Dusk (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 16 - Pressure

We carried the plants out to my car, and the leaves scattered in front of my face, clouding my vision. I set the plant on the hood and heard a laugh from nearby. I turned and saw a middle aged man chewing gum and watching me judgingly as I handled the plant. He'd clearly just come from the hardware store, and I rolled my eyes at him before turning to unlock my car.

"Excuse you." Lucy said loudly to him, and I turned to her in panic. "What's so funny?"

He looked at me and raised his eyebrows, before turning and getting into his car.

"Yeah that's what I thought." Lucy said to his back, and he shut the door behind him, staying silent.

"Lucy." I said, and she turned to me nonchalantly.

"Yeah?"

She'd been acting like an overly-protective chihuahua since the moment she landed a few hours prior. First she was aggressively glaring at people who dared to even glance at me on the street, now this?

"You didn't need to do that, he didn't even say anything."

Lucy shrugged, gently buckling in the larger plant in my backseat, her bright expression returning.

"He just seemed like he needed to be reminded to mind his own fucking business."

We got in the car and I drove off, feeling anxious.

"Anyway," Lucy said joyfully, all traces of her combativeness gone. "Are you excited to watch the game tonight?"

I subconsciously bit my lip, frowning at the light ahead of me. I wish I could tell her what'd happened between me and Rowan... But I didn't even know what that was myself. I felt weird, as if I were lying to her by not saying anything. My thoughts reminded me that she had likely seen me kiss that boy at Erik's party over the summer, and I felt my face flush.

No... She would've told me if she saw anything.

"You sure you wanna go?" I asked, hoping she'd have a quick change of heart.

"Are you seriously asking me that? They're literally playing Stanford for their first preseason game, of course I wanna go." She gave me a slight frown. "Anyway, aren't you like, friends with Rowan Williams now? Shouldn't you go regardless?"

Fuck.

"I mean, we hung out a few times. We aren't like close—"

"Ooh, you're totally friends with him. Well that means you're way too cool to be hanging with me anymore. Just drop me off at the next bus stop then, pretend you don't know me."

"Shut up." I said, wanting to smile at her humor, but instead I remembered the last interaction I'd had with him. "Anyway, who are you rooting for then?"

"Well, on one hand, Rowan went to high school with us, and it's my hometown team. On the other hand, shouldn't I be showing some Stanford school spirit? I mean, they're so far away from home, they'll probably have no fans tonight and I actually go there."

"Sure, but if you do that, you'll have to root for Creighton when the team travels to Stanford for their game. Because you know there won't be anyone supporting them out there."

Lucy sighed, and leaned her head back against the headrest.

"I'll just cheer on whoever wins." I shook my head.

"That's cheating, you gotta pick." I said, and pulled into the driveway. Lucy opened the back door to unbuckle the plants.

"Hey, it's the Bluejays versus Cardinals. Battle of the birds. Blue versus red." She said handing me one of them.