One More Step

by Colleen Hoover

  “No one checked to make sure you were okay either,” I tell him, feeling like he’s trying to make me feel bad and wanting to do the same to him.

  “Those people aren’t my friends.”

  “No?” I ask. With how much time they spend together, I figured they were the best of friends.

  “They’re my teammates. They’ve got my back on the field, and I have theirs. But we’re not friends.”

  “Ahhh, got it. You have no friends.”

  “So, I can take you up there and you can chill in your underwear until you can convince your friends to go home, which they probably shouldn’t anyway, since they’d be driving drunk. Or, you could just come to my house where it’ll be warm. I’ll even let you borrow some of my clothes,” he says, ignoring my comment.

  “Aren’t you drunk?” I ask. I mean, he must be because Kayden being nice to me isn’t a thing that I expect to happen while he’s sober.

  “I had one beer in the last two hours. Not many before then.”

  “How come?”

  “I guess part of me knew you were going to do something stupid the moment you started betting you could jump.”

  “I call bull,” I tell him.

  He puts the car in drive and pulls out of the parking lot. “Really? Why’d you think I took my time getting to the top of the rock? I know you realized I wasn’t there when the others were.”

  “I don’t pay attention to your whereabouts,” I tell him as he starts driving in the direction of his house. That’s a lie though. The moment I felt him on my right earlier, I looked in his direction. The air always changes. I can always tell.

  “Remember when I said I think ahead?” he asks.

  “Are you telling me you thought I was going to jump off the rock and you’d jump after me and then you’d be giving me a ride to your house?”

  “I figured you were too much of a hardheaded person to not jump. I would never just let you plummet on your own without being there… the whole sleeping at my house thing, that wasn’t part of my analysis, but hey, two for three.”

  I bring my hands to the vents and let the air start to warm me. Kayden extends his arm toward the back seat then places a blanket on my lap. “Wow, you really do think of everything,” I tell him.

  “I always keep a blanket in the car, so don’t think I had that all ready for you.”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it, Harrison.”

  “Good, Cole. Don’t want you thinking I’m a good guy now.”

  “Not a chance. You’ve spent many years being a jerk, one night doesn’t make up for all that,” I reply with a smile then make myself comfortable for the rest of the ride.

  KAYDEN HARRISON

  I park the car in the garage and shut it off. Removing the key from the ignition, I step out and close the door slowly. Then, I head over to the passenger side and open the door.

  Ari stirs in her sleep, the blanket I’d given her wrapped around her while her hair covers most of her face.

  She looks beautiful… and calm. If anyone else saw her now, they’d believe she’s a sweetheart, but I know that’s not true. At least not when it comes to me. And you know what, I like her just as she is.

  I place one of my arms under her knees and the other comes around her waist as I lift her from the car seat.

  “What the hell?” she screams, opening her eyes widely as she shifts her body unexpectedly.

  I drop her. I don’t mean to, but I wasn’t expecting her to wake up, let alone start fighting me. “Oh damn, I’m so sorry,” I tell her, feeling like the worst person in the world while extending my hand to help her up.

  Her eyes have that fire that have always drawn me to her. “Are you okay?” I ask when she doesn’t say anything. “Did that hurt? I’m so sorry,” I tell her again. I can’t believe I dropped her. “I swear to you it wasn’t intentional. I thought you were asleep.”

  She bats my hand away and gets up from the floor with the blanket in tow. She brings it around her body, covering herself once again. “You couldn’t have just woken me up?” she asks, like that was the more simple solution. I guess it was.

  I run my fingers through my hair. “I was trying to be nice.”

  “So nice you dropped me,” she replies, making me feel even worse.

  “I swear on everything that I did not mean to,” I tell her, hoping she sees the sincerity in my eyes. I’ve always given her a hard time, but I’d never want her to get hurt. I would never want to hurt her.

  She stares back at me and I swear she’s going to kick me in the balls or something. That she’ll exact some plan to get even. I’m surprised when her frown is replaced by a smile. I find that even more unsettling despite how much more beautiful it makes her look standing in my parking garage, wrapped in my blanket, with her curls framing her face.

  “The look on your face was priceless,” she says, her smile turning into a full-fledged laughter.

  I shake my head. “Are you serious? I thought you got hurt badly. I thought you were going to kill me.”

  She shrugs. “I could tell you didn’t mean to.”

  “How so?”

  “You’re not the only one who pays attention,” she says and I crack a smile. “When I fell, you looked like you’d seen a ghost.”

  “So, you knew it was an accident?”

  She nods. “Yup. But I wanted to see you suffer a little anyway. It’s rare to see The Kayden Harrison,” she says, her arm pointing from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet, “look genuinely apologetic.”

  “I’ve been nothing but kind to you tonight!” I tell her.

  “Yeah… I still don’t know what that’s about,” she says, looking at me quizzically.

  I press the button to close the garage door. “Well, while you try and figure that out, do you mind if we go inside? You may have a blanket covering you, but my pants are still wet. And let me tell you, wet jeans are not the best for—”

  “Alright! Let’s go in. But please, stop it with the too much information.”

