The Substitute (The Bros Series Book 1)

by Xavier Neal

  Ainsley doesn’t even have a bite before she questions, “You don’t eat corndogs?”

  “I don’t eat uncreative food,” he quips.

  I have a large bite and tease, “He’s a fucking snob.”

  “Just because I’ve got great taste in food and pussy doesn’t make me a snob.”

  Pax chuckles, his corndog almost gone from just two bites. “You’re a total fucking snob, bro.”

  Wyatt grunts and has a sip of his beer.

  “You can’t even eat a hamburger without putting fancy mustard on it,” Holden joins the conversation as we continue to walk towards the other end where there are performers.

  He shrugs and casually defends himself, “So blow me. I don’t like ordinary shit. For instance, how much better would those be if they were covered in the pretzel beer batter and then dipped in melted cheese?”

  Ainsley moans from behind her snack. “That sounds amazing.”

  “Exactly!”

  I scold, “Don’t encourage him.”

  She playfully bumps into me before asking, “Why not open your own restaurant and serve those?”

  Wyatt plasters an obnoxiously charming smile on his face. “Prefer to play the burners, baby.”

  “Commitment phobe,” I correct, chucking my stick in the passing trashcan.

  Ainsley continues her interrogation, “What does that mean? Play the burners?”

  “I’m a free agent. I’m not committed to any one company or restaurant. I work wherever the food feels like taking me. Sometimes I guest cook for food trucks, sometimes I’m the guest chef at five star places, and sometimes like a few weeks ago, I do things like help cater food for an Oscar after party,” he boasts.

  “An Oscar after party?” My girlfriend croaks, eyes bulging in an excited nature. “Seriously?”

  Wyatt wiggles his eyebrows. “Seriously.”

  An instinct to remind her as impressive as he is, she shouldn’t be swept away by his charm, I drop my arm around her shoulder and tug her closer.

  Holden and Pax chuckle under their breath at the action.

  It’s not like I’m worried she’s going to wander off and trade me for him. I just…I feel better with her pressed against me. It’s my fucking birthday. I can hold my girlfriend close if I feel like it.

  “Hey Nate, speaking of that event, I was talking to this woman there and she mentioned how her cousin works for X-treme X-press and how they were collaborating on a biopic for Guy Klinger, the snowboarder. She said they’re looking for fresh talent to give the film a different edge than so many of the others that are out there. I told her I had a friend who knew his way around film editing and she gave me her card to give to you.”

  I try to refrain from voicing my irritation. Unlike Holden and Pax who more or less silently sit back and allow me to drift further from what it is I once wanted to do, Wyatt has a habit, an annoying habit, of frequently trying to drag me back to it.

  “That would be so amazing,” Ainsley coos from beside me. As soon as she’s done nibbling on what’s left on her stick, she looks up at me. “You should totally get in touch with her.”

  “Totally,” Wyatt mocks.

  My eyes glare at him before landing back on hers. I open my mouth prepared to give the same bullshit speech I always do about teaching being my new passion when her eyebrows lift in a silent challenge.

  In some ways she knows me better than they do. She knows if I try to declare that now I’ll be spewing a bunch of lies for the sake of old habits. Maybe it’s time to stop running from my past. Maybe it’s time my past and future fuse just like the old me and new me did. Ugh. It’s my fucking birthday. I have to get drunker and stop having these philosophical assessments.

  Ainsley smirks as if she can hear my thoughts. “Promise me, you’ll really consider it.”

  Our bodies come to a halt. With all eyes on me in curiosity, I keep mine pasted on hers. “Promise.”

  “Well fuck me sideways,” Wyatt chuckles.

  “No one wants to fuck you sideways,” Holden denies.

  “Surprised anyone wants to fuck him ever,” Pax teases.

  “We think the same thing about you,” I join the banter.

  The five of us all turn our attention to where the skateboarders are doing tricks along the railing of the stairs. While at first glance they don’t seem impressive, our opinions are quickly swayed as they perform handstands mid skate.

  All the action encourages me to say to Ainsley, “Why don’t you use my camera and take a few practice shots?”

  She frowns. “You really wanna teach me something right now? On your birthday?”

  I smirk. “I always wanna teach you something…”

  The insinuation grabs a soft moan.

  “Come on,” I command, removing the camera from around my neck.

  We move to the railing and I position her accordingly. Once I feel she’s in the right spot, I help walk her through the zoom choices and lighting filters. She nods her understanding and repeats back many of the things I say to help her process the information. It takes a few minutes and a few terrible shots before she gets a great one. With one hand on her hip and my direction, she takes continuous shots of the performers.

  Afterwards she turns the camera to us, snapping random photos of us laughing and horsing around. Not one of us complains. Instead we take turns giving her crazy faces and insane poses that just lead to more laughs.

