by Tay Marley
“Oh shit, Dray!” I abruptly sat up and slapped his chest as I looked around the now brightly lit park. “Wake up!”
We weren’t the only ones who had spent the night here, but we were probably the only ones who were meant to be boarding a bus that morning. I couldn’t see anyone else from school, and I swore if they’d seen us and just left us, I’d damage someone. I pulled out my phone to check the time when I saw Drayton sitting up in my peripheral view.
“Shit,” he gasped, his head whipping from side to side. “What’s the time . . .” His voice was heavy with sleep.
“It’s eight!” I stood up, fretting as I smoothed my hair. I didn’t even have time to admire how disheveled and good he looked after sleeping in a park all night. I probably looked like I lived in the freaking park.
“Eight?!” Drayton snapped.
Eight was late. It was super late. It was late enough that Coach would have done rounds of the rooms.
“We are so fucked.”
“Suspended,” Nathan snapped. We walked down the school office steps and across the parking lot, which was vacant save for one or two vehicles. “I cannot believe you got suspended.”
He stopped beside the tail of our little car and leaned a hand on the trunk. His stare was hard to decipher. There was a mix of disbelief and disappointment, and perhaps an effort to refrain from shouting.
When Drayton and I had arrived back at the motel that morning, Coach Finn was in a state. He was about two seconds from calling the authorities to report two missing students. When he caught us creeping onto our floor, he’d blown a fuse and started screaming about “jail time” and “asshole kids.”
Everyone assumed that we’d been off having scandalous sex. No one could imagine that we’d been doing anything else. Not to mention that if we’d wanted to have sex, we both had motel rooms for that. Emily and her minions scowled at me threateningly, although none of them uttered a word when I was with Drayton. And both of us were sat at the front of the bus to be dealt with as soon as we got back. It didn’t matter that it was Saturday. The principal came in to dish out our consequences.
“I’m sorry, Nathan,” I said. “I totally messed up, and I know that. Trust me, it won’t happen again.”
“I kind of can’t believe that it happened at all.” His features softened a little as he shrugged his shoulders. “You don’t do this sort of thing. Sneaking out of motels with guys. Not even Gabby can coax you into a little rebellion. What gives?”
I shrugged. I knew what gave, though.
“Dallas.” Nathan wore a no-nonsense expression. “I get that you like that Drayton kid. But don’t mess up your schooling for him, all right? You only have this year left to make all your goals happen. Don’t go off the rails. For me. Please.”
“Nathan, this has nothing to do with Drayton. I’ve realized something—I have this one year to make memories, so when I’m older, I’ll have stories to tell about the crazy stuff that I got up to. I literally have none of that now because I’ve wasted so much time hating people to the point that I don’t want to leave the house.”
“You can make those memories without getting suspended.”
“I know.” I nodded. It worried me that I had this on my record, but I had to hope and pray that it wouldn’t mar my otherwise clean college applications. “And next time, that won’t happen. I promise.”
Nathan folded his arms across his chest and sighed with hesitant acceptance. “Whose idea was it to sneak out anyway?”
“It was mine.”
“You risked that kid’s football career for a few thrills?” He looked more upset than when he found out that I’d been suspended for being out all night with a guy. “He could have been kicked off the team.”
I still wasn’t sure what fate awaited Drayton. His parents hadn’t arrived as far as I knew, and I’d shared a brief smile with him as I left the principal’s office and saw him sitting on the floor in the corridor.
“Look, it was one night. It was irresponsible, I get that. But I had a lot of fun.”
Nathan sighed with exasperation, but he couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from turning up into a small smile. “That does make me kind of happy,” he admitted. “I do want you to have fun. But you’re still in trouble.”
“Okay.”
“Seriously.” I could see the wheels turning as he tried to come up with some sort of informal punishment. “You’re on dishes. For two weeks.”
“Nathan, I do the dishes every night.”
“Yeah . . . well”—his head bopped around as his gaze became distant and wide—“while you’re doing them, you can think about the fact that you’re being punished, and you can be miserable about it. Seriously, don’t enjoy it at all.”
“Okay,” I accepted my punishment with amusement. “I’ll do my best not to enjoy the dishes.”
“Good.” His nose turned upward with triumph before he fished his keys out of his back pocket. “Now, I’m going back to the field with the boys. Try and make it home without doing something totally reckless. Seriously, you’ve changed. I don’t even know you anymore.”
I laughed at his horrified, exaggerated expression as he stumbled around to the driver’s side of the car and quickly hopped in. But I admired the dramatic big brother act. He might not have it down to a fine art, but I’d be lost without him.
“Here, take this,” I called as he started the car. I opened the door and threw my duffel bag in. “Thanks.”
I walked over to the diner to check the new schedule. The sun was out and there was a soft breeze in the air, so a twenty-
minute walk wasn’t unbearable at all. I could have asked for a ride, but a walk couldn’t hurt.
When I arrived, I headed straight into the staff room to look at the schedule for the next week. The roster was full and I didn’t want to steal anyone’s shifts just because I wasn’t at school. I left a note for Ryan to let him know that if someone called in sick, I was available to cover. As it was, I didn’t have a shift until Thursday afternoon, and I could use the extra hours.
