“That for me?” his deep voice sounds quietly behind me, quickly awakening a blanket of goosebumps across my neck. I glance to my right to check where Millie is before turning around. The last thing I need is to fuel her ridiculous fantasy.
“Sure,” I say to him, as I hand him the cool glass of lemonade. He takes it and downs the liquid in one smooth gulp. He never breaks eye contact with me and it feels like the most intense, isolating moment between us. The others melt away and it’s just me and Kyler in a little bubble. Yet, as soon as it starts, it quickly dissipates, and Jude claps his hands and calls for the second half to start. Kyler places the glass on the tray and walks back to the middle of the street without another word, leaving me to wonder what the hell just happened.
“Nothing going on, huh?” Millie whispers quietly beside me, and I just roll my eyes in response, because it’s clear she’s not going to let this go.
The game continues and every time my eyes find Kyler, I realize Millie is right. When he’s not in play, he’s looking at me; not moving, not paying attention to anything around him. It’s only when the ball comes hurling toward him, he focuses on the game without a blink of the eye. It’s unnerving, but it’s also thrilling. And the more I look, the more I find myself wishing for the intense bubble to form around us again, just as it did when he drank the lemonade earlier.
After an hour or so the game finally comes to an end with a victory for Jude’s team, much to my brother’s delight. He whoops and cheers along with the others and backslaps are traded all round.
“Let’s have a barbecue,” Devon suggests as the others begin to clear away the makeshift goals.
“Good idea,” Jude replies.
“I agree,” I say. “I’m pretty sure we have enough things in the fridge to make a salad or two.”
“Cool, I’ll drive to the store and get some other supplies so we can set up,” Nolan offers. Devon agrees, offering to go with him.
The rest pile into the house and straight out to the back yard. I start to pick up the blankets we were sitting on, and see Kyler unlock his car and throw his belongings on the passenger seat.
“Please don’t tell me this means you’re skipping out on mealtime again?” I ask him with a playful tone in my voice.
“I have someplace to be,” is all he says as he gets into the driver’s seat and buckles up. “Save me a plate?” he asks, closing the door and not giving me a chance to reply. He switches on the engine and backs out of the driveway.
I’m frustrated because even after all this time, he’s still a closed book, seemingly only participating in the minimum of activities. And I’m irritated at myself because I know even though I’m annoyed, I’ll still plate him up some leftovers and leave them for him to have when he decides to come back home later tonight.
Eight
Kyler
“You’ve gotto be fucking kidding me!” I don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know what’s going on upstairs. But I am a moron for thinking Thea wouldn’t have sex with her boyfriend in the house. That’s what I did, most of the night, while I failed at not watching her. I put myself through hell picturing the puny guy putting his hands on her bare skin. I groan and reach for my phone. The screen lights up and shows it’s a little after four in the morning and there’s no way I’m going back to sleep until they’re done—which I’m hoping will be soon. I never want my friends to pump and dump but man, I am down on my knees praying this fool can’t last longer than thirty seconds.
The thirty seconds pass and the squeaking from Thea’s bed continues. “Fuck my life.” I bring my phone to life and go to her social media page. She added me as a friend the other day and I waited until midnight to accept even though I saw it right away. I don’t know why I didn’t look at her page before now because if I had, the boyfriend wouldn’t have been such a surprise. I click on their pictures and study their body language. Thea looks like she’s into him, but he seems standoffish. Of course, I’m probably looking for reasons they shouldn’t be together. Which, I don’t get. She means nothing to me. Thea is a roommate and one of my best friends’ sisters. These thoughts I have about her need to stop. The only reason she keeps popping in my head is because she’s a good cook.
And she’s fucking hot.
The squeak stops. “Wow, a whole minute. Poor Thea probably didn’t even get off.” I continue to scroll and finally click on his name. I’m surprised his page isn’t private. This guy is giving me full access to his life, and he doesn’t even care. I don’t even know why I hate him. Oh, yes, I do. He’s fucking rich. Driving around in daddy’s Maserati. I didn’t even look to see what kind of car he rolled up here in. I’m sure it’s a BMW or some shit like that. Something I can’t afford, at least at the moment.
He's touching Thea right now, moving between her legs, kissing her in places my mind has wandered. I hate it. I hate every single second of what’s going on upstairs. I want a night with her, where nothing in our lives will affect what we do. She doesn’t know me. I don’t know her. And then, nothing more. I won’t need anything from her again.
“You’re lying to yourself,” I say to my empty room. “And you’re talking to yourself.”
I need to get some sleep, but I’m on the cusp of a deep dive on this jackass’s page. There are pictures of him with other girls and when I look at who liked the photo, Thea’s name doesn’t show up.Interesting.
Almost every photo has comments on it and the same one appears over and over, “Where’s Austin?” Who the hell is Austin? I click a few more profiles trying to figure out who this mystery guy is, but nothing comes up. After a few more scrolls, I give up and put my phone back on its charger. I’m about to close my eyes when I hear movement upstairs. So help me, if they start going at it again, I’m going to pound on the ceiling.
Except I would never. The last thing I want to do is embarrass Thea. Banging on the ceiling or saying something will without a doubt mortify her. The floor creaks and there’s some muffled voices, and then a door closes. I roll onto my side, taking my pillow with me. Tomorrow, I’m going to borrow Devon’s noise canceling headphones. I need some sleep.
A loud thud startles me awake and Jude yells, “Dev, Nole, Ky! Street hockey in ten!”
Fuck.I roll onto my back and stare at the ceiling. A ceiling I now hate. I know way too much about what goes on in the room above me and I’d love to find a way to erase my knowledge. I dress in the first thing I can find off the floor—a pair of gray sweatpants and a dark blue T-shirt. I’ll opt for no shirt once we start playing since we’ll end up splitting teams and one side has to be fully clothed.
My footsteps are heavy. I hope whoever is on my team is ready to carry us because I’m not sure I can get out of my own way right now. I need sleep, but I also don’t want to pass up an opportunity to chill with my friends.
What a pleasant surprise it is when I get downstairs, I find the rich boy gone. In fact, I’m sure I smile at the fact. That is until I see Thea eyeing me. I pretend I don’t see her and go right to the closet to grab my gear and some hockey sticks. I didn’t greet any of my other roommates. Why should she be special?
We get everything set up and teams picked, and half of us take our shirts off. Of course, Jude is on my team, which means it’s my job to score and his job to block this damn yellow ball from crossing the imaginary line. I look behind me and nod toward my goalie, and then face Mike. We tap our sticks three times to start the game. Mike is too slow, and I’ve sent the ball sailing toward Saul, who handles the ball until Mikko frees himself. Saul passes and Mikko sends the ball through the goal. The game goes back and forth, until Jude yells for a break. These guys are overexerting themselves just for bragging rights. I’m content to hang back and let them do all the work.
Thea and Millie are handing out glasses of lemonade. I need to put a wall up between us and decide to stay on the other side of the street. My shoulders are tight and need to be stretched. I put my stick behind my head and hang my wrists over the edge and bend back slightly, to the left, and then to the right. Millie isn’t shy about staring. I know exactly when she says something to Thea about me because her head pops up and she tries to act like she’s not mesmerized by me. It’s comical, honestly. She’s trying to not gawk and keeps looking away. As soon as she does, I dodge behind a car and wait for a second. Through the window of the car, I watch her frantically look for me. With her distracted, I make my way back to the yard and sneak up behind her.