Tea For Two

17 (Pt. Two)

If you're going to say something, just say it.

I roll my eyes, and turn to Emily.

"You ready to go home, babe?"

"Mm, yeah," she says, stifling a yawn. "I think it might be time to try out that sleep tea you have, too. I'm exhausted."

"Sounds good to me," I say, picking her bag up for her.

"You ladies need a ride?" asks Jonathon. "Kyle and me can give you one."

Emily's attempt at answering him is interrupted by the massive yawn she lets go.

"Ah, yeah, that'd be great," I reply, laughing.

As we follow Jonathon toward the truck, Emily slips her arm through mine.

"So... my place or yours?" she asks. Since that first game, we always stay the night together after games.

"Actually, Jonathon and I were wondering," says Kyle, pleasantly letting himself into our conversation, "wanna come over to my place? My dad's out of town and Jonathon's already staying over."

"Sure," says Emily, not even pausing to think.

"On a school night?" I ask, trying not to sound like I've never done something like that.

"Why not?" asks Jonathon.

"Well-" I start, but as I glance at Emily, she mouths to me 'please'.

"Oh, fine," I say. "But I don't know why you care, Em. You're going to fall asleep as soon as we get there."

Just a few spaces away from Jonathon's pickup, a car pulls by dangerously close to Emily. Instinctively, I grab her and pull her away, behind my back.

"Watch where you're going!" I yell at the car. Jonathon and Kyle stop in their tracks, my scream getting their attention. It's almost too dark to see it clearly, but I have a hunch who's driving.

The car stops and slowly reverses to pull up level with us. The passenger window rolls down, and Sellers leers at us from behind the wheel.

"Watch where you're going, Sellers. You could have hit Emily," I say, razor edges in my voice. I know he doesn't care, but I do.

"That's just too bad," he says, smirking. "I guess it's almost my mistake. I forgot to turn on my headlights."

"Oh, brilliant. 'Forgot to turn on the headlights'," I mimic him, letting the sarcasm and hatred drip from my words. "Tell me, how do they let brainless assholes like you get their license?"

"August, let it go," says Emily softly, pulling on my arm, leading me toward the pickup. "It's okay."

"It sure as hell is not okay, Emily. He almost hit you."

"You know, I think you should listen to your little fuck buddy, there, Shoemaker," cuts in Sellers.

My face catches fire. I quickly glance around the parking lot to see if anyone more than the team is around. There isn't.

"First off," I growl, "Emily is not my 'fuck buddy'. She is my girlfriend: my beautiful, funny, talented girlfriend. You couldn't get a girl like her even in your wildest dreams. Secondly, if you ever 'forget to turn on your headlights' again, I'll personally smash them in with a tire iron, and run a key from them to the taillights. You don't look at her, you don't talk to her, you leave my girl the fuck alone. Hear me?"

My heart is beating so loud that I almost don't hear either Jonathon or Kyle let out a low whistle.

"We'll see," says Sellers lightly, shifting into drive. "You all... have a good night."

As he peels away, his tires squealing for a moment, I flip him off, hoping that he sees it in his rearview mirror.

"Calm down," says Emily, stepping closer to me and taking one of my hands in hers. "You're shaking."

I glance at her, wanting to say that Sellers gives me the hives, but the look in her eyes stops me. She's worried, and a little bit afraid. In the time it takes for me to take a breath, I realize that it may not be Sellers that's making her feel like that; it could be me.

"Let's go," says Kyle.

~~~

When I walk into my house, I am greeted by my parents sitting on the couch. Rather, I am greeted by my dad, who unlike my mother actually looks when I open the door.

"Hey there, Auggie- what happened to you?" he asks.

I glance in my reflection in the mirror hanging across the room from me, wondering why he's asking. My face is bright red, my ponytail loose and falling apart, and my clothes are rumpled and covered in dust. I look like I just finished playing a game of baseball, not watching one.

"It was a pretty exciting game," I lie. "Could have gone either way the whole time."

"Did we win?" he asks, lighting up at my mention of sports.

"No."

"Ah, well, that's too bad."

My mother hasn't attempted to join the conversation yet, and just licks her finger, turning a page.

"Yeah... anyway, that's why Emily and I are going to stay the night with some of the guys tonight," I say, turning to walk into my room and pack my schoolbag with clothes for tomorrow, something to sleep in, and my toothbrush. It's not a question; I'm not asking permission to go.

"Wait, what guys? Who are these guys?" my dad asks, getting up off of the couch to follow me.

"We're staying at Kyle Johnson's house, and Jonathon Smith is going to be there too, but that's it."

"I don't think it's a good idea for you girls to stay the night with a couple of boys, Auggie. That just sounds like trouble," he says as I pick a shirt out of my closet pile and smell it.

"Dad, it'll be fine. Emily doesn't even like guys, remember?" I say, passing him on my way to the bathroom to grab my toothbrush and deodorant. "Plus, Jonathon and Kyle are nice, but they're really not my type."

They'd need red hair and more estrogen to pull that off.

"And it's a school night, too. Are you going to try to tell me that you're going to get your homework done?" he says, crossing his arms as if he's stumped me.

"Well, yeah. We all pretty much have the same classes, so we'll do our homework and studying together," I lie. Jonathon is in the grade ahead of us, set to graduate at the end of the month; not to mention, Emily and I have no classes together, and Kyle and I only have one. There will be no homework getting done. "And also, I already told them I would, and I don't want to go back on my word. They're waiting outside, so I need to get going."

"Fine," he sighs, giving in as easy as ever. If I was a partier, I would love how much of a push-over my dad is.

"Thanks, dad," I say, kissing him on the cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow after school, okay?"

"Okay, Auggie. Make sure they feed you," he says as I walk out of the door, skipping kissing my mother goodnight. If she doesn't bother to look at me, I won't bother to say goodbye.

~~~

AN:

I am proud to announce that I will soon open up a book of supplementary scenes and one-shots about characters and events from this story.

Because this is all from August's POV, there are things that you don't get to see, or hear about... but due to the highly personal way that I know the characters I write about, I know about those things.

And I'll be sharing them with you.

As always, I would love to hear what you think of the chapter.

Love,

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