“What?You don’t drink either?”Levi scoffs, making himself known.My sobriety isn’t something I usually open with, mostly because people don’t understand it.It isn’t a result of a personal problem, and I don’t have a good story to tell leading up to the decision, I just don’t drink.
“No, I don’t,” I say, looking up at him, wanting to know what he meant by “either” but not brazen enough to ask.
“Why?”he presses.
“Why does it matter?”I push back.Clay retracts the drink.Gabriella takes a sip and sighs, seemingly bored of our verbal antics.
“I’m just curious, Tate,” he says sternly, not backing down.
“Why does it make you uncomfortable, Levi?!”I could tell he wasn’t expecting that response by the way his body rears back a bit.Gabriella golf claps.
“Yes, I knew you had it in you somewhere!”she says.
Somewhere in the back of my mind I know that if Gabriella is clapping, I’ve gone too far, and none of this feels like me.My eyes drop to the ground in front of me.
“Levi, I’m sorry I raised my voice at you.”I exhale.“I think I’m going to head up for the night.”
“I’ll see you up there in a bit,” Gabriella says into the bottom of her cup as she finishes the last sip before snatching what was mine out of Clay’s hand.
Clay doesn’t mind.He’s smiling at me, face eager.“I’ll see you tomorrow, partner.”
Levi shifts on his feet, maybe waiting for more parting words, but I have nothing planned.I press my mouth into a small smile in his direction before striding past him on the way back inside.The yard is considerably less crowded than it was a couple hours ago, with groups of people now spread throughout the grounds; most contestants have found their clique.It’s pretty cool that people from all over the country can be put in a house with one hundred strangers and make new friends in only a couple of hours.I have Gabriella now, and Clay.
The heat of the day has finally broken, draping everything in a moody blue glaze.I step through the slider, into the house, and for whatever reason, my eyes lock on the pantry.It’s just a large white door, pretty inconspicuous in every way, but somehow, I feel like I won’t be able to walk in it without thinking about what I saw.Yeah, I shake my head loose of any thoughts of blonde tattooed girls or tall arrogant boys.Cowboys.
Chapter 8
Levi
“OMG, Levi, you totally have a thing for Tate!”
“Would you please keep it down?”I say, snapping after the third comment of the same nature.
Ever since Tate walked through those slider doors, Gabriella, who, for the record, turns out to be way more delusional than the girls I typically date, has been hounding me to, as she says, “embrace my feelings.”She’s leaning forward, elbows resting on her knees as her eyes dig into my soul with an ice pick.Clay is leaning back in his chair with his third (fourth?) beer, pretending not to care, but every couple of seconds he looks back and tries to read me too.
“Look, Gabby—”