  Fuck, I can’t wait until she graduates so we can have more moments like this without having to hide. Just two more months. Two more months and we can be this carefree forever.

  Ainsley

  Sloane playfully bumps into me on our way towards the bus. “You riding home with me or tutoring?”

  Our code word for Nate always makes me smirk.

  Ever since we got back from our beach vacation a couple weeks ago, it’s been harder than ever to be apart. Three days of going to bed together, waking up together, not having to rush away from each other, and getting to live like so many other couples do, ruined any possibility of returning to our old routine. We devised a way for me to ride home with Nate on the days I don’t have to work. I deny my ride home from the bus by saying I’m staying late to help a freshman study and then wait until most of the afterschool chaos has died down and walk a couple blocks over towards a neighborhood park where he is waiting. So far, it’s worked flawlessly. Having Sloane run necessary back up or interference definitely helps.

  “Tutoring,” I answer trying to hold back my glee. “Remember, I had to close yesterday, so I barely got any downtime.”

  I love that she still hangs out at the pub with me for a couple hours of my shift. The only difference now is she bails earlier knowing we won’t be riding home together. Nate offered to drive her home on those nights, but she immediately denied, claiming it wouldn’t be a good idea for him to be seen with her either.

  She offers me a smile. “I swear you are getting more and more downtime than ever before…You might wanna be careful, Ainsley. While I’ve got you covered, I’m not so sure it’s gonna be enough.”

  Her eerie warning lifts my eyebrows. “Meaning?”

  Sloane starts to retort when Scott interrupts. “You riding today, Ainsley?”

  I turn to give him a polite smile. “Tutoring…”

  “Ah.” He nods and lowers his eyes to Sloane. “Guess you’re sitting with me.”

  “With you. Not on your lap again,” she playfully scolds.

  Scott chuckles and hustles up the steps of the bus.

  With a small nod his direction, I understand what she was implying before. It’s not Scott we really have to worry about, but his jock friend who has upped his efforts for my attention since Spring Break to an entirely new level. The texting is more frequent than before. He occasionally calls now while I’m at work. Just a few days ago he asked which restaurant it was, so him and his friends could come in and leave me a huge tip. Thankfully, after
I refused to give him that information so did Scott, despite the three hundred bucks Josh was tempting him with.

  Sloane gives me a quick reminder to text her and disappears onto the bus steps. After informing Willis I’m not coming, I pretend to head back towards the building. Once the sound of the bus taking off hits my ears, I veer towards the right for the path I take to meet Nate. I linger on the back side of the building as I always do and wait for more students to disappear. I keep my attention on my phone, pretending to be busy texting instead of counting the minutes going by until I can move without looking too suspicious.

  Just as I prepare to start my walk for the park, a voice I’m growing tired of hearing, catches me off guard. “Ainsley.”

  I force a fake smile onto my face as he crosses into my direct line of vision. “Hey, Josh.”

  “What are you still doing here? Miss the bus?”

  Sweetly, I reply, “Tutoring. I meet a Freshman in the library in about five minutes.”

  He nods and suggests, “How about I wait with you?”

  I quickly retort, “That’s totally not necessary.”

  Josh adjusts the one backpack strap on his shoulder. “I don’t mind. Any time I can spend with you is awesome.”

  It takes everything in me to smile rather than cringe. Surely, I can get rid of him, right? He’s not really going to waste all his time waiting with me when there has to be something else, literally anything else, for him to do.

  The two of us head towards the entrance of the courtyard together in silence. Josh obnoxiously teeters between walking too close and attempting to give me space.

  Eventually he asks, “Do you always work this much or are you trying to save for prom?”

  His question brings up a subject I actually hadn’t given much thought to. Last year I went solely because Sloane begged. Despite the fact she could’ve went as Scott’s date, she insisted we do the group thing. This year…This year I doubt I’ll even humor her that far. Dancing in a poorly decorated event room at a swanky hotel downtown where the staff is paid to pretend they don’t know there are a bunch of drunken horny minors running around doesn’t sound like anything I would be remotely interested in. However, that thought does make me wanna watch She’s All That.

  Realizing I’ve been quiet for too long, I stumble out, “Um…I just like to work, that’s all. Save money. That sorta thing.”

  We enter the building to continue our stroll to the library. “Doesn’t seem like it leaves time for fun shit…like…I don’t know…dating the newest recruit to the Landmoore Lions.”

  I offer him a genuine smile. “Congratulations!”

  He shrugs. “It’s really not that big of a deal. My dad went to college there. They probably weren’t allowed to reject me.”

  “Stop it,” I insist. “You’re a great player all on your own.”

  His smile returns. “So, you’ve seen me play?”

