Something About You

by J. Nathan

  “I needed your help, and you wouldn’t give it willingly.”

  “So, you lied to me?”

  He nodded. “I’m so sorry I hurt you, Shay. That was before I knew you.”

  “You don’t know me. You know nothing about me.”

  “I know you’re smart. And you don’t take shit from other people.”

  I scoffed. Wasn’t that the opposite of what I’d done with him?

  “And maybe I don’t know your backstory, but I do know you’re someone who helps other people, even when you don’t want to. And you’ve got a really pretty smile when you just allow yourself to show it.”

  “I need you to take me home. Actually, I’ll get my own ride. Stay with your people. You and Cora deserve each other. You both treat people like they’re nothing.” I took off toward the lodge.

  “Shay!” he called.

  “Let it go, Kason. This was never going past tonight.” I hurried around the side of the lodge and out to the parking lot, walking as quickly as I could and as far away from the building as I could get. I ordered an Uber and waited on a boulder on the side of the road, far from any prying eyes.

  My phone pinged with a text from Snowboard Hottie. I’m sorry.

  But was he? Did he know how it felt to think you’d done something out of character, something you couldn’t remember no matter how hard you tried? Because that’s what I’d been going through for the past few weeks thanks to his selfish desire to get me to tutor him.

  Well, at least I knew the truth.

  Now, I’d never have to speak to him again.

  CHAPTER 13

  Kason

  I lay in bed staring up at my ceiling. Sunlight filtered into my room, but I had no desire to leave my bed. Last night had been a shit show of epic proportions. And, I’d yet to get a call from Cora’s father dropping my ass. Great idea that was.

  My phone rang. I grabbed it off my nightstand only to find Giselle’s name on my screen. I contemplated letting it go to voicemail since I really wasn’t in the mood to talk, but I answered it anyway. “What’s up?”

  “How was last night?”

  “Sucked. Had to kiss a lot of ass.”

  “Not what I meant. How’d it go with Shay?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She’s different than the girls you usually date.”

  “Shay and I aren’t dating. She was helping me get rid of Cora once and for all. And, hopefully, my ticket to getting out of my contract with Slopes.”

  “Wait, what?”

  “You heard me. It was just a one-night thing.”

  Silence filled Giselle’s end.

  I knew I’d disappointed her. I fucking hated when I disappointed her. We may’ve only been two years apart, but I still wanted to make her proud. And, after what I just admitted, I knew I hadn’t. I sighed heavily. “Say it.”

  “You promised you’d be good to her,” she said.

  “She knew it was just for the night. I made her no promises.” Except, of course, the promise to erase the non-existent video.

  “I love you, Kase, but you’re a real asshole sometimes.”

  “Never claimed not to be.”

  “She’d be good for you.”

  I didn’t respond.

  “Don’t cut someone like her out of your life. She’s not the kind of girl you use and then throw away.”

  “And you know this because of the twenty minutes you spent with her?”

  “You can learn a lot about someone in a short time if you pay attention.” With that she hung up, leaving me to wonder what the hell she knew that made her care about Shay so quickly.

  I mean, I guess I could see how people could like Shay. It was hard not to be drawn in by her intelligence, sass, and no-bullshit attitude. Because I knew, something inside me changed when I couldn’t find her at the event. I thought she’d taken off. I thought I hadn’t had the chance to come clean to her. That feeling caused a giant void in my chest—one that came out of nowhere.

  Then, I saw her face as she left the restroom. It nearly broke me. As hard as she tried to conceal her sadness at whatever went down in there with Cora, I could see it. It lasted no more than a second, but it was replaced by a sense of relief when she found me standing there. Me. It was as if she was actually happy to see me for the first time. And, in that moment, I wanted to protect her. Protect her from all the mean girls out there. Protect her from people who couldn’t see the true beauty she was. But I couldn’t do that with the lie hanging over us. Unfortunately, I realized too late that there was no way to tell her the truth without it ending…well, the way it did.

  ***

  “You gonna pout all day?” Thayer asked from the driver’s seat of his truck the next day. “Because today’s gonna blow if you are.”

  “Maybe.” I didn’t leave my room all day yesterday. I felt like shit after speaking to Giselle—not to mention my hand in how everything played out Friday night. “Do you think I’m an asshole?”

  “What?”

  “Giselle said I can be a real asshole.”

  “You can be.”

  I gave him a look.

  But Thayer wasn’t intimidated by a look, ignoring me and pulling into the parking lot at Bear Mountain. “Can you even believe there’s snow in October?” he asked, our deep conversation clearly over.

  “It’s Colorado. Anything’s possible.”

  We hopped out of his truck and breathed in the crisp morning air. We’d left our house before the sunrise, wanting to get there as soon as they started running the lifts. We grabbed our snowboards and trekked toward the lodge.

  We caught the first lift of the day up to the summit so we could take the first run of the season. The view never got old as the cable carried our lift swiftly up the incline. The mountains were where I felt most at home—and alive.

