by Hazel Grace
“Do you now own the sidewalk since I’ve been gone, Bases?” I ask with a lifted brow.
Abercrombie smiles. “Holy shit, this is the Colson Hayes?” Sawyer rolls her eyes, averting her gaze from me.
And now, I’m fucking curious as to how much she’s been talking about me over the years. But it doesn’t settle well with Mickey Blue Eyes over here.
He extends his hand to me. “I’m Jake.” I glimpse down at it. Long fingers, soft skin, looks like he never worked a hard day in his life.
Sawyer shoves his arm down. “Don’t bother.”
“That’s not very nice,” I chastise with furrowed brows and a face of innocence. “I’d love to meet boyfriend number two.” I wait for Jake’s face to fall, but it doesn’t.
They both look at me like I’m a trespasser and not in on some little secret of theirs.
“I’m a little bit more than that,” Jake voices, the corner of his lips elevating. “I get to participate in more—”
“That’s enough,” Sawyer chides, her eyes still locked on me. “Are we in your way?”
Yeah. He’s in my fucking way.
“Just saw you from across the street,” I convey indifferently. “Thought I’d say ‘hi.’” Sawyer’s nostrils flare, something she did when she was trying to keep her temper in check.
But I loved when she went off the handle.
She continues to ignore me, so I bring my attention to good ‘ole Jake here who’s about to get sent back to wherever the fuck he came from.
“So, Jake,” I voice. “How long have you and Sawyer been seeing each other?” I’m waiting for the nervousness to set in, to double guess himself on how much he should say so as not to upset Sawyer.
But the motherfucker hits me dead on with his eyes.
“Hm, damn,” he says, squinting his eyes as though to think upon it. “Quite a while. We met in college, I was the senior who couldn’t keep my eyes off her. Took me some time but, as you know, or don’t, she deserves the effort.”
“No, I don’t know, actually,” I counter, letting my eyes dig into Sawyer’s again. I never got that fucking chance, she blocked me out, set me up, and shattered me all in one night. “But I will say, she was fun while it lasted.”
Jake chuckles, sweeping a piece of his brown sugar hair. “Shame, dude. She’s the best I’ve ever had.”
I fight my fingers from forming into fists. This dickhead is trying to get a rise out of me, but he won’t see it. I’m the king of poker faces and cutting down chumps like this toolbag out of a magazine in front of me.
“I could say the same about her assistant,” I state, watching Sawyer’s jaw slowly gape at me. I would’ve loved to see the look on her face when I sent Veronica back to her.
“Damn, I wish she could’ve said the same about you,” Sawyer shoots back. I smile, accomplishing enough for today.
“I’ll have to fix that. Thanks for the notes.” I look up at Jake. “Take it easy, man. I’m sure I’ll see you around.”
“You definitely will,” he informs, pulling Sawyer into his chest again. I collide with her green eyes one more time.
“See you around, Bases.” I give her a smirk before turning on my heels to cross the street.
No wannabe me is going to keep what was mine so long ago in my fucking town. I’ll make sure of it.
She’ll be a born again virgin by the time I’m done.
Ten years ago
A french fry hits me square in the forehead. “Earth to Sawyer,” Taylor chants, sitting across from me at our lunch table. “Your boyfriend just walked in.”
I break my gaze from the place it shouldn’t be right now, but it’s been on him ever since he walked into the cafeteria.
Colson’s dressed in a navy blue shirt that barely fits over his muscles with dark blue jeans. Melanie Pulis, yeah that Melanie from my softball team, giggles and flips her beautiful sandy blonde hair over her shoulder at something he says.
And instead of him glowering at her, he smirks, propping his butt on the folded lunch table next to her.
“Stop looking at him,” Taylor chastises me. “Can you be any more obvious?”
I break my stare to look at her. “People can think what they want, I was just wondering why Melanie constantly hurts herself with throwing her body at him all the time. He isn’t going to commit.”
My friend dips a fry into her ketchup and shrugs. “Maybe she doesn’t want a boyfriend but a fuck buddy.”
