by Ella Fields
“I do,” he said. “I don’t want you doing anything that makes you scared or uncomfortable.”
It still stunned me. Made me want to pinch myself to see if this sweet, beautiful boy was really mine.
“I’ve got you.” I blinked tears away, feeling so much as I looked up at his face. Always feeling too much around him. If I feared anything, it was that I’d run out of room to contain it, and I’d burst.
His face softened, and he sat down beside me, dropping his head beside my stomach. My hand left his to run through his hair. His eyes shut, a sigh leaving him that made his whole body shudder and droop. “I can’t stand it. It makes me feel sick. Physically sick.”
“I know,” I said. “But he’ll give it up. One day.”
His eyes opened, the green specks battling the gold around his dark pupils. “You don’t get it.”
“Get what?”
He chuckled, then groaned, rubbing his forehead into my side with the shake of his head. Looking back at me, he said, “He likes you. So did Daniel, who used to pick on you in math.”
I scoffed, trying not to laugh. “Don’t make me laugh right now, Quinn. It’ll hurt.”
His grin was both beautiful and menacing. “I’m not kidding.”
Frowning, I thought about it for a second. “Where is Daniel?” Quinn dropped his head and started tracing circles on my palm. “Quinn.”
“Fine,” he grumbled. “I had a talk with him. He thought it’d be in his best interest to transfer to McMullen’s class instead.”
The ice shifted on my hand as I tensed. Quinn gently reached over and moved it back in place. “You had a talk?”
He tilted a shoulder, laying his head back down. “Yeah.”
“Really.”
“Really.”
“Quinn, don’t you even try to lie to me.”
Groaning, he sat up. “Okay, it was more of a really big suggestion.”
“Suggestion?”
We were interrupted by the nurse, who came to check my finger. She whistled. “This is going to be quite sore for a while, missy.”
Quinn asked, “Is there anything else we can do?”
She shook her head. “Nope. Afraid not. Just keep it strapped to the next finger. I’ve called your mom; she’s just left work to go pick up some pain medication, then she’ll be right on over.”
I nodded, thanking her as she walked back to her little office.
“You’re going to bully John Newman for being a bully?” I asked when I was sure she was out of earshot.
Quinn blanched. “No.” I raised a brow. “The guy is an annoying turd. He’s gotta learn when enough is enough.”
“I don’t need you to fight my battles for me,” I said, sitting up. He grabbed my arm, steadying me when my head spun.
“But there’s no greater honor.” Giggling, I slapped his arm, and he stepped toward me to place a soft kiss on my head. “Don’t worry about me.”
“Mr. Burnell, I think it’s time for you to get back to class.” The nurse appeared in the doorway, her brows bouncing as her eyes swung back and forth between us.
Quinn hesitated, so I said, “Go. And behave.”
Winking, he grabbed his bag. “I’ll come see you when I get home.”
I watched him leave, the throbbing in my pinky finger not feeling as bad.
The nurse tsk’d. “Oh, girly. You got it bad.”
Flushing, I ducked my head.
The crickets chirping outside my bedroom window stopped, and then came the thump as Quinn heaved himself inside and rolled to a stand on my yellow rug. “How’re you feeling?”
“I’m okay.”
He took a seat on the bed, kicking off his shoes before lying down beside me. “Show me.”
Carefully, he took my hand, lifting the tape and inspecting it with help from the late afternoon light that shone through the window in bursts of burnt orange. “Looks sore.”
“It is, but it’s not as bad now that I’ve had some painkillers.” I was just glad it was my left pinky finger, since I was right handed.
He hummed, gently folding the tape back over and placing my hand down on his hard stomach. My breathing sped up, and I drew in a few quick breaths, hoping it wasn’t obvious. “Where’ve you been?”
I wasn’t the nagging type. But if he said he was coming over after school, then he’d always come straight here. Besides, I had a really good hunch where he’d been. “Nowhere, just hung back for a while with Jordan and a few of the guys.”