  “Everyone has you seen play, Josh. They showed highlights during morning announcements this fall.”

  The reminder makes him chuckle at the same time we enter the barren book filled room.

  Doing my best to play off the tutoring thing as if it’s actually happening, we make our way towards the back corner where the study tables are found. Together we plop down and wait for the imaginary guest that’s never going to show up. Josh continues to talk about his acceptance to the university along with how his father says he doesn’t need a fallback, but his mother insists he picks a related major like sports medicine.

  While he goes on and on, barely allowing me to say anything, I give my phone constant glances, anticipating a text from Nate any minute.

  Just as my phone vibrates, Josh stops, and asks, “Is that your tardy Freshman?”

  I swipe it open and give the text a glance.

  Teach: Where are you?

  With his attention fully plastered on me, I nod.

  “What’s keeping her? Almost all the staff is gone by now.” His point stops the additional lie that I was prepared to offer. “She gettin’ felt up in the parking lot or something?”

  The joke forces a fake snicker.

  Quickly, I text back.

  Me: With Josh. He caught me waiting at the school and insisted on staying with me.

  “Well?”

  Annoyed I have to rush an answer, I say, “She’s canceling. No big deal.”

  He lets a wide grin appear on his face. “So you’re free for the afternoon?”

  A knot of disgust chokes my immediate response. “Not exactly. I have my own homework to get caught up on.”

  “But you can spare the forty-five minutes or whatever you were going to tutor her and grab a shake with me. Mimi’s does half price ones on Tuesdays.”

  Not sure I have much of a choice, but to play along, I shrug. “I guess…But just a quick shake and then I really need to get home.”

  He shoots his hand in the air. “Jock’s honor.”

  Josh stands and I quickly check the text from Nate.

  Teach: Get rid of him.

  Me: Tried. Not working. He’s giving me a ride home. I’ll take the bus and meet you at your place.

  Once I’ve got my shoulder bag back on, we begin a brisk walk for the student parking lot.

  It takes longer than expected for Nate to reply.

  Teach: Fine.

  His displeased answer pangs my chest.

  What does he want me to do? Josh doesn’t seem to accept no for an answer and as much as I want to tell him I’m taken, so stop bothering me, I know the repercussions. I know this will just be the tip of the iceberg. I know he’ll start digging and snooping. Asking Sloane and Scott questions they don’t know how to answer. The fact he knows I ‘tutor’ someone now feels like a window opened for him that he doesn’t mind lingering beside. I feel like he’s going to purposely walk me to imagery tutoring sessions, so when she ‘bails’ again, he can continuously fill up the spare time. As much as I’m sure Nate hates this, I hate it more.

  Josh drives the two of us a few minutes down the road to Mimi’s. He tries not to smile like he just won a championship, but has a hard time.

  I wish I knew what the obsession with me was. I assume it’s simply because I always tell him no. Part of me wishes I could say yes just so he would lose interest.

  “Hey, I uh…I noticed you’ve got some bruising by your wrists and a couple on your knees,” he casually mentions. “Howd’ you hurt yourself? Stairs or somethin’ on your way to class? Need my arms for support?”

  The flirty comment at the end causes me to gag internally. “No…Not the stairs.”

  “Then what?”

  My desire to tell him they’re from being pinned down by my boyfriend and fucked raw courses profusely through my blood. I bat away the unnecessary need to start that discussion and reply, “Work. I get a bit clumsy when we get really busy.”

  He accepts the answer with a nod and pulls into a parking space rather than going through the drive through.

  Josh kills the engine of his Mustang, which is when I question quickly, “What are you doing?”

  “We’re gonna go in. Half the fun of Mimi’s is watching them make your crazy combination milkshakes.”

  Seeing my hesitation, he promises, “Come on, Ainsley. It’ll only take an extra five minutes.”

  “Okay,” I sheepishly cave, leaving my bag, but making sure to grab my cell phone.

  Almost as soon as we’re out of the car, he drops his arm around me and pulls me in close. Before I can even wonder what the hell is going on, he holds up his phone and says, “Smile.”

  I flash a brief one for the phone and ask, “What the hell was that about?”

  “Proof,” he casually says typing away.

  “That?”

  “That for just one day, you didn’t tell me no.” The charming, but equally annoying, answer makes me want to roll my eyes.

  I know he said there wasn’t a bet going on with his fr
iends, but…I’m picking up on a slightly different vibe. Proof? Who needs proof some girl finally stops telling you no. And I didn’t exactly stop telling him no so much as I just stopped constantly forming the word.

  We stroll across the parking lot drawing eyes and attention from many of his jock friends who are hanging out with each other or their girlfriends. They toss him waves and smirks like they’re all in on some sort of joke that I’m not privileged to.