“Yeah right, every girl uses a boyfriend as a free pass to be cool around here.”
“Melanie doesn’t need a free pass,” Taylor retorts. “She could get any guy she wants with her big tits and fat ass.”
My eyes widen. “Taylor!”
She gives me a half shrug. “I’m surprised she can fit in our softball pants.” I chuckle and throw a broken chip at her, envisioning Melanie having to jump in the air a few times to pull her pants up over her bubble butt.
“You’re so mean,” I condemn.
“It’s not mean when she talks about it all the damn time. Her and her ass are best friends.” I glide my gaze back over to Colson, his face is hidden next to her ear and in the crook of her neck.
I’m disturbed at how stupid these girls were around him. Everyone knows he flirts and makes out with every cute girl here.
Familiar hands wrap around my waist as I’m pulled back into Gavin’s chest, his lips pressed against my cheek. “Hey, hottie.”
I thread my hand through his hair and hear Taylor say she’s leaving this love fest. He sits next to me, his hand cupping the side of my face as he slowly brings our lips together for a quick kiss. “I’ve been waiting to do that all day.”
I smile. “You kissed me after third period.” He twirls a lock of my hair and gives it a light tug, guiding me back to his lips.
“It felt like all day.” His warm lips caress mine with no direction, and I feel my body warm when his fingers graze my cheek down to my chin.
Gavin has always been gentle and sweet, not the hustler that Taylor says he is and Colson has warned me about. She said she’s known him since elementary school, and even then he was trying to score a kiss from girls and ran under the monkey bars to look up their dresses.
“You’re so pretty,” Gavin claims before his tongue enters my mouth, circling mine gently, sending chills throughout my body and between my thighs. A soft moan leaves my mouth as his lips continue in smooth movements, forfeiting all my thoughts of being in the middle of a crowded lunchroom until an invisible pull flutters my eyes open through my lashes.
Colson’s eyes drill through me, filled with disgust and his usual regard of loathing. Melanie is curled up around his arm, oblivious to what is happening as she giggles something to someone on the other side of her.
I suddenly feel unsafe, even with Gavin devouring my lip between his teeth. Pricks of uneasiness scatter through my body at his piercing stare. I can’t fight it off, I don’t know how to. I’ve ever had someone gape at me with such angst in their eyes.
“What’s the matter?” Gavin murmurs. I hadn’t even noticed I’ve stopped kissing him. His fingers are grazing my upper thighs, beckoning for my attention back that’s over his shoulder.
“Nothing, sorry. I’m okay,” I bore out, sounding like a zombie, detached and solely hypnotized by his best friend a few yards from me.
I’m not going to be that girl. The one that is attracted to my boyfriend’s buddy. Especially since I’ve seen that said buddy making out with several different girls after practice just to hear about it the next day.
“You wanna skip the rest of the day?”
I shake my head. “No, I have a test in History.” My shoulders sag in defeat, as I force a grin at Gavin.
Colson and I share that class.
Gavin steals a few more kisses before the lunch bell rings, signaling that our thirty minutes of freedom are over.
“See you at practice, babe,” Gavin says, kissing my forehead before making his way out
of the cafeteria.
I scoot out of the lunchroom, throw away the rest of my lunch, and hustle down the crowded halls to Mr. B’s room. I debate with the fact that if I showed up later than I normally did, Colson wouldn’t have time to open his mouth or shoot daggers at me with his eyes. But before a test, I like to read over my notes and recap everything.
When I do arrive in class, Colson isn’t there. And, since I’m desperate, I ask the next student who walks in to sit behind me. Thankfully, he doesn’t ask me why, just narrows his bushy eyebrows and does it.
The classroom starts filling in as I glance at the clock over the door with one minute to go. Students sit in the desks surrounding mine, and I feel safer, relaxed.
The one minute warning bell rings and Mr. B rushes through the door, apologizing for his own tardiness and to give him a few moments to get his things together.