  I chuckle. “I was going to say for lounging around… I didn’t know you had a dirty mind. I’ll

  store that bit of information.”

  Her eyes open wide and I know she’s embarrassed. It’s cute. “No, that’s not what…” my

  laughter makes her stop talking. “Jerk!”

  “You made me sweat earlier.”

  “Yeah yeah…”

  “Let’s go inside,” I tell her, walking past her and toward the door.

  I feel her hand touch my shoulder and I instantly turn around, which causes her to run into me. “Wow there,” I tell her, not stepping away but looking at her diamond-shaped eyes looking up at me.

  “Sorry,” she replies, her voice low. “Are your parents’ home?” she asks.

  “Why? What’d you have in mind?” I tell her and wink. She tries to push me back for the second time tonight, without any success. “I thought you had learned your lesson… pushing me is pointless.”

  “Yeah, I’m starting to see that.”

  “So, why’d you want to know if my parents are home?”

  “Maybe because you’re walking in shirtless, and I’m wearing underwear and your blanket.”

  “My blanket looks good on you,” I tell her, wishing it were my arms wrapped around her instead.

  “Be serious!” she yells and then lowers her voice when she remembers she’s trying to figure out if someone is home.

  I smile at her. “No one is home. My dad is away for work this weekend.”

  ARI COLE

  “And your mom?” I ask, and the moment the question leaves my mouth I realized I messed up. I can see it in the way his smile vanishes. The light in his eyes disappear.

  “She’s not here either,” he says, then turns around and opens a door.

  I stay behind, not knowing whether I should be following or turning around and heading home.

  “What are you doing?” he asks when he notices.

  I rock back and forth.
“I put my foot in my mouth.”

  “Why do you think that?” he asks.

  “Because, the moment I mentioned your mom… I saw the light in your eyes disappear.”

  He nods, leaning against the door. “So what, now you’re just going to stand in my garage?”

  “I’m debating my options.”

  He crosses his arms. “And what are your options?”

  “Well, I could stand here.”

  “Interesting.”

  “Or, I could turn around and go home.”

  “And would you be taking my blanket with you or walking home in your underwear?” he asks then cracks a smile, which makes me feel so relieved. I hated the thought of hurting his feelings. The fact that I feel better knowing he’s okay is unsettling though.

  “Smartass,” I tell him.

  “Have you made up your mind?”

  “Why are you making this harder than it should be?!”

  He steps closer to me. “What do you want to do, Ari?”

  “Well, I don’t want to go home in my underwear,” I tell him, crossing my arms.

  “So, I guess you’re stuck with me, huh?”

  “Only if you’re still okay with me staying.”

  “Why wouldn’t I be okay with that? I brought you here, right?” he takes another step toward me.

  “Because,” I start but am afraid of screwing it up again.

  He extends his hand to me once again and I grab it. I’m shocked at how natural it feels. “Just come inside. If you don’t annoy me, maybe I’ll tell you about my mom.” He says jokingly, but there’s still no light in his eyes. I hope that he does talk to me about it. There’s clearly something there.

  “Wait, I think I left my phone in your car. I need to call my mom!” I tell him, turning toward the car.

  He pulls me toward him. “Did you have your phone on you when you jumped off the rock?” he asks.

  I shake my head then a realization hits me. “It was in the pocket of my pants!” I shout.

  “That’s my bad,” he says, looking sheepish.

  “You’re the worst! Literally the worst!”

  “I was trying to save your life,” he says, leading me inside his house.

  “Well, the only thing that drowned was my phone,” I tell him.

  “That’s a good thing,” he says, his smile finally reaching his eyes. I can’t be mad at him for ruining my phone, at least not tonight.

  We reach the living room. “Wait, did your phone also end up in the lake?” I ask, feeling terrible that his phone could be messed up too all because he felt he needed to jump in after me.

  He laughs. “I told you I plan ahead. I left my phone in the car.”

  “Of course you did. Well, can I borrow it to call home? If I don’t, my parents will be searching everywhere for me.”

  “We don’t want that,” he says, his hand still holding on to my own as he leads me past his living room and up the stairs. “I’ll give it to you upstairs after I get you some clothes.”

  “Worried I’ll get sick?” I ask jokingly.

  He nods. “Despite what you think, I actually care about you,” he says, his words so sincere they catch me off guard again.

  KAYDEN HARRISON

  I probably shouldn’t have said that. But I couldn’t help it. Seeing Ari in my house is a foreign vision and it’s throwing me off.

  Earlier, I didn’t expect her to ask about my mom. And then, I wanted to tell her all about it. I still may, even though I haven’t told anyone else. For some reason, I want to tell her.

  I can already tell she’s overthinking my words. The shocked look in her eyes tells me so. She probably doubts they’re true; I mean, I would if I were her.

  We reach the top of the stairs and I open the first door on the left to my room. “Come in,” I tell her. She lets go of my hand and walks in ahead of me. I stare down at my hand for a second, missing hers.

  “Are you just going to stand there?” She asks, always the smart-ass.

  I shake my head. On my way to the dresser, I turn around and head to my closet instead. From the very top of the closet I grab something I know will get her to smile.

  “Hey, Ari! Catch!” I tell her, tossing it her way.