  “So,” Thayer said. “What went down with you and Shay? I knew not to ask when you came back in without her, but I figured a couple of days passed, so…”

  I didn’t want to admit to anyone what I’d done. But Thayer was my best friend—as close to a brother as I was ever gonna get. And, just as nosey. If he still liked me after I stole his girl in ninth grade, he’d see my screw-up for what it was. A terrible lapse in judgment. “I did something shitty to her.”

  “Worse than taking her to the event to rile up Cora?” he asked.

  I nodded.

  Disappointment flashed in his eyes. “How shitty?”

  “I sort of blackmailed her into tutoring me.”

  “How do you sort of blackmail someone?”

  Hearing him say it made the whole situation sound even worse than it was. “Fine. I totally blackmailed her. And it all came to a head the other night.”

  “What the hell were you holding over her?”

  “Don’t make me say it.”

  “Dude,” he prompted.

  A long breath whooshed through my lips in a white puff of air. “I told her I had a video of her.”

  His eyes narrowed. “What kind of video?”

  I nodded, not really needing to say anymore.

  “Jesus Christ.”

  The disappointment in his voice told me what I already knew. I was a complete asshole. “I know.”

  “And now she hates you?” Thayer ascertained, probably happy that she saw me for who I really was.

  I nodded.

  Our lift approached the top and we hopped off, making our way toward the summit in silence. The sun rising over the horizon was a sight to behold. I just wished I didn’t feel so damn shitty on the inside.

  “You need to start thinking about other people,” Thayer said as he stopped at the top of the mountain.

  I moved beside him and stared down at the untouched snow before us.

  “You need to realize lying to people and not facing the truth isn’t the way to live your life. You need to realize your lies can hurt other people whether you intend them to or not. You need to be a better guy for all the girls you hang wit
h and all the snowboarders who idolize you.”

  “I suck, alright?” I said.

  “Was it worth it?”

  “Hurting Shay?”

  He nodded.

  “No.”

  “Then, learn something from this shit. Trying to get out of your sponsorship contract in a shady-ass way doesn’t seem so important now, does it?”

  “Obviously no.”

  “Well, you need to fix it,” he said.

  “If there’s someone who could hold a grudge, it’s gonna be that girl.”

  “Then do something nice for her. Girls love that shit.”

  “Something nice?”

  “Yeah. What does she like?”

  I thought for a moment. “Physics…eighties and nineties rock music…combat boots.”

  “Well, that’s a start.” He dropped in, taking off down the mountain without me, probably needing space from his asshole best friend who proved yet again to be even more of an asshole than he’d been the day before.

  I dropped in. My board drifted over the fresh powder as if no time had passed since my last run. I took each turn with the precision I always did, but Shay’s voice manifested itself in my mind. I found myself paying attention to the curve of my board, allowing myself to slide a little to see what she’d explained when trying to relate snowboarding to physics.

  She’d known what would help me. And used that. She’d spent time preparing to help me, all the while I’d been manipulating her. What kind of person did that?

  Shay and I never would have gotten to a good place because she never forgot why she was tutoring me. She never forgot I was blackmailing her. I wondered if we would have gotten along if I hadn’t forced her to tutor me. Would she have ever let her guard down with me if I didn’t have some video of us hanging over her head? Would things have been different if I’d never lied?

  Maybe my honesty Friday night—albeit a shock to her—created a clean slate for us.

  Maybe Thayer was right.

  Maybe I needed to do something nice for her so she could see I wasn’t the guy she thought I was.

  CHAPTER 14

  Kason

  I arrived to physics class early Monday morning, hoping to speak to Shay. I hated the way we left things the other night. And, after what Giselle and Thayer had said, I knew I needed to make things right. But Shay wasn’t at her table when I entered the room. I scanned the other tables, wondering if she changed her seat, but there was no sign of her. I moved to my seat and the girl who normally sat next to me tried to make small talk, but all I could focus on was the door.

  “Good morning, everyone,” Professor Raymond announced as he strolled into the classroom, closing the door behind him. “Open your books to page one hundred and ten. We’re going to continue our discussion on Kepler’s Three Laws.”

  The classroom door squeaked open and Shay hurried in, mumbling her apologies to the professor as she passed by him. Her braids were back and no makeup touched her pale cheeks as she slipped into her seat. This was the Shay she shared with the world. The one you could take or leave for all she cared. But, for some reason, I didn’t want to leave her. I wanted her to tutor me. I wanted her to put me in my place. I wanted her to hate me. At least it meant she felt something. Because, knowing she didn’t, sucked.

  “Does anyone know what Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion are?” Professor Raymond’s eyes scanned the room.

  My eyes went right to Shay. She opened her laptop but didn’t offer to answer his question. That was completely unlike her. I knew she knew Kepler’s three laws. Why wasn’t she answering?

  “Anyone?” Professor Raymond asked, looking to Shay.

  Still, she didn’t offer an answer, instead staring into her laptop screen.

  “I think…” I began. “There are three.”

  Laughter erupted around the classroom.

  I hadn’t meant to entertain them. I was just racking my brain for what I’d learned. “The Law of Harmonies,” I continued before he thought I was being a dick.

