Safety Net {l.r.h}

24) "but there's a girl?"

LUKE HEMMINGS

I was in the middle of working out when my phone had begun to buzz in my pocket. Yanking my towel from my gym bag, I wiped my hands and face before answering said device. As soon as I saw the name on the phone, I frowned.

"Yeah?"

"What a nice greeting from the son I haven't seen in four months!" My mom says from the other side of the phone.

"You know you don't call unless it's about school," I come back, knowing I was right.

She sighed. "Your grades don't look good, and I just wanted to check to see if everything was alright."

"Yes, mom. Everything's fine, nothing to worry about."

"Is it a girl?" As soon as she said that I could feel myself start smiling. Yelling was heard from the background, and I knew the phone was about to be pulled from her grasp.

"Do you finally have a girlfriend now, loser?" My brother Jack asked through the speaker after some shuffling was heard.

"No, I don't have a girlfriend."

"But there's a girl." Ben's voice echoed from the background.

"There might be." I say before taking a long drink from my water bottle. "She's got a boyfriend though."

Ben laughed, "ouch."

"So? Just because there's a goalie doesn't mean you can't score," Jack reasons.

I toss my towel back in my bag and decide to call it a day before zipping it shut. "She's different though, I've never met a girl like her."

"Well, this is a different side of you, mate. Glad to see it." Jack says and I could tell he was nodding in approval like he usually did. "Will you be here for Thanksgiving? Or Christmas?"

"Not sure about Thanksgiving, but definitely Christmas."

"Maybe you could bring her round ours so we can meet her."

"Right, like that'd go down well."

"Mom will come around, don't worry about her." I sigh, hoping he was right.

"Thanks, Jack."

My mom and I haven't been on good terms for years, and I'll thank myself for that one. I was a horrible kid growing up, always getting into trouble with Ashton and Calum. We grew up in the lovely downtown area of Spokane which was roughly four to five hours from Seattle. It was a beautiful place to live, but since our parents were always working, we had to come up with things to do outside of the house. Or hell, we'd decide to throw a party at one of our houses which would only get us in trouble. My brothers were older than me and always went out to bonfires or to girls' houses which left me bored and by myself. Half the time it felt like my parents had given up on raising me. Jack was the closest thing I had to a parent considering he babysat me all through my childhood, but he taught me to be one hell of a football player. It landed me a starting spot on my college team. Although my parents made money, they weren't very keen on handing it out especially to me considering what I did through school made me not worthy of their money.

I would steal from local stores, smoked cigarettes, and drank way too much alcohol for my age. Ashton was an overall good kid, he just joined Cal and I for the ride. Our friendships were all close to brotherhood, and that's what mattered. But now, we've grown out of getting into trouble. Ashton has always been the 'dad' of the group, and Calum has always been the brooding type. The truth about Cal is that he had a bad breakup his freshmen year, and since has sworn off girlfriends for the rest of college. So, the rest of us did the same. Michael was sort of on board with it. We had made a pact at the slim age of freshmen to not catch feelings for any girl. Anyways, Calum was head over heels for an older girl. She was a sophomore with everything going for her. They had been together for about a year, and she changed him as a person. He would pump her gas for her, buy her food, and gave her all of him. To say he was a simp would be an understatement. I guarantee if I asked freshmen Calum what his plans were, he'd say that he was going to marry that girl. We nearly lost him as a friend back then, but one day... she cheated on him. With his roommate. After that, he joined the frat, lost himself in a lot of pussy, and became the old Calum again. Aside from getting arrested.