“Sure. But hurry up. I miss you.” His confession forced a goofy grin to pull at my lips. As soon as we said goodbye, Alex turned down the music, but kept her eyes on the road.
“Girlfriend?” There was a hint of accusation in her question.
I scrubbed my hand through my hair, trying to figure out what the best approach was. “Something like that, but it’s nothing serious.” Calling what I had with Dylan “casual” made bile rise in my throat. It was anything but that. I just didn’t need to get into it with Alex.
“That’s me.” I pointed to my house and she parked in the road. Scott was still knocked out in the back, curled up like a baby. I was actually surprised he hadn’t fallen off the seat when the car shifted into park.
“So if it’s nothing serious, can we get together next weekend?” she asked nervously. Even if I was straight, what did she see in me?
“No, I don’t think–”
She cut me off before I could finish. “Come on, Shane. It’ll be fun.” She gave me a pouty face look and I rolled my eyes.
I shocked even myself when I said, “Okay, sure.”
She bounced in her seat, but simply said, “Cool.”
After we exchanged numbers, I quickly added, “As friends.” It was a clarification, not a question.
She leaned across the center console. “Sure,” her voice was pitched low and she trailed a fingernail down the length of my arm. I just rolled my eyes, trying desperately to hide my unease.
I didn’t want to go out with her. It was pretty much the last thing I wanted to do, but I didn’t want to turn her down, make her feel rejected, at least not to her face. I had a week to come up with an excuse and call her to break it off. Maybe it would be easier to do over the phone rather than in person.
I thought of all of this as I softly crept into my house and up the stairs to my room, careful to avoid all the spots that creaked loudly when you stepped on them.
Thankfully, I arrived home before Reid, which left me alone in our bedroom.
I flopped back on my bed, slid my phone out of my pocket, and dialed Dylan. He picked up on the first ring.
“Hey,” his voice bathed over me, sending shivers everywhere.
I sighed into the line, “God, I miss you.”
“I miss you, too. So much.” We’d been apart for a little over a month, but the aching pain of him not being here was not easy to deal with.
“How’s the team?” I asked, genuinely interested in how the fall training league was going. I listened intently as he told me all about his teammates, all the while trying to bite back my jealousy that they got his time when I couldn’t. “Sounds like things are amazing,” I added the “for you” quietly, not without a hint of anger. But the anger was all directed at myself.
“What’s been going on with you?” Even though I couldn’t see it, I could hear his smile. The sounds of sheets and blankets rustled through the line. I filled him in on school – not that there was anything exciting going on with that.
We both tiptoed around the topic of my family. I could tell he wanted to ask, but we hadn’t spoken in so long, neither of us wanted to waste the time talking about things that were never going to change.
“Oh, get this. You remember Scott Henderson, from camp last summer?”
“Yeah.” The tone of that single word was icy and curt. “Why?”
“He’s in my sociology class. I actually went to a party with him tonight.” It wasn’t as if I had done anything wrong, but the tension that hung in the silence between us told me differently. It actually took Dylan so long to say anything that I had to pull my phone away from my ear to see if the call had been dropped. “You still there?”
“Yeah.” His clipped tone put me on edge.
“What’s the problem?” I became defensive.
“Nothing.”
“Bullshit, Dylan. I can hear it in your voice. What’s the problem?” Starting a fight with him was the last thing I wanted, but I technically hadn’t started it.
“He’s an asshole, that’s all.”
I huffed flippantly. “Well, it’s not like I have groupies following me around like you or anything.” Now it was my turn to let the tension-laden silence settle between us.
