between his legs so his thighs partially wrapped around mine, with my back pressed into his chest and he could look out over my head at the game. “Don’t worry. Kota will go out there and he’ll be fine.”
I sighed, but swallowed back my desire to prod him with more questions. It felt wrong to not do anything, even at the risk of their reprimands and disapproval. I wanted to help and didn’t know how. It also felt wrong to continue to enjoy the game when Victor wasn’t happy.
Nathan wrapped his arms around my shoulders, drawing me in tight like a backward hug. His embrace stopped my trembling from the cool air. It was extremely cozy. “If I was really honest, Peanut, I’m kind of glad he had to go.”
My mouth popped open in surprise. How could he say that? “What do you mean?”
He turned his face, until his nose touched my ear and I felt his breath on my neck. “Because now I can pretend we’re on a real date.”
???
We were still sitting together, with me partially in Nathan’s lap, when the clock on the scoreboard finally counted down to zero. The only thing keeping me from not shivering from the crisp air was Nathan’s warm arms around me and Kota’s hoodie. My legs were tingling. I’d have to remember to wear pants at the next football game.
Ashley Waters managed a one point victory, the final touchdown scored by Jay after Rocky threw the ball at him, with Silas and North assisting. The crowd was in an uproar. Everyone stood, cheering the team on.
It was with some small reluctance that I stood up as well. I wanted to show support but I didn’t want to draw away from Nathan.
Nathan seemed to read my mind. When I stood, he did, too. He stayed right behind me, wrapping his arms around my shoulders again, his chin hovering over the top of my head as he stood behind me. I witnessed other couples around us doing the same thing. It warmed me beyond anything I’d ever felt before. Despite being so nervous earlier with both of them, having just Nathan alleviated the burden of worrying about making Kota jealous. And since they’d done so much and neither of them seemed to pressure the other to back off, it was still confusing but I didn’t feel quite as guilty for having Nathan’s arms around me. Perhaps North was right after all. Maybe I did need to relax and let them take over some things, like worrying about touching and dates.
I sought out Silas and North, but the team had grouped up together on the field, cheering and patting each other on their backs. People started leaving the stands around us, trying to get ahead of the crowd getting out of the parking lot.
Watching people leaving and losing sight of Silas and North woke me up from my snuggle state with Nathan. I pulled away to look back at him. “Silas and North don’t know we’re here by ourselves. How are we going to catch them in this crowd?”
Nathan sighed, rolling his eyes and grinning. “Sang, oh my god, stop worrying so much.”
“But what if they leave without us? They think we’re with Kota.”
He smirked, shaking his head and grabbed my hand. “Come on, Peanut.”
He tugged me along to mix in with the crowd headed out. There was some relief that we were moving in the right direction. I hoped we made it before Silas and North did.
Nathan pulled me in close, with his arm wrapped around my shoulders. I wanted to do something with my arms, like wrap one around his waist or something similar like I was seeing other girls do, only I was too nervous and wondered if I should. I let it go so long until it felt too awkward to start since I hadn’t done it.
“Did you have fun, Peanut?” Nathan asked me as the crowd started to break up around us beyond the gate.
“Yes,” I said. I wasn’t sure I liked football or sitting on cold stands but spending time with the guys outside of school and not worrying about my parents had been fun.
“Good,” he said. “I wasn’t sure if you were for a while there.”
“What do you mean?”
“You looked scared again.”
I smirked. He said that about everything. “There were a lot of people,” I said.
He stopped walking, pulling back to look down at me. “Was that all that made you nervous? The crowd?”
I blushed, a finger fluttered toward my lower lip.
“Stop that,” he said, snatching my hand before it could reach my mouth. He trapped my fingers and ducked them into his mouth. “Why were you nervous?” he asked, his serious blue eyes focusing on me, although he seemed less intense with my fingers dangling in his mouth.
I twisted my lips as I spoke. “I’ve never been on a date ... thing before.”
The side of his mouth twisted up, he nipped at my finger. “That it?”
“And the whole Victor possibly being in trouble thing.”
“Anything else?”
I bit my lower lip. “Well, I mean ... I thought ...” Only this time I couldn’t formulate the words. What did he expect me to say? I couldn’t deny it any more. They were doing things to me that made my heart flip around, things couples did together, not just friends. It was more than I was expecting. He was chewing my fingers! Kota nuzzled my nose. If he’d gotten any closer, he could have kissed me. I’d almost wanted him to. I wanted Nathan to, even now. It was messed up and not normal. Mr. McCoy had said it with that sneer. Two dates.
“Tell me,” he said. He sucked at my fingers, drawing out his saliva to hold my hand in his. His blue eyes fixed on my face. “What’s wrong?”
I glanced at the gravel of the parking lot at our feet. “I thought for a little while you and Kota might be mad at each other.”
Nathan raised an eyebrow. “Mad? About what?”
My face radiated and my fingers started to shake. “Because you were both holding my hands. Then he tried to bite my finger and you told him not to ... And then he ...”
“Oh,” Nathan said. “You thought he’d be jealous? Or that I was?”
I nodded, unable to look at him.
He sighed. He tugged me around the shoulders. “Come on, Sang. Let’s
get to the car and I’ll tell you a story.”