I started to leave, figuring that I’d head home, when I saw Gabby in a corner booth at the back of the diner. She was curled up next to Josh. I smiled and walked toward them.
“Hey, cuties.” I slid into the opposite side of the booth and the two of them startled with a little jump. There was a plate full of hot fries in front of them, so I assumed they hadn’t been here long.
“You’re here!” Gabby turned from Josh to give me her full-bodied attention. “Tell us everything!”
“Wait.” I watched them both with disbelief. “Are you talking about the suspension?”
“Yes!” Gabby cried with excitement.
“Dray told us what happened.” Josh waved his phone at me with a sheepish smile.
“He told us that you got suspended . . .” Gabby glanced between me and Josh. “He still hadn’t seen the principal and we got no details. I’m dying to know. So, come on.”
I couldn’t help but notice the way they kept referring to themselves as “we” and it was too cute. Due to my good mood at seeing them so happy and adorable, I obliged and delved into the full-length tale of the previous night’s adventures.
The entire time that I was talking Gabby’s expression morphed from joy to shock to admiration back to shock and more joy. The only part that I left out of the story was the almost kiss because I didn’t think the entire diner wanted to hear Gabby shrieking like a banshee. Josh looked interested, albeit a little less so than Gabby, but behind that interest I saw a small knowing smirk, and I was beginning to become intrigued by what he knew that I didn’t.
“That all sounds so romantic,” Gabby sighed. She rested her head in her hands with an infatuated gaze.
“It wasn’t romantic,” I dismissed her fantasies. “It was fun, and exciting, and that’s all it was meant to be. And
that’s what it was.”
“Oh . . . I get it.” Gabby nodded with dramatic flare. “We’ll talk about it later.”
She jabbed her thumb in Josh’s direction, assuming that he was the reason I was still denying that it was more than it was. I let her think that the conversation would be continued later, but I’d tell her the same thing then too. I was well aware that I’d developed feelings. Heart-pounding, throat-thickening, stomach-
twisting sort of feelings. But I wasn’t ready to say it out loud. That would make it real, and I didn’t want it to be real when I barely understood it myself.
“I’m just going to run to the bathroom,” Gabby said. “Sure you don’t want to come, Dallas?”
I laughed and said no. When Gabby disappeared, Josh and I were alone. The fries that had been making my mouth water were finally out of her sight, so I didn’t waste a moment and stole a handful.
“How’s thing’s, Josh?” I asked.
“Good.” He smiled, but the affection he’d previously regarded me with was gone, which I was grateful for. His adoring smile was purely reserved for Gabby now. It was nice to be on good, friendly terms.
“Hey, I just want to say thanks.” Josh leaned his forearms on the table in front of him. “Gabby is great and I’m glad that you introduced us.”
“Really?” I bit a fry and watched him with excitement. “I know she likes you a lot.”
“She’s full of energy and has a positive outlook on everything. I’m glad that we told each other how we feel and didn’t waste any time doing it.”
His tone caught me off guard, and I looked up from the fries in my hand to notice the pointed look that he was giving me. I didn’t like where this conversation was going.
“You and Dray obviously like each other,” he added.
“Oh, not you too,” I groaned and sank back into the seat. “Now you’re a little team with your assumptions and observations.”
“I don’t think that they’re incorrect.”
“What makes you say that?”
Gabby, with ever-impeccable timing, fell back into the booth beside Josh, promptly stopping him from sharing any more information. I had the feeling that he was going to stay tight lipped on the matter anyway.
“Did you eat some of our fries?” She eyed the bowl before her accusatory glare fell on me.
“I sure did,” I confessed.
We spent a few hours at the diner, chatting about this and that, eating more fries, and drinking milk shakes.
“We’re going to catch a movie,” Gabby said, taking off her glasses to clean them. “Do you want to come along?”
“This is as far as my third wheeling’s going to take me. You guys can give me a ride home, though. Nathan has the car.”
“You don’t need to give me that look; of course I’ll give you a ride,” Gabby said. “Are you sure you don’t want to come to the movies with us?”
“I’m sure. Trust me, I don’t need to sit next to you guys while you make out the entire time.”
“If we wanted to do that, we’d watch a movie at home.” Gabby snorted as we got into the Jeep. Josh nodded his head in agreement. “Going to the movies is expensive. I want to get my money’s worth while I’m there.”
“That is a good point,” I said.
When we pulled up next to the sidewalk outside of my house, I was surprised to see Drayton on the driveway, leaning on his bike with his cell phone in hand. He’d obviously gone home and changed because he was now wearing a pair of black joggers, a white tank top, a light denim jacket, and a thin silver chain around his neck. As hard as I tried, little flutters of excitement messed with my stomach, and it only got worse when he looked toward the car and smiled.
“Why is Dray here?” Gabby asked a little more casually than I’d heard her speak when she had referred to him in the past. I supposed now that she had her own hottie now, she didn’t need to fangirl every time Drayton Lahey was in the vicinity.
