AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Bo nods in understanding. “Go shower and be thankful we have the day off from hockey.”
Neil folds his arms on the table and rests his forehead on them. “Let me rest here for a minute first.”
Again, I wonder why the hell he has a job. He's going to burn himself out, either in school or hockey. We need him in tip top shape and the job is hindering him. I don't know Neil's business, so I can't say anything.
After I finish eating, I go to my room to start on my task for today. I don't have a lot of time before class, but I plan to take advantage of our day off and stop by between classes to get everything ready. Once Maddie went home last night, the plan started to form. Tonight, I'm going to ask her out. I'm going to fix things between us and start anew.
At least, I hope so.
My stomach tightens at the thought. For the millionth time, I wonder if I should or should not. This will open a whole new can of worms full of potentially rotten ones. She's Dave's sister. If Maddie said yes and we start dating again, how am I going to tell my best friend? If things go bad, I could lose that friendship. We've been friends for too long. I'm not supposed to find her attractive or even want to ask her out. Pretty sure I'm supposed to view her as my own little sister, but that's never been the case, and certainly isn't now. Not to mention that I have to make up for not defending her all those years ago. We never talked about that, not really, and that's something else we're going to have to do.
Torn barely touches how I feel about it. Yesterday, it seemed as if all Maddie did was find ways to touch me and then Grant had to tell me I should throw caution to the wind. There's a lot on the line if I make this move, though.
My friendship with Dave, my best friend since I was five.
My current friendship with Maddie.
If I lose either of those things, I don't just lose them, I lose their family as well. And I'm as close to them as I am my own parents. With so much at risk, I can guarantee that I'm not going to do anything that could possibly mess things up again. That is, if Maddie says yes.
“LUCY?” THERE’S A girl who looks just like her laying in the grass, and if it wasn’t for her heaving chest, I’d think she was dead. The girl groans in acknowledgement, so I walk over and find that it is indeed Lucy. Her face is flushed, and she’s still breathing hard. I start laughing, earning myself a glare, but I can’t help it. She looks funny to me. Kneeling, I ask, “Everything okay?”
“I’m dying,” she breathes.
“Want mouth to mouth?” It slips out of my mouth without much thought. Lucy groans, but I notice her eyeing the bottle of water in my hand. “Here, let me save you.”
I move over to her shoulders, set the bottle down, and lift her shoulders so she’s leaning against my chest with part of her back on my bent leg. Lucy rolls her head back onto my shoulder. I reach for the water, remove the cap, and hold it up. “Drink this,” I say softly.
Lucy picks up her head and drinks like she’s been thirsty her entire life. She quickly gulps down all my water without pause. When she’s done, I remove the bottle from her lips and set it down next to us.
“Thank you. Would it be too much to ask you to carry me to my dorm? I don’t think my legs work.” She’s looking at me now, her face so close. Too close. Lucy looks down and suddenly realizes her skin is slick with sweat. She must have really worked herself to be sweating. “Oh, I’m sweaty, Grant.” She tries to pull away, but I keep her where she is.
“I don’t mind.” Without thinking, I plant a soft kiss on the crook of her neck, tasting the saltiness on my lips. “You like when I’m sweaty. Who’s to say I don’t like you the same way?”
She laughs. “Not all the time. Sometimes, you really smell.” Lucy wrinkles that cute little nose of hers.
“Whatever. What are you doing anyway?” I ask.
“Trying to train for that stupid 5K run, duh. I don’t think I’ll make it. Maddie's going to be disappointed”
“I’m surprised you haven’t asked her or your brothers to help you.”
Her laugh is short and harsh. “I didn’t ask them because I wanted to do something on my own.” She pauses before adding, “Plus, they are mean trainers. Maddie is too, because I did run with her once.” She rests her head back on my shoulder.
“So if I offered to help, you’d turn me down?” Lucy is always dragging me into helping her somehow. I never know that I even want to help until the words are already out of my mouth. And I have no freaking clue why I want to do this with her because running isn’t my favorite thing to do.
“I’m probably too slow and you’ll end up waiting on me.”
I laugh. “I’m a slow runner too. We wouldn’t have to be fast, Lucy. We only need to be able to finish.”
“Well, well, well. What do we have here?” Patrick and Jonathan walk over to us.
Lucy immediately sits up, but she’s still leaning against me a little. I wonder if she really is that worn out. Jonathan squints his eyes slightly in a glare. He rubs me the wrong way, and I think I do the same thing to him. Patrick, I can handle. Jonathan, I just want to tell him to go the fuck away. They both cross their arms over their chests and stare down at us when they finally reach us.
“She was dying, and I saved her,” I explain.
Their faces blanch, their eyes immediately scanning over her, looking for something. Lucy elbows me in the gut, but I don’t understand why.
“He’s joking. I went for a run and I’m so not a runner.”