  She catches it with one hand, securing the blanket around her body with the other. “What the—” she starts.

  I cut her off. “Great reflexes.”

  “You’re not the only one who can catch things,” she says, and while I know she’s referring to the fact that I play baseball, I can’t help but tease.

  “Hmm, you’re saying you catch things too… like what? Feelings?” I joke.

  She rolls her eyes. “Your ridiculous. Wait, is this a onesie?” She asks, finally unrolling the pajamas I threw her way.

  I nod.

  “You’re kidding, you are kidding!” she says, inspecting it. “You own a superman onesie!” She says, laughing.

  “I do,” I tell her, matching her smile with one of my own.

  “Why?” she just stares at it in shock.

  “We had a costume party freshman year. We were all superheroes, but instead of capes we wore onesies,” I tell her. It was a baseball bonding thing, apparently.

  “This one has a cape too!” She says, flipping it around.

  I shrug. “Heroes need capes. I refused to wear one without it.”

  “And you’ve kept it this whole time?” she asks, and I love that pulling out this old thing moved us away from the awkwardness we had started to enter.

  “I sleep with it every day,” I tell her.

  She throws it back my way. “Then, here you go.”

  “I’m kidding. I haven’t worn this since the party. You can wear it tonight,” I throw it back her way.

  This time, she extends both hands to catch it and the blanket falls to the ground. “Oops!” she says, picking the blanket up almost instantly and covering her body once again.

  “Nothing I haven’t seen before,” I tell her then realize when her smile is replaced by a frown that she’s getting the wrong idea. “I did see you stand on top of the rock wearing exactly this… then we walked to my car,” I add.

  I don’t want her to misinterpret my words and when I see her cheeks redden I know she hasn’t. “Right. Really shouldn’t have done that,” she replies. “Anyway, where’s your bathroom?”

  “Just across the hall,” I tell her.

  “Can I borrow your phone? I can call my mom while I’m changing to let her know I won’t be making it home tonight,” she tells me.

  “Just don’t tell her you’re staying with me,” I tell her.

  Her parents would kill me if they knew their daughter was spending the night at my place. That alone should stop me from doing this, but it certainly won’t. I walk out into the hall, grab the house phone we never use, and hand it to her. “Here you go. There’s a towel in the bathroom. Go ahead and take a quick shower so you can wash away the lake water. I’ll do the same.”

  “You are not showering with me!” she screeches.

  I roll my eyes and pretend that’s the craziest idea she could come up with. “Not at all what I was saying. There’s more than one shower in this place. I’d rather shower outside than join you.”

  “Wow. Well, great!” she says, taking the phone from my hand. Her fingers brush my own and I wish I could hold it for longer. But I can’t because this is Ari. I don’t want to make things awkward again. I don’t want her to shut me out when she’s finally letting me in.

  She walks out the door and I stand there for a second taking it all in. Ari Cole is here. The girl I’ve always wanted but never knew how to get is in my house about to put on my pajamas. And I’m hoping this is just the beginning.

  ARI COLE

  I hang up on Mom then check myself in the mirror a second time. The pajamas are a little big on me but they’re warm, which makes them instantly better than what I was wearing. I didn’t realize how cold I was until the soft fabric enveloped me.

  It
’s strange how comfortable I feel here. My whole life, Kayden has been a pain in my ass, but right now, I’m enjoying spending time with him. Enjoying being here in his home. Wearing his ridiculous onesie while hanging out in his bathroom.

  “You lost in there?” Kayden asks, knocking on the door. Of course he would interrupt any positive thought I have about him.

  I open the door, “Maybe I just didn’t want to see you,” I joke. Then I take in his appearance. He’s wearing checkered sweatpants and a hoodie. He looks comfortable and ready for bed. His hair, which had dried, is wet again and sticking to his forehead.

  He shakes his head. “More like you didn’t want me to see you wearing my onesie.”

  “Are you saying I’d be embarrassed to let you see me wearing this?” I ask, posing like a superhero. “No shame here whatsoever,” I tell him.

  He smiles and that puts butterflies in my stomach. It shouldn’t, but it does. “You can save me anytime you want.”

  “I guess I owe you one,” I tell him.

  He leans on the doorframe. “Are you finally admitting I saved you?”

  “I mean, you tried. But I kind of saved myself,” I reply shrugging.

  “Tell that to the girl who would’ve been walking around in her underwear the rest of the night.”

  “Again, I blame you for that,” I say pointing at him.

  “Let’s go downstairs and watch a movie. I made some hot chocolate for you.”

  I look at him surprised. “Wait, did you just say you made hot chocolate?”

  He nods.

  “For me?”

  “For us, don’t get all weird now,” he says with a chuckle.

  He walks out of the bathroom and I do the same. “I’m sorry. It’s just strange.”

  “What is?” he asks, heading down the stairs as I follow behind him.

  “You being nice to me.”

  “I’ve been nice to you before.”

  “Yeah right,” I reply.

  “I have been! I don’t hate you,” he says, turning to face me before we’ve fully descended.

  “Could’ve fooled me. I swear you’ve hated me since the day I kicked you.”