Rolling her eyes, she sniffs again before rubbing at her eyes with the backs of her hands. “Whatever. Are we good?”
My smile drops. “Was this just a transaction for you?” I ask, my tone serious. “Are you still going to talk to her after all that?”
Her eyes narrow, and she bristles at my question. “Of course I am. Are you serious right now? Allie is being a freaking saintabout this. I’m not going to throw her kindness back in her face by ghosting her like that.”
Good. Satisfied with her response, I nod. “Needed to be sure.”
Adriana scoffs. “Whatever. You don’t trust me. Thanks for the reminder Gabriel, you’ve made your position loud and clear.”
Guilt churns in my stomach, and I rub the back of my neck. “I don’t mean it like that,” I tell her, my voice softer now.
“Yes, you do,” she shoots back. “And it’s fine. I’ve earned that from you. But you promised if I fixed this, you’d clean the slate. This was your proof. I’m fixing it. So the next time we talk, try not to be such a dick.”
With that, she storms away, leaving me feeling like a complete ass.
Fuck.
The bell rings, and I realize I’m officially late.
Great. There goes the epic start to my day.
24CECILIA
Imake it four days before I’m no longer able to avoid Wyatt.
I’m honestly surprised I made it that long.
Willow casually asks me about the date at practice, and while the question is innocent enough, it feels like she’s phishing. Oh well. At least now I can put a face to her name.
I tell her it went fine but that I’m still dealing with some stuff in my past and am not really ready to see anyone in any sort of ongoing capacity. I gloss over my mini freak out in case her brother didn’t give her all the gory details. Fingers crossed there.
But I assure her that Wyatt was really nice and that we had a good time. I’m not harboring any bad feelings toward him, regardless of how the night ended. None of it was really his fault.
Willow seems to accept my response, not digging any further than what I willingly offer. I figure she’ll probably pass my responses on to her brother and that will be that.
I was wrong.
Wyatt shows up at our practices just like before, but he’s always gone by the time I get out of the locker room. I might linger for an extra couple of minutes while gathering my things, but it’s not specifically to avoid him.
Gabriel’s practice usually ends around the same time as mine, and lately, we’ve been indulging in ... extracurricular activities together.
My cheeks heat just thinking about the things we did this morning. It might be getting out of hand. But damn, I can’t help it. This friends with benefits thing is almost a week in and I’m not finding any downside. Not yet, at least.
“You ready for our meet this weekend?” Adriana asks as we head out the door.
“Definitely,” I tell her. It’ll be my first competition, and the anticipation is killing me. We’re traveling to Sun Valley to compete against Suncrest U, and I couldn’t be more excited. “You?”
The question has barely left my mouth when my feet come to a sudden stop.
“Wyatt?”
Pushing off of his truck, his long strides eat up the space between us until he’s standing right in front of me. My eyes flick to the truck again, spotting Willow in the front.
She gives me an apologetic shrug before turning around in her seat.
“Damn,” Adriana murmurs, “We took our sweet ass time. He must really want to talk to you.” She rocks back on her feet.
“You’re not helping,” I hiss, feeling my cheeks heat up.
