Page 36 of Take Her On

Jamie’s brows were knitted together, her hands still firmly in her pockets. Her blue eyes pinned Maya with a fiery rage. “You really are the most stubborn person I’ve ever met. You say that I’m annoying? You’re annoying! All you had to do was speak to me…to ask, but you’ve got this idea in your head about me. That I’m the bad guy. That’s all you want me to be. And no matter what, you’re unwilling to change it.”

Maya didn’t know what to say. Mostly because Jamie was right. But she could hardly tell her everything she was feeling. That would be too embarrassing, especially after the way she’d behaved.

“Can you blame me?” she said instead.

Jamie shook her head. “Because we’re both competitive, and I enjoy winding you up on the pitch, that automatically means I’m a lying womaniser? It’s football, Maya. There’s so much more to me than that. I can’t stand people putting words in my mouth.”

“Jamie, I—”

“I don’t want to hear it. What’s the point when you’ve already made up your mind?”

Silence hung in the air until a crisp packet blew out of a nearby bin and rustled across the path.

Maya felt like an ice-cold bucket of water had been thrown in her face.

Jamie sighed, bending down to pick up the litter. Then she started walking again.

Maya looked after her, unsure whether to follow. Fuck it.

They continued down the cobbled stones, albeit with an awkward distance between them, as the giant oak trees above creaked their branches in the wind. The large stone building waited at the end of the walkway, the Millton University logo standing front and centre. Jamie led the way through the gated entrance and out around the back into a car park. Her blue VW Golf waited proudly in the middle.

Surely Jamie isn’t still gonna give me a lift home, is she? Like this? Maya’s brain had gone blank. She didn’t know what to say. Was she the arsehole here?

“I…uh…” She scratched the back of her neck, watching as Jamie rummaged in her backpack. “I…think I should go.”

Jamie looked up at her, her expression halting her in place. “You’re just going to leave?”

Maya was surprised by the softness in Jamie’s voice. It didn’t match the fire in her eyes. She didn’t know what to do or say to make it better. This wasn’t how she’d expected their conversation to go.

Jamie scoffed, glancing away at the concrete. “I don’t know why I bother. Just forget it, Maya.” She lifted her backpack onto her shoulder and marched into the building.

Maya flinched. She’d deserved that. She was the arsehole. Here Jamie was, staying late to help her pack up after the game, offering her a lift, showing her kindness…and she was being a jerk. She had reservations about her, that was true, but Jamie had done nothing to deserve the way she’d treated her.

Jamie was annoying, but there was something about her that’d got under Maya’s skin. She didn’t react well to it; it threw her off balance. Feelings often did—look at what a car crash she and Carly had been.

Also, probably her fault.

With a sigh, she followed Jamie into the building, taking a left at the post-boxes instead of a right to her old place. She needed to offer an olive branch. Or at least not be such a miserable bitch all the time.

Jamie continued down the scratchy red industrial carpet, not bothering to see if Maya was following her. After two rights and a left, and passing a very questionable stain on the flooring, she stopped in front of a door, fiddling with her keys. She glanced at Maya, perhaps a little surprised that she’d tailed her, then with a huff and a shove, opened the door.

Maya lunged forward to catch it, so it didn’t hit her in the face. She didn’t know what to expect as she walked into Jamie’s apartment, but a huge cardboard chess set wasn’t one of them. The chunky black sofas were pushed to the sides of the room, allowing space for…whatever that was. She tore her eyes from a slightly broken queen piece, where a ratty blonde wig seemed to be defying gravity completely as it hung off the limp cardboard. The game squares had been coloured in lazily with a black marker pen and each cardboard piece given a lopsided facial expression.

Jamie waved her hand. “Ignore that.”

“Is this…the Morley twins?” Maya had heard some strange things: about how they each carried voodoo dolls to curse anyone who looked the wrong way at them, and something about making a potato levitate. She’d not heard anything about giant puzzle games. It was a little anticlimactic.

“Yeah. They’re really into human chess,” Jamie said, by a means of explanation, then disappeared into what Maya assumed was her bedroom.

Maya’s curiosity got the better of her, and she followed her in. Other than the faint scent of her perfume, and some hair-styling product on the dresser, this could have been anybody’s room. There were no pictures or keepsakes tacked on the walls, like Hannah and Maddie’s. No childhood teddies on her bed or clothes out of place—just a stack of books on the dresser. The only item quintessentially Jamie was the open bag of Starbursts on her bedside table. The rest looked unlived in. Or was this what a tidy room looked like?

Knowing what she did about Jamie, Maya hadn’t expected her room to be so…bare. It was the opposite of her. She was light and loud and fun, and this was…poky and dark and…sad.

Why would Jamie choose this over living with her parents?

“Why are you here, Maya?” Jamie asked, picking up a bag and emptying her laundry bin inside it. “What do you want?”

Heat pricked the back of Maya’s neck. Truthfully, she wasn’t sure—but she could hardly say that. All she knew was that when Jamie was walking away from her, the only thing she could do was follow.