  “Very good, Mr. McCloud,” Professor Raymond said as if he was just as shocked as I was that I knew the answer—or at least part of it.

  Shay didn’t look in my direction.

  “The Law of Ellipses,” I continued, having no idea how I remembered that one.

  Professor Raymond smiled, seemingly impressed.

  “And the Law of…Equal Areas,” I said.

  Professor Raymond smiled. “Perfect, Mr. McCloud.”

  I exhaled.

  The girl beside me smiled at me, impressed by my newfound intelligence. But she wasn’t the girl I wanted looking at me. The girl whose attention I wanted did not look at me then or for the remainder of the class.

  When Professor Raymond dismissed us an hour later, I stuffed my things into my bag and grabbed my skateboard, ready to walk out with Shay. But, before I could meet up with her, she walked up to Professor Raymond to speak to him. Not wanting to look like a creepy stalker, I walked out of class and stopped in the hallway. Not giving up that easily, I leaned against the wall and waited for her.

  The door opened a few minutes later. I pushed off the wall and attempted to approach her, but she and Professor Raymond were caught up in conversation as they walked down the hallway together, ignoring me completely.

  Dammit.

  Shay

  “So, I’ve been brainstorming some things and knew you were the one to ask,” Professor Raymond said as we made our way out of the building together.

  “Okay.”

  “Well, you obviously don’t need to be taking my class.”

  “What? I love your class.”

  He chuckled. “No, I just meant, you’re quite capable of teaching it with all the prior knowledge you possess.”

  My eyes flashed down as my cheeks warmed. “I don’t know everything.”

  “Stop being modest. I know you want to volunteer and, up until now, I wasn’t sure how I could best utilize you.”

  “What do you have in mind?”

  “Well, I don’t have a TA this semester. But, I’ve never heard of a freshman serving as a TA, so I don’t really think that’s an option. I was actually hoping you could play a more behind-the-scenes type of role for me.”

  My brows furrowed.

  “Let me cut to the chase. More than half of the students in your class are failing.”

  My eyes widened, though thinking about it, besides Kason tossing out that answer today, I was the only one in class who ever participated.

  “I don’t want the dean questioning me about my teaching because these students don’t have the work ethic you do. So, I was looking to set up a study group. And, I’d like to have you tutor those who show up.”

  “Oh, I…”

  “I can’t pay you, but I assure you, it will look great on a resume.”

  “I’m sure it will, but when I asked about volunteering, I was hoping you might need someone in the lab.”

  “You did say you’d sweep floors,” he reminded me.

  “I did say that, didn’t I?”

  ***

  Frustrated with the way my conversation with Professor Raymond had gone earlier, I ate an early dinner and decided to shower before bed. I didn’t want to tutor people who didn’t want to put in the effort to pass his class. I wanted to be swept up in science research in a lab somewhere. But, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Given the way things had been going for me lately, this was par for the course.

  I made my way to the bathroom in my shower robe and untied combat boots. I pulled open the door to the bathroom and jumped back when Cora stood there glaring at me. In no mood to deal with her, I tried to move around her.

  She shifted her hip so I couldn’t.

  “Look,” I said, wanting nothing more than to be away from her. “We live next door to each other. Can’t we just agree not to bother with one another? I know I’m fine with it.”

  Her eyes dropped to my boots, as usual ogling them with distaste. “Since
day one you’ve been getting in my way. And now you think you can show up to my father’s event with my man and we can just ignore each other? That’s not how things work in the real world.”

  “For your information, I hate your man. I was forced into going to that stupid event. You can have him. Seriously. He’s all yours.”

  Her mouth opened then closed as if she hadn’t expected me to relent so easily.

  “Now, can you move so I can shower?”

  She stared me down for a long time, seemingly unsure what to make of the information I’d given her. Unexpectedly, she stepped out of the way.

  I moved away and into a warm shower, letting all thoughts of selfish assholes flee my brain.

  CHAPTER 15

  Kason

  I arrived to physics before the rest of the class. But just like last class, Shay had ducked in at the last minute, avoiding eye contact with me at all costs. The fact that she thought she could avoid me for the rest of the semester had me pulling out my phone and texting her. Hi.

  She pulled out her phone to check it when it must have vibrated with my text. She instantly shoved it back into her bag without responding.

  “We’ll be having a test on this unit next Monday,” Professor Raymond announced at the end of class. “And I have some exciting news,” he continued. “Since many of you seem to be struggling this semester, I’ve set up a study group to assist with your study skills.”

  I scoffed. Sounds exciting.

  “Ms. Miller will be leading the group.”

  Wait. What?

  “The study group will run from seven to eight on Wednesday nights in the conference room by my office starting tonight.”

  Holy crap.

  Shay Miller didn’t want to look at me or return my texts, but I knew where I’d be Wednesday nights. And there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.

  ***

  I walked into the dark building, searching for the conference room a few minutes before seven. There was one other guy outside the door at the end of the hallway. “Are you here for the study group?” I asked.