by Mj Fields
He nods. “That it is.”
Focused on his eyes, not allowing myself to look down and say something stupid like I did the last time he was passive-aggressively flirting with me, I nod and say, “If you’ll excuse me.”
“The last woman I gave flowers to was my mother. I’ve never given them to a girl on a random Thursday or any other day without it being for a prom or formal, and in those cases, I did it with clear intent.” He holds them up and inhales, lashes lowered, fanning out over his face, and then he slowly opens his eyes, laser focused on mine as he hands them to me.
I hesitate to take them from him.
“It’s just a random Thursday bouquet, Miss Steel, from your not-so-secret admirer.”
My heart beats a bit faster as I reach out and take them.
“No strings, just stems.”
I feel my face blush. “Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome, Miss Steel.”
He then steps aside, and I walk past him to the fitness center, making sure I walk slow and not run to my girls and ask them to remind me he’s an asshole.
When I walk into the fitness center, it’s empty. I set the flowers down and start drafting a text to Kiki, Brisa, and the self-proclaimed love guru Tris when the door opens.
Smiling, I look up and feel my smile wobble.
He looks past me to the bench, the muscles in his jaw begin to flex, fists clenched as he looks back at me and, in a deep Dad-like growl, says, “Anyone but him.”
Expelling the word, “Why?” seems to leave me breathless.
“Because I fucking said so,” he sneers as he walks past me and right to the speed bag.
“What the hell, Truth?” Brisa squeals as she walks in the door and rushes not to me but to the flowers. “Harrison fucking Reeves.” She laughs as she picks them up and smells them.
Behind us, I hear bam, bam, bam, bam.
In the mirror, I see him at the speed bag.
“I told you all,” Tris sighs exaggeratedly. “My God, if you kids would all just listen to me once in a while.”
Bam, bam, bam, bam.
Kiki walks in, laughing. “You sure did, LG.”
“What’s LG mean?” Tris asks.
“Love guru,” Kiki jokes.
“Laugh all you want, but if you need any advice on keeping it fresh with Brand when this honeymoon stage wears off, I got you.”
Bam, bam, bam, bam.
Watching him, I swear my heart is beating at the same pace as his strikes, feeding off his pheromones like I’m starved and haven’t eaten in weeks.
“And when you get ready”—Tris smirks—“I have all sorts of tricks to teach you.”
Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, smash.
I watch in the mirror as the speed bag flies off the chain, hits the mirror, and the glass cracks.
“Fuck this!” Tobias yells as he grabs his towel, storming past us and out the door.
“Holy shit!” Kiki gasps.
“What the hell was that all about?” Brisa whispers.
“No idea.” Tris grins. “But is it just me, or is he freaking hot?”
“It would probably be easier to just go ask Frank about him than to find anything out searching on the web,” I say, dropping my bag on Kiki’s floor.
“Girl, however will you decide which one makes you hotter—the old hippy man who runs the jewelry shop, the guy who wears tights and torments you and everyone around you, or the one who I’ve nearly had to use my sleeve to wipe drool from under your chin so you don’t embarrass yourself while giving me secondhand embarrassment at the gym who, by the way, is going to try to fuck up a face that looks like yours in two days?” Kiki asks as she pulls out a tray of chocolate-covered strawberries with a tented note and a rose. She sets it on the kitchen island, rips the plastic wrap off of it, shoves one in her mouth, and moans.
Her phone rings, and she hits accept call. Then, holding the phone in front of her, she smiles while trying to cover her mouth.
“You didn’t read the note, did you?” Brand laughs.
“Yes,” she says while shaking her head in complete contradiction.
He laughs as she quickly chews and swallows it down.
“You can’t leave chocolate in a house with a pregnant chick,” she says then pops another in her mouth.
“I’m just messing with you, Katy girl. I know you have company—”
“I’m not company. I’m family,” I say loud enough for him to hear, and he laughs.
“Lemme see my belly,” he says, a smile in his voice.
Kiki shrugs off her blazer, switching hands instead of laying the phone down on the counter, no doubt wanting to see his face, and pulls up her shirt.
“Conway, make your momma behave and rest.”
“That name’s not sticking either,” Kiki scolds him as she brings the phone back up to her face.
“Katy girl, we really need to come to a decision at some point soon.”
“I’ll help her figure it out.”
“Good idea. You two should make a list tonight. Skip school and make it tomorrow. Hell, keep making that list until I come back Sunday morning.”
“Brand, we’re going to be fine.”
“Didn’t wanna leave,” he says softly.
“Someone has to work.” She winks.
“I’ll bring home the money, you keep working on baking that bun I put in your oven.”
She smiles. “Will do.”
“Love you. Call me when you lay down for the night.”
“Love you, and I will.”
She hangs up, grabs another strawberry, shoves it in her mouth, and then grabs the whole tray. “Let’s go do some digging.”
