“The game?” he grunts. “You hate that shit.”
“I know, but they don’t,” I tell him. “Besides, I’m trying to be a good friend. I’ve been spending so much time with you lately that I’ve hardly seen them, only at parties.”
He nods his head. “Alright, but be safe. Josh could show up to that.”
“I doubt it,” I say. “As if he’d want to show up to watch the game he was supposed to be the star of.”
“I guess,” he muses as the end of lunch bell rings.
I climb off his lap and he sends me on my way with a slap on the ass. “I’ll see you tonight.”
I can’t help but smile and want to dive back in for another kiss when Brooke hoists me away with a hard yank on my arm. “Come on,” she says with a groan. “You get to suck face all night. It’s time for Biology.”
“Fine,” I groan before I allow her to pull me along. We walk back up the hallway and quickly stop by our lockers before making our way towards our Biology class.
We push through the doors and collapse into our seats while discussing how Brooke plans on going all out for the game tonight, wearing school colors and all. The door of the classroom opens again and I can’t help but look up at the scowling girl walking through the door.
Ashley Samuels. Nate’s kind of ex. She still hasn’t come to terms with the fact that whatever was going on between them is over. In fact, it never really begun. She had some twisted idea in her head that Nate was going to fall madly in love with her and they were going to drive off into the sunset in his Camaro, where in reality, Nate was using her for sex and kept her around as it held of all the other girls from pining for his attention. Little did she know that he was already mine. He’s always been mine. I just didn’t know it.
Her scowl doesn’t lift from me for one single moment as she walks from the door, across the classroom, and falls into her chair. Only then, does she pay attention to her friend, Heather, who sits beside her.
“Geez,” Brooke murmurs under her breath. “When is she going to back off?”
“This is Nate Ryder we’re talking about,” I remind her. “He’s the hottest guy in Broken Hill. The day she backs off would be the day she dies.”
“True,” she grunts as the teacher makes his grand appearance. The class falls into silence and I do my best to concentrate on his lecture. After all, I’m thinking about getting into Marine Biology or becoming a Lawyer, so good grades in this class are kind of a requirement, you know, just in case.
School finishes two hours later and I meet Brooke at her car as Nate had driven me this morning. Actually, he’s been driving me every morning which means my little R8 has been a bit neglected.
Courtney and Brylee show up a moment later and we pile into Brooke’s car before she peels out of the parking lot, cutting off Jesse who has to slam on his brakes to avoid giving her car a new paint job.
We pull up into my driveway and I remind Brooke of the new code for the gate, not that I’ve used it much lately, but a second later, the metal gate starts peeling away and we head down to my home.
I unlock the door and pull it open allowing the sense of home to take over, along with it, a hollowness in my chest, reminding me that I haven’t seen my parents in nearly two months.
The girls pile through the door behind me and each of them dump their belongings on the entryway table before heading through my home and rummaging through the empty fridge. “There’s nothing to eat here,” Brooke complains.
“Well, duh,” I say as I walk past the kitchen and towards the den. “I haven’t lived here for weeks. What did you expect?”
“Shit,” she groans. “We should have crashed Courtney’s place.”
“Nah,” Courtney grunts as she falls into a couch. “My little brother is having his friends over this afternoon. You made the right call coming here. We’ll just order in.”
“Fine,” Brooke replies from the kitchen before I hear the sound of glass bottles clinking together. I flick on the TV and bring up the Kardashians and get comfortable when Brooke comes in with a warm bottle of lemonade from the cupboard, a bottle of vodka, and a bunch of cups shoved under her arm. “You ready to spill the beans yet?” she says with a wicked smile.
“No,” Courtney whines as Brylee hops up and helps Brooke pour out the drinks.
“Tough titties,” Brooke declares as she starts passing out drinks. “Start talking.”
She hands one to me and I decline, realizing that one of us is going to have to drive to the game and back, even though I’m secretly hoping that the girls get a little too trashed on vodka that they’ll forget about the stupid football game altogether.