I picked up his hand and brought it to my face. No bruised knuckles or scrapes. Still, I didn’t believe him. “What’d you really do?”
“Daisy …” My mom opened the door, halting when she saw Quinn. She clucked her tongue. “Up, Quinn. Joseph’s just gotten home.”
He jumped to his feet, a contrite look on his face as he scratched the back of his head.
I sat up just as my dad walked in the front door, hearing it clang to a close behind him. “Where is she?” he asked my mom, who’d walked out to greet him.
“In her room with Quinn.”
He grunted. “Door open?”
He didn’t wait for her answer. I could hear his heavy footfalls heading to my room a second later.
“Daisy.” The lines on his face creased with worry when he looked at my hand. “Hey, Quinn.” He jerked his head at Quinn, who was trying to look busy with my stack of … Jane Austen novels.
“Hey, Joe.”
Trying not to laugh as Quinn shrugged helplessly behind my dad’s turned back, I returned my attention to dad. “Which punk did this to you?”
“No one did this to me. I fell and someone accidentally stepped on my hand.”
He didn’t seem appeased. At all. The creases lining his forehead deepened, and he turned to Quinn. “A word?”
Quinn nodded. Getting up and following my dad out the door, he winked at me before he disappeared.
I strained to hear, but they’d moved out to the front porch, and my window was on the back of the house. Sighing, I sat back against my pillows and waited.
Quinn came back a moment later, his and my dad’s laughter traveling down the hall.
Leaving the door ajar, he sat back down on my bed. “Did he ask you for names, ages, addresses, and their last known whereabouts?”
Snickering, Quinn shook his head. “Nah, just made sure I took care of it.” He flopped backward onto the bed, below my feet.
“And that’s what you were doing earlier? Taking care of it?”
His finger started tracing lazy circles over my ankle, making some of my irritation flee. “Yep.”
That was all he said. “You going to elaborate?”
“Nope.”
Grumbling under my breath, I turned my gaze out the window, feeling petulant but unable to stop it. I knew he was just looking out for me, and I loved him for that and a million other reasons, but I didn’t want him getting in trouble because of me, and I told him as much.
“Dais,” he said, rolling onto his stomach to look at me. “I didn’t do anything bad. I just … scared him a little.”
“How?”
His brows scrunched adorably. “What do you mean? We just went to talk to him.”
Oh, boy. “We? How many of you?”
Pursing his lips, he twisted them and hesitated. “Uh, just half the team.”
“Oh, for crying out loud.”
Chuckling, he yanked on my ankle, then placed a soft kiss on top of my foot. “I don’t think you get it, Dais. I’ll never stand by and just let stuff like that happen to you. No one treats you like anything other than the kind, beautiful ray of sunshine you are.”
“I think I do,” I whispered.
“You do what?”
“Get it.”
Eyes melting, he quickly glanced at my bedroom door before scooting up the bed lightning fast to press his lips to mine.
“Quinn?” my dad asked from what sounded like the kitchen. He had a sixth sense, I swear.
G
rinning, Quinn backed away. “Yeah?”
We heard my mom tell my dad to shush, his answering grumble, and then both rolled our faces into the sheets to muffle our laughter.
Present
“I’m just gonna crash tonight, got early practice in the morning.”
Alexis’s blue eyes narrowed. “Are we going to have issues? Now that …”
Jesus. My head was shaking before she could even find the rest of her unfinished question.
“No.” I grabbed the back of her head, placing a kiss on her forehead. “We’ll be fine. I’m just shocked is all.” Which was true. Yet I couldn’t help but worry my lip between my teeth as she pulled back to look up at me.
Daisy showing up at Gray Springs was the last thing I expected. God knows why. We’d planned on coming here together since we knew what college was. I just thought when she cut me out of her life, she’d cut out any plans for the future we’d made together too.
“Okay,” Alexis said. “Text me before you go to bed?”
