AllFreeNovel
Share Us
This was the state in which Jordan found me that afternoon. He knocked on the door and entered like it was his room. I could have been naked. Or asleep. Not that he would have noticed either of those things. Instead, he shut the door and looked around the room. “Phoenix?”
“Out,” I said. “What’s up?” I was lying in bed, wearing my sweatpants and a T-shirt, looking at my big stepbrother over the upper edge of my phone.
“Did you hear?” he asked.
“About Nate? Yeah. It sucks.” I returned my attention to the article about Nate Partridge that I was reading. A sports journalist was speculating that Nate’s career was over, but there were quite a few sources claiming that players had recovered from bigger injuries and played for years after.
Jordan exhaled. “Beckett’s gutted.”
Did he come here to gossip? I had stopped expecting to ever have a full conversation with him. “I bet.” I wouldn’t carry this conversation if that was what he wanted.
Jordan stood in silence for a time, breathing as silently as a cat. When he made a step toward me, something abruptly passed through my body. It was like a zing of joy mixed with fear. It was the kind of sweet, fearful anticipation that I only knew from hints and fantasies. His heavy trod toward me made my groin tingle. I’d dreamed of him towering over me like this, silently watching me with that sharp, brown gaze, then taking me whether I asked for it or not. I know what’s best for you, baby boy, he said in my fantasies, and I believed him.
The real Jordan was underwhelming. Perhaps most of my frustration with him came from that discovery. He would never do such a thing. He would never utter such words. Instead, he sucked his teeth, shrugged, and looked down. “Any summer plans?”
“Why?” I demanded. The Jordan I knew would never have cared. What had happened to change that? I plan to get over you once and for all, I thought spitefully. I was looking forward to a life where I no longer hated him. Or cared about him. Or wanted him. I would be at peace once he meant to me all that I meant to him: nothing.
Jordan exhaled and sat on the edge of my bed, uninvited. “It’s not a big deal. Obviously, Nate’s health matters the most. But this has changed a lot of our plans. Beckett’s flying there tomorrow for a visit. Caden’s going with him instead of visiting his family first. And I…” He shrugged again.
“You’ve got nothing to do,” I finished. I had almost phrased it in a more venomous way, but I refrained. Not hatred. Just nothing, I reminded myself. And in order to feel nothing, I had to stop picking fights.
Jordan still narrowed his eyes like I wounded his pride. There was no winning with him. He wouldn’t believe me if I said I was being nice. “That’s true,” he said. “So I’m wondering if I should go home or to the lake house. Where are Eileen and Dad going?”
“The lake house,” I said, assuming that meant Jordan would head home instead.
He said nothing to that.
After a short while, I dropped my phone and sat up, lifted the pillow against the wall, and leaned back. My right leg was outstretched along the bed and behind Jordan’s back, the other was bent at my knee. He wasn’t even a little curious to search the way these sweatpants fit me. Not that I had expected him to look at my curves or crotch. I could have been a sentient pile of pillows dressed as a real boy; he would see me the same way.
“I’m going there tomorrow. Mom and George are coming a few days later. They have an appointment they can’t reschedule, so I’m on my own. George sent Chuck to fill up the fridge and tidy up the place so I don’t have to.” I poured out the information I had, then shrugged. He needed to know that it was safe to go home and that he wouldn’t cross paths with me. And now he had it.
Jordan frowned. “How will you get there?”
I snorted and shrugged. “I’ll catch a bus to town from the airport, then call a cab to take me the rest of the way. Why do you care?”
Jordan’s face darkened. He almost rolled his eyes. After a long silence, he cleared his throat. “You don’t have to go through all that hassle. I can drive you.”
My heart stopped. It was still for way too long. Then it beat again, erratically as if catching up. “What? Why?”
He shook his head like it was obvious. “We’re both going there. Why waste money? I hope you got cancellation insurance like I always tell you so you can refund the plane ticket.”
I wouldn’t tell him I hadn’t. He could stuff the ten dollar fee it cost to ensure the refund up his ass. It was a cheap, short flight anyway. “Sure did.”
He ticked his eyebrows up for the briefest of moments as if surprised. “Good,” he said softly. “You never know when you’ll need to cancel a trip. Like tomorrow. You should save your money and carpool when you have the chance.”
I swallowed all my complaints that he was being an ass again. “Let me get this straight. You want to drive me to the lake house and be there until Mom and George join us?”
“What else am I gonna do with my summer?” he asked sullenly. He got up, stretched his shoulders, then looked at me. “I’m leaving at six to beat the traffic. Be ready.”
I scoffed. “I think I’d rather fly,” I muttered, but we both knew it was a done deal. My ticket might go to waste, but at least I wouldn’t have to transfer a million times between a million vehicles before getting to the remote house.
Oh, but spending seven hours alone in a car with Jordan is no hassle at all, I thought sarcastically.
Fuck my life. I couldn’t catch a break. Despite all my attempts, I couldn’t get rid of him. And the worst part was that my heart tripped at the thought of us being alone for days before George and Mom joined us. Anything could happen. But nothing was the most likely to happen.
FOUR
Jordan