A weak grin tugs at my lips, he isn’t coming to class. A small victory to calm my nerves as I pull my notes out quickly to look them over, along with my pen.
Then a dark pair of jeans squeezes through the aisle, passing my desk. A crack of snapped fingers sounds with the rustling of books and a desk scraping against the tan tiles of the classroom floor.
I peer behind me only to be met with Colson’s crestfallen face, clearly unamused at my staged roadblock I put behind me. I quickly straighten in my seat, breathing heavily through my nose while a chill of goosebumps shoot up my arms. I can still feel his heated glare striking me in the back of the head.
Well, it was worth a shot.
Mr. B announces to the class that we can have five minutes to study and the rest of the class hour to do our test. Quickly, I flip through my white index cards, the ink blends together, as I try to ignore the crawl of Colson’s animosity up my spine.
My phone buzzes in my back pocket of my jeans, but I don’t grab it. My body is submissive in my chair, just waiting for the longest five minutes of my life to pass so that Colson will be busy focusing on something else.
Anything else.
Suddenly, I feel a soft tug and my phone starts to slip out of the back pocket of my jeans then it taps along my shoulder.
Did he just...
With my focus on Mr. B leaned over his desk, I snatch my phone out of Colson’s hands and press my lips together. I’m getting really tired of him touching me and my stuff.
My phone vibrates again in my hands as I turn the screen on.
Gavin: Good luck on your test *smiley face*
Colson: Are you going to be okay taking this test?
Me to Gavin: Thank you! *smiley face emoji*
Me to Colson: Why wouldn’t I be? I studied for days.
Colson: Because of the way Gavin was eating your face at lunch it looked like you couldn’t breathe. Lack of oxygen to your brain?
I pinch the bridge of my nose, if he only knew why I couldn’t breathe.
Me: Who cares?
“Alright class, put your notes away,” Mr. B chimes. “Pens out, please, and let’s get ready.” He makes his way to the furthest row of desks and starts passing out the test. “Do I even need to say no cheating or I’ll throw you out of here?” The class mumbles its “no’s,” and I steady myself.
Tests are not my forte. No matter how how much I study, there is always that one question that I remember seeing a million times and, for the life of me, can’t remember the answer. Mr. B is a tough teacher, but he’s interesting and informative, a little bit of a stickler, but I do enjoy his class.
He approaches closer to our row, and I slide my phone into my lap, needing to ditch it so he doesn’t think I’m going to cheat. My test is handed back to me from the student ahead, and I pinch the edge of the paper as I pass it back so that I don’t touch Colson.
Think again, Sawyer.
His whole hand purposely cups around mine, sliding his fingers down my skin, causing a violent shiver to slam through me. He’s screwing with me again.
Him and his little games.
“Alright class,” Mr. B declares. “You may start your tests. Remember what I said about the cheating.”
Before I can even write my name on my paper, my phone is going off again. I ignore it until it goes off seconds later.
Colson: I care.
And it’s rude to fucking ignore people.
So I act rude and ignore him again.
Skimming through the first few questions of my test, I know the answers and feel a little relieved that my studying has paid off so far. I’m skimming by a thread with my “A” in the class, and I need to keep it. My GPA is a 3.9 right now, and my goal is a perfect 4.0 for my college applications.
“If you don’t answer my text,” Colson bites out in a soft whisper behind me. “Then I’m going to make sure Mr. B knows you have that phone out.” My head slowly rises, my eyes landing on our history teacher, skimming papers behind his desk. And I’m not going to call Colson’s bluff after what he did at the Alpena game.
Me: I’m taking a test like YOU should be doing.
I stretch my neck, feeling the stress of the jerk behind me making me tense.
Colson: You’re going to get hurt if you don’t keep your heart guarded against Gavin.
Me: Thanks.
Colson: I’m serious, Bases. I can’t open my mouth, bro code and shit, but just think about it.
Me: Thought about it. Now back to my test.
Colson: He doesn’t fit you.
Sure, because I’ve seen nothing but a really nice guy who goes out of his way to put a smile on my face.