Nodding, I watched her walk off toward her dorm before getting back inside my truck.
Once she was inside, my head thumped back against the seat, and I stared out the windshield. The night seemed to blacken the stars from the sky. It felt eerily quiet, or maybe my heart was thundering so hard, it was all I could hear.
After scrubbing my hands down my face, I started the truck and began the five-minute drive to the townhouse.
Toby, who played wide receiver on the team, had been living there since we started at Gray Springs together last year. This year, he offered to let me move in with him. His dad owned the place. The rent was dirt cheap, and I was sick of living in the dorms, so I took him up on the offer. Toby was pretty OCD about his things, so he rarely had parties or anything crazy. It also made seeing Alexis a lot easier.
My chest burned, and I sucked down a long breath, trying to smother it.
Why? After all this time, why did she just show up? Planting herself in front of me like I’d been waiting for her to. She should have known I gave up waiting a long damn time ago.
Anger gripped my heart in a fist, squeezing and making my teeth grit.
She could do what she wanted. Didn’t change what she did, or what’d happened as a result of it. We were over long ago. She made sure of that, and I simply cemented it.
Pulling into the drive, I shut the truck off and jumped out, noticing the glare from the television inside. I pushed the door open, closing it behind me as Toby looked over the back of the couch. “Sup, where’s the lady?”
“Dropped her at her dorm.”
“She got her period or some shit? You guys have spent every night together since she got here.”
I tossed a pillow at him, which he caught and tucked behind his head with a shit-eating grin. “We don’t need to spend every night together.” Sitting down on the opposite couch, I kicked my boots off and lifted my feet to the coffee table.
Toby scowled. “Feet off, asshole.”
Smirking, I let them slide off and stretched my arms over my head. “You going to that party this weekend?”
He shrugged, turning back to the TV, where some crime show was playing. “Don’t know, got two essays breathing down my fucking neck.”
I grunted, staring unseeingly at the TV.
You left.
I know.
Take care.
“You take something?” Toby’s voice rocked me out of my head.
“What?”
“Did you take something? Don’t forget, Coach might seem lenient about it, but they’ll still test our asses when we least expect it.”
I barked out a laugh. “I didn’t take anything.”
His blue eyes squinted a little. “Something’s not quite right.”
“Jesus,” I groaned. “Leave it be.”
“You getting over Alexis? Dude, if you are, set her free. Many an asshole in this place would take her off your hands.”
My fists clenched, and I practically growled. “Shut up. Alexis has got nothing to do with it.”
He grinned like the devil we all knew he could be. “But it’s something then.”
“What are you, a fucking shrink?”
His mouth clamped shut at that, and he slumped back against the couch. “Forget it, I’m being a dick. This place messes with my head, and I get bored.”
I watched him for a moment, the way his hands opened and closed beside him on the couch. Toby had always seemed a bit different from my other friends. Some days, he’d barely say two words to me as if he didn’t want to know the world existed, let alone anyone in it. Other days, he wanted to know everything, talk about everything and nothing.
He had two speeds. And the scary thing was, there was never any warning of when he was about to downshift or speed up. It just happened. Like a switch flicked in his brain.
I’d seen the medication in the bathroom. I also knew he didn’t touch it, thanks to the dust coating the unopened packets and bottles.
Whether it was because of the drug testing that came with being on the football team, or whether he thought he didn’t need it, I wasn’t sure. Either way, he’d never seemed too off for me to be too concerned, and it was none of my business. I figured if he wanted to talk about it, once he got into the right mood, he would.
I stood. “I’m going to hit the shower and crash, I think.”
“Whatever, don’t jack off in there unless you’re willing to clean the damn shower.”
“Like you fucking do.”
“True. But your aim is shit.”
Chuckling, I trudged upstairs and grabbed my sweats and a gray t-shirt, heading into the bathroom.
