Page 106 of On His Team

“Are you coming?” Lucy is looking at me from beside Benson.

“Yeah.”

I hang my sweater up and go sit on the floor.

The next two hours are torture in the most enjoyable way possible.

Rowan hands me a bottle of water. We drink at the same time like we did at the party until the bottle is empty. My brother makes a comment about me being thirsty, and I ignore him. Later, I get up for food and find him already moving his knees so I can pass between the coffee table and the couch. When Stanley says something stupid, I look at Rowan automatically, and he’s already looking at me.

None of this would have mattered yesterday morning. Now every ordinary thing has an underside. Nobody else seems to notice. Or if they do, nobody makes eyes or says anything about it.

Lucy spends most of the afternoon attached to Benson. Aspen comes by and immediately ends up with Stanley half on top of her. Melly has her feet tucked under Blue’s leg. Penelope eventually arrives and takes the spot beside Percy, who has spent most of the afternoon reading and somehow moves exactly enough for her without looking up.

There are couples everywhere. I have never resented furniture placement before. Rowan is six feet away from me, and that six feet might as well be another state. He catches me looking at him. His eyebrows lift. My stomach sinks. I look away.

When I look back thirty seconds later, he’s still watching me.

Asshole.

He smiles.

I bite the inside of my cheek and refuse to give him anything else.

At some point he gets up, takes his plate into the kitchen, and says, “I’m showering.”

I keep my eyes on the TV.

Nobody cares.

Stanley makes some comment about Rowan taking forty-minute showers that Rowan ignores on his way upstairs.

Fifteen minutes later, Percy gets up and disappears into the downstairs bathroom. I just finished drinking my second water bottle. I look at the hallway. Then at the stairs. Then at the hallway again. This is a terrible idea, but I have to pee.

I stand.

Benson glances over. “What?”

“I need the bathroom.”

“Percy’s in there.” He points upstairs. “Use ours.”

“Okay.”

Lucy looks at me. I look at Lucy. Something passes over her face. Not knowledge. Suspicion, maybe. I lift my eyebrows like what?

She slowly smiles.

I immediately turn away. Traitor.

I take the stairs normally for the first four steps, then faster for the rest.

The upstairs bathroom door is open. Rowan’s room is down the hall.

I stand there and calculate.

A normal bathroom trip is four minutes. Six if you’re taking your time. Anything beyond eight is questionable, and in a house where everybody knows everybody else’s digestive habits against their will, nine minutes is enough for somebody to ask a question.

Eight minutes.