Through an hour’s worth of searches, we find out that the house Tobias Easton lives in belonged to a Hope Easton, who passed away at the age of twenty-nine while serving in the US Naval Reserves. The photos we found of her are the same as the woman in the picture on Tobias’s IG. The fact that she is only sixteen years older than him would lead one to believe she was his much older sister, but further digging unveils that she was actually his mother. Being her only known relative, he was given the house.
“He was fourteen when she died,” I whisper as I hold my hand over my heart.
We couldn’t find much on him. As a minor and one who seems to like his privacy, unlike most of our generation who shares everything on social media, finding anything more is extremely difficult. But what we surmised is he’s eighteen and doesn’t need a guardian.
“Mystery man,” Kiki says sadly, closing the laptop.
“I’m sure Harrison and the other two know everything.”
“How odd is it that they’re friends? Harrison, Miles, and Kai aren’t nice to anyone. They don’t even act like our peers without big names and plastic tits present. And Tobias doesn’t even hang around them at school.”
“Well, we don’t have to wonder where he gets money to eat and own a different workout outfit every day.” I lean back into the overstuffed couch cushion. “Those fights are big money. I bet he walks away with twenty grand, even if he doesn’t win.”
“Wonder how he reports that to the IRS.” Kiki laughs.
“Gonna guess that doesn’t happen.”
“You said you paid through an app. How do you erase that paper trail?”
“Honestly, Kiki, I don’t even want to know. I just wish I never even went to the outcast cast party. I feel like all of this is my fault, including my brother now being put in danger because of someone’s hate for me.”
“Someone?” she huffs. “You mean PBJ?”
“You know, I thought so, too, but what does she have to gain? If she liked Harrison, like really liked him, that would be the last thing anyone with half a brain would do. Think about it. Why would she want to even shed light on me or you?”
“Because crazy people don’t use logical reasoning, Truth. And from what I have seen, she’s crazy with a capital C.”
Chapter Twelve
Idiom
She’s becoming all the rage.
Truth
I’d rather be the cause of happiness.
Friday
The halls of Seashore aren’t as quiet as they had been since Tuesday. There’s a new excitement buzzing, and I know that buzz isn’t because the baseball team has its first game after school tonight, or the fact that notifications from The Sound for a party have hit the upper echelon of the elite to an after party at none other than Gabrielle Morales-Ortez’s house. It’s the fight.
The invitation has, however, caused Alexa, Baker, James, and Abhi to attempt to pull Brisa and me back into the friendship circle.
I was a little pissed that they were blatantly avoiding us, but the part of me that sees full truths in others, even though I’ve been juggling mine like a circus clown on her first day of training, I never really blamed them for avoiding further knocks down the rungs on the popularity ladder because of me.
For all the opportunity Seashore gives with state of the art facilities, small class sizes, more clubs with better coaches, teachers who should be teaching at colleges and universities and not a high school level, mentorship programs, standardized testing prep, college course credits, and access to the best colleges in the world, it does have its faults.
The students here aren’t wondering where they’ll get their next meal, if they’ll be picked on for not having this season’s clothes, if they’ll get caught in the crossfire of some gang activity on their way to school, or worry as much about school shootings. They worry about fitting in.
Bullshit, I tell myself then quickly amend my thoughts to, we all worry about fitting in.
Why is it all my most profound moments are while peeing? I wonder as I open the bathroom stall.
When I see Gabrielle standing there, waiting for me, I roll my eyes.
“We’re going to become friends,” she says as if she were Moses standing on Mount Sinai and had just received the eleventh commandment.
Forcing myself not to stand there and laugh in her face, I turn on the water.
“And”—she holds up her phone and starts typing something then looks at me—“there’s the olive branch.”
My phone pings as I dry my hands. I pull it out of my blazer pocket and see a notification from The Sound.
“An invite from Gabrielle Morales-Ortez.” I laugh as I read it then hit deny.
When I look up at her, she’s looking at her phone and doesn’t look angry, as I expected. She looks completely unaffected.
She types out something again, and then my phone pings with another notification.
I look down. Again, an invite.
When I’m about to hit decline, she says, “Wait—hear me out.”
“No,” I say as I hit decline then shove my phone in my blazer pocket. “You hear me out. I’ve kept your secret when I could have blasted that shit everywhere, but I’m not that person. I’m more the type to sit and wait for a person to hang themself.” I step around her. “And friendship means a hell of a lot more to me than making nice with someone for the sake of perception and popularity.”
When I’m about to open the door, she says, “I’ve never had a loyal friend in my life. Not one. If any of the people who surround me knew what you did, they’d bury me. I’ve been a bitch—”
“A cunt actually,” I say as I turn around.
Her face hardens. “That’s a disgusting word.”
“And your actions have surpassed disgusting.”
She scowls at the floor as she shakes her head in frustration. “I keep trying to figure out your fucking angle.”
“Don’t lose sleep over it, Gabby. There is none. You stay away from me, I’ll stay away from you.”
“Fine,” she snaps, and I swear I see tears in her big brown doe eyes.
Walk away, I scream at myself. Walk. A. Way.
“People like you have lived a different life than most.”
Defensively, she snaps, “You mean people like us.”