“I have no idea.” I opened the door and climbed out of the Jeep. “Thanks for the ride, Josh.”
He honked the horn when he pulled away from the curb, and I waved as I walked through the gate and approached Drayton. I was surprised that he was allowed out of the house. I wondered what his consequences were.
“Hey, what are you doing here?”
“I thought I’d come see how you are.” He stood up straighter and slid his phone into his pocket. “Are you upset about being suspended?”
“I feel like I should be, and usually I would be.” I laughed awkwardly because the fact that I wasn’t upset was startling even to me. “It was worth it. I’m trying not to think about how this is going to look on my record.”
“Yeah. Same.”
I winced. “You, too, huh? I thought your mom and dad might have been able to wiggle you out of trouble.”
“They tried,” he said, slipping his hands into his pockets. “I didn’t let them, though. We deserved the same punishment and that’s what I got.”
“You willingly got suspended?” I stared at him with disbelief.
“Suspension isn’t so bad.” He shrugged with a cavalier attitude. “Expulsion is worse.”
“I don’t even want to think about getting expelled. No CalArts for sure, then. Do you want to come inside?”
“I do.”
We headed inside and shuffled through to my bedroom so that I could ditch my shoes and open my windows. Drayton sat down on the bed and let his eyes wander aimlessly over the space.
The only other time that he’d been in here, he’d stayed at the door, and back then my feelings toward him were less than hospitable. Now seeing him in here, on my bed, looking carefree and gorgeous as always, I couldn’t help but feel as though he made the room seem ten times smaller. His presence was so overwhelming, so dominating, and if I was being honest, a little bit suffocating.
“What are you going to do with your time off?” he asked.
“I went to work to put in for some more shifts, but there weren’t any available.” I shrugged and leaned against my dresser. “I suppose I’ll study, maybe, Netflix will probably win. Definitely do some cheer and dance practice. Emily isn’t going to be happy about me missing practice all week.”
“She’ll live.” He narrowed his curious stare. “Essentially, you’ve got the next week free?”
“Technically, I’m not obligated to be anywhere.”
He nodded his head with thought. “Want to go to California with me?”
“I’m sorry, what?” His suggestion had been so casual and nonchalant that I was sure he had to be joking. “You’re kidding?”
“No.” He stood up and walked toward me. “We’ve both got a week off school. Why not do something with it?”
“For one, I can’t afford to just up and hop on a flight to California. Second, my brother is super pissed about the suspension and wouldn’t even consider letting me go.”
“I can afford the tickets and a place for us to stay,” he scoffed with amusement as though I was ridiculous for not assuming that he’d pay for the entire trip. “Also, he’s your brother. Not your dad. You’re almost eighteen.”
“Wait, how can you even go to California? Aren’t you in trouble?”
“Not so much.” He shrugged. “My parents don’t care all that much as long as I’m playing ball, getting scouted, and going to Baylor.”
“Why? Why do you want to go to California with me? Is there nothing else that you would rather be doing?”
“The boys still have school and Josh works. I’ll be bored. You’re the only one who’s free.”
How flattering. His life didn’t revolve around me, but did he have to make it sound so last resort?
“I can’t, Dray.” I turned around and busied myself with the trinkets on my dresser.
“I’ll take you to visit your dance colle
ge.”
He knew how to get me. “I mean . . . when would we be leaving?”
“Right now. Come on, I’ll help you pack.”
Chapter 11
Flight 5367 from Colorado Springs to Los Angeles, California, now boarding. Final call for flight 5367 from Colorado Springs to Los Angeles, California.
Drayton picked up my carry-on luggage, and the two of us moved into line with our boarding passes in hand. The cell phone in my back pocket vibrated for the seventh time—Nathan again, I was sure—he had probably read the note that I’d left behind.
“Maybe I should talk to him before I get on the plane?”
“No way, Cheer, he’ll talk you out of going. We’ll call him when we land.”
We shuffled forward so the flight attendant could scan our boarding passes before we stepped into the wide tunnel that led to the plane. I thought back to the brief message I’d scrawled after packing my bags as quickly as I could and winced with regret.
“I probably should have left a better note.”
Hey Nathan. Gone to Cali to visit CalArts. Be back in a couple days. Love ya.
“If you’re going to call him, be quick. We have to switch our phones to flight mode soon.”
“No, you’re right. I’ll call him when we get there.”
We found our row, and I didn’t even offer Drayton the window seat. I pushed past him and dived into it so fast that he almost tripped over his own feet. He gave me a look of concern and then sat down beside me.
“Sorry, I’ve always wanted to sit in the window seat if I got the chance,” I explained with my eyes on the tarmac outside.
“Is this your first time on a plane?”
I wasn’t embarrassed at the fact, but it was definitely a little heat inducing to admit that I’d never flown before.
“Damn, Cheer,” he smiled, then lifted our bags into the overhead compartment. “You excited?”
“I’m pretty excited.”
“First time.” He sat down and leaned in close. “Don’t worry, then, it’ll be great. It always is with me.”