Me: Please let me finish my test, Hayes.
He leaves me alone, and I finish my test a few moments later, handing it into Mr. B then immediately get out of class. I’m irritated that I didn’t spend as much time on it as I wanted, but I can’t bear being in that classroom another second.
Walking through the empty halls, I have nowhere to go but my next class that is still in session. It doesn’t keep the words on my phone from repeating in my head.
I’m trying to blow them off. The simple fact that he’s trying to, what, protect me from his best friend is stupid. He’d love to see me hurt. He’d feed on it. Maybe he’s changing tactics and trying to act nice to get me to do what he wants.
Still won’t work.
Gavin is really wonderful. He let me pick out the movie on our two dates, he bought me half the candy row and a large bucket of popcorn. He didn’t try making out with me the whole movie like half of the theatre was doing, just held my hand.
Whatever Taylor knows about him, and I don’t doubt what she’s told me is true, I haven’t seen it yet.
People mature, right?
“Bases.” My body jolts at his voice behind me, jerking me around to face him.
“Are you serious?” I bite out, my hand covering my chest where my heart resides. I can feel the violent rhythm in my palm. He closes the distance between us, locking me in as his target.
“I was serious about what I said.”
My brows furrow. “What am I, a charity case?” He shakes his head, walking closer and not stopping until he’s inches away from my body.
“No, just looking out for you.”
“Looking out for me?” I recite, chomping down a chuckle. “Is that what you call getting me thrown out of the Alpena game last week?” I narrow my eyes into slits. “I don’t need nor want your help.”
“You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into.”
I take a small step back. “That’s the whole point of dating someone, Hayes, you get to know them. I know that’s a foreign concept to you.”
“Foreign, but I can pick up the language.”
“Well, thanks for the warning. I’ll consider it.” I begin to turn around and walk away, but he speaks again.
“No, you won’t,” he deadpans in a monotone voice.
“Listen, I don’t know what game you’re playing—” I wave a hand in between us “—this nice card. But I’ll be fine. You’re not the only one to tell me
to watch it.”
His brows slowly furrow, his lips parting slightly. “But...you still took a high-risked chance and dated him anyway?” I force my face to stay placid while annoyance chimes in my head at the thought of everyone thinking I’m some sort of moron. I can handle myself, I don’t need protection or reminders.
If Gavin was a man whore before, I don’t see it now. He doesn’t disappear, I hear from him several times a day, at lunch, and after school at practice. There aren’t any void spaces where I can honestly say that I’ve had red flags waving in front of me. And even if there were, the girls on my team would be gossiping about it like they do everyone else.
“Hayes, you act like this is an arranged marriage and I’m going to ruin my life or something.”
“Again, you're going to ruin both of ours,” he fumes, his eyes averted from me.
I don’t ask him to elaborate, I already know about his plans with Gavin. About the baseball scouts and the scholarships that they need to nail down to go to college. I wasn’t going to ruin their chances by begging Gavin to stay near me, I knew how important it was to have financial backing. The thought of graduation and what was going to happen with Gavin and I was something I’ve thought a little about, but we’ve only been dating about two weeks, and I was just going to see how the summer went.
“I’m not going to let anything happen to your dream. I know how crucial it is to you,” I pipe in, mindlessly placing my hand on his forearm. I watch him tense, swallowing as he peers down at it.
He nods and shifts his weight, hinting that I’m making him uncomfortable. I quickly snatch my hand away. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” he asks gravely, bringing his gaze from his arm up to me.
“For...touching you. That was invading your space.” A melancholy laugh leaves his lips as he shakes his head.
“Oh, Bases, you don’t know how much I wish you’d push that line with invading my space.”
The bell rings, cracking the moment as quickly as it came.
“One more chance, Bases,” he mutters softly. Then begins walking backward and speaks louder as the hallway starts to fill with students. “Call it off.” Then he blends in with the crowd of students emptying out into the halls, leaving me to wonder what the hell is wrong with him.