The water was hot, but I couldn’t resist turning it hotter. As if I could sweat the events of tonight out of my skin, let them slide down my body, and disappear into the drain.
Grabbing my cock, I wrapped my fist around it, pumping once, twice. Blue eyes, big tits with dark, rosy nipples, and even darker hair that spilled over them in tempting ribbons. I twitched in my palm, hardening.
Brown eyes, small breasts with dusky pink nipples, and messy blond hair that drove me wild anytime I touched or looked at it. My cock shot up like it just realized it’d slept in way too late. Angry, hard, and throbbing.
Fuck.
My teeth ground together, and my stomach twisted. Dropping my hand, I finished washing and got the hell out, feeling frustrated, excited, and guilty for a crime I had no plans of committing.
Sixteen years old
Pegging my painting on the line in the abandoned art classroom, I stepped back to take a good look at it.
It was a portrait of Spud, who was now fully grown yet still acted like a puppy most days.
Still, his happiness and loving personality were infectious. And no matter how many cows and chickens he scared, or how many pairs of shoes, articles of clothing, and handbags he stole and took to the barn to chew on, everyone loved him.
And painting him from the picture I took was seemingly effortless. I barely had to glance at it.
Shouting and cheering penetrated my foggy, affectionate thoughts, and my heart stopped.
Damn it. The game.
Grabbing my bag, I slung it over my shoulder and raced out of the classroom, down the hall, and burst out the double doors, almost falling down the steps.
My hair was stuck to something on my cheek, but I shoved it back and kept running as fast as I could until I reached the field. Once there, I tried to squish my way through the people in the bleachers to find a seat and ended up sitting half on some poor girl, who I recognized from biology, and half on the seat.
“Sorry,” I muttered hurriedly and shoved my glasses up my nose as my eyes frantically roamed the field for Quinn.
In the off season, he sometimes played baseball to help stay in shape. I found him just as he slid into third base, colliding with the baseman as he reached to catch the ball.
Quinn was up a second later, and my heart resumed its normal beating. That is, u
ntil he glanced up, scanning the crowd for me. He found me just as the girl got up beside me to cheer, sending me tumbling onto the concrete step. Ow.
Knowing Quinn would’ve seen, and despite feeling like I wanted to die from mortification, I scrambled back into my seat and sent him a wave.
He was leaving his base, walking toward me while the coach was yelling at him with a red face to pull his head back into the game. Seemingly appeased by my smile and shrug, he gave me a grin that even with the distance between us, made my scalp tingle and butterflies swarm.
“Sorry.” The girl next to me snickered cattily.
I ignored her, not really caring about her stupid revenge tactics when Quinn had my sole focus as he was running back into position.
My boyfriend. The word still made me trip on my own thoughts at times.
He was mine, he wanted me, and because of how obvious he was about it, I didn’t let the jealousy or mean things some people said about me get under my skin.
We were different, sure. I wasn’t a nerd, by any means, but I was a girl who was often found with a pen, pencil, or paintbrush in hand, and my head someplace else.
Yet I wasn’t so distracted that I didn’t know what people sometimes said. That I’d be hot if I had more boobs and ass, didn’t have a mouth full of braces, and if I did something about my wild hair that seemed to have a mind of its own.
Let’s not forget my lack of style. Chucks, sundresses, or jeans and a t-shirt.
I had no desire to dress up, and the only makeup I owned was my lip balm and mascara.
The game ended a little while later, and I had no idea who’d even won until the other team dragged themselves off the field. My cheeks threatened to turn pink over the fact I’d just been blatantly watching Quinn the whole time. Oh well.
He ran over, face red, helmet in hand, and his hair dripping with sweat as I walked down the stairs. He leaped up onto the rail and grinned so huge I was almost blown backward by the effect it had on me. “Dais.”
I smoothed back the strands of hair that’d fallen onto his forehead, not caring if they were sweat soaked. “Good game, booger breath.”
“One of these days, you’re going to have to stop calling me that.”