I shake my head. “I wasn’t raised to shove my nose in the air, Gabby.”
“You have no idea how I was raised,” she snaps, eyes filling more, and I have to look away before I decide hugging a poisonous snake is a good idea.
“And you have no idea how I was. Just consider yourself lucky that I was taught that, if you keep your nose in the air, you’re gonna drown when it rains.”
When I walk out, Harrison is leaning against the wall.
“I didn’t hear any yelling, or I’d have come in.”
“I’m not some princess who needs to be saved, Reeves.”
“Which is exactly why I choose you.” He smirks as he pushes himself off the wall.
Gabby walks out of the bathroom, not a single tear in her eyes.
“Told you to leave her alone.” Harrison shakes his head from side to side.
Her face scrunches up in disgust. “I didn’t do a damn thing.”
“Actually, you—”
“Made nice, called a truce,” she cuts me off.
“So, no more videos will be popping up on the entire student body’s screens?” Harrison asks.
“Fuck you,” she snaps as she walks down the hall.
He purses his lips and shakes his head.
“I’m gonna tell you what I told her. Keeping your nose in the air is a good way to drown.”
“That’s sound advice, Miss Steel.” He smirks. “However, looking down is also frowned upon, which leaves a man like me to wonder, as well as doubt myself and all those who have taught me to be a gentleman to just keep looking ahead, to do the work it takes to gain the rewards.”
I start to walk away, and he stays by my side.
“I’m guessing your parents’ humble beginnings may have given them different perspectives than mine have given me.”
“Thank God,” I huff.
He takes my elbow, stopping me as he walks around in front of me. “Show me yours, and I’ll show you the good parts of mine, the ones you shun, which makes you just as wrong as me.”
“I don’t have time for this. You and yours have bullied my brother into a fight this weekend. Forgive me if showing you how to be human doesn’t top my list of priorities.”
He smirks.
“Why is that amusing to you?” I ask, truly curious.
“For one, your loyalty and judgment are just as misplaced as mine.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“I didn’t lure your brother into a fight. You and I both know that video had nothing to do with me. JT jumped at the chance.”
“To defend me,” I hiss.
He looks at me sadly then sighs. “A catalyst to unleash his inner male instinct.”
“You don’t know him.”
He smirks. “I have a leg … well, three legs up on you in that matter—I know men. Tell me, Miss Steel, since his decision, has he acted disheartened by it?”
Fucker, I think.
“My intention isn’t to entice you to cast a cloud of doubt over his intentions. I’m sure his gut instinct was to defend you. I will, however, ask you not to lie to yourself, Truth. But, more importantly, don’t beat yourself up over this. It was, after all, his choice. With all of the resources you have at your disposal, you could have easily uncovered the digital footprints that led to the person who sent it; had them at very least expelled. But, let’s be honest, this was a much more entertaining option.”
Again, Fucker.
“When this fight is no longer ladling you with worry, you and I need to move forward in exploring the obvious attraction we have toward one another.”
“Fat chance,” I huff.
He reaches up and pushes my hair behind my ear. “At least you’re not denying it.”
Before I have a chance to respond, he walks away … whistling.
Walking into the fitness center, expecting it to be empty, I see the majority of Justice’s baseball team surrounding Amias, who is grinning from ear to ear.
<
br /> I walk over to Kiki, Brisa, and Tris. “What’s going on over there?”
“Amias just got pulled up to the varsity team.” Tris grins.
“Have you guys messaged the family group chat?” I ask.
Brisa shakes her head. “Nope, we decided to let him.”
When they all disperse, Amias walks over to his bag and pulls out his phone. Then he looks at us.
Brisa smiles. “Get over here.”
He shrugs, rolls his eyes, and tries to act like he’s not about to burst at the seams.
When Tris steps forward to hug him, he steps back. “Don’t try to make me look like a little bitch, Tris.”
“We’re all just excited for you.” Kiki grins. “This is your thing.”
He looks down and shakes his head, still trying to act like a badass.
“Years of playing without competition on the smallest team around, and—”
“All those camps and club teams,” Tris interrupts Brisa, “where they overlooked you because you were from a Catholic school, sat you on the bench—”
“Might still be benched,” he whispers. “So chill, okay?”
We all nod, understanding him not wanting to be embarrassed but knowing Uncle Zandor is going to be over the moon excited.
I ask, “Do you want us to tell the ’rents, or do you—”
“Don’t want them flipping out and blowing up the phone.”
“Then lead with that.” Kiki laughs.
“Might want to add that they should be chill because you don’t even know if you’ll get field time,” I say.
He shrugs, a smile tugging on his lips. “Fine. If you all insist.”
He taps out the text then rolls his eyes as he walks away.
Kiki looks at me. “We all got invites to Gabrielle’s party tonight.”
I shake my head.
“The boys, too.” Brisa cringes. “Did you?”
I nod. “Yeah, I was just gonna tell you about it. And tell you about Harrison being all weird.”
“Do spill.” Brisa grins.
“First, tell me the truth; do you guys want to go?”
“Fuck no.” Kiki laughs.
