I Hate Football Players

21: Stay Here

Keywords: fake pretense.

Harper always saw things clearly when I overthought them. I wished a switch existed to wipe out whatever pulled me to Logan. It was distracting and gave me a headache. And hanging out with strangers I didn't know or cared to know was not a fun Saturday night diversion.

"Bullshit." Jake didn't spare me a glance. "You're chewing on your lip. Did something happen with Hightower that you're hiding from me? Ellie, I swear if you don't tell me, I'll go to Salesian and beat the truth out of him."

Unaware I was lip chewing, I released it from my teeth and clasped my hands. "Will you promise not to overreact if I tell you?"

Again, not even a flinch. "Nope."

"He... asked me out," I whispered and chewed again.

Jake's foot slammed on the brake, and we lurched forwards on tire squeals. My head almost hit the dashboard, which I slapped with my palms.

"What!?" His wide eyes, dark even with the overhead street lights, stared as if I'd grown two heads. How insulting. Thanks, Jake. "You said no, right?"

"Technically, I..." My memory fumbled for my exact words. What had I said? "I called him an asshole."

"But did you say the word no?" I lifted my shoulders, and he groaned so loudly, vibrations rolled off the windshield. With grumbled curse words, he continued driving. "Ellie, you're so naïve. If you don't say no directly to guys like him, then he's going to think it's a yes."

"Guys like him, or guys like you?" My question hung in the air as our destination and its less inebriated attendants passed my window. A hollow feeling carved out my stomach as Jake parked a few houses up.

"Exactly. You deserve better than any football player. They're all... cockroaches." Jake struggled for the right word while he turned off the car.

I scoffed. Jake was the king of hypocrites sometimes.

King Cockroach's chest expanded and heaved with his sigh, then he spoke in a quiet but firm voice. "Say it."

"It's not important," I replied in a tight, strained voice and refused to meet his gaze. He always knew when I was lying. So did Harper. The sting of my nails in my palm intensified when his voice filled with insistence.

"No secrets, Ellie."

"Okay, hypocrite." I turned towards him with narrowed eyes. The moonlight cast ghastly shadows around his eyes, and the lights gave his skin a yellow glow. "You're dragging me to a lame-ass party to meet some transfer girl because she doesn't know that you treat girls probably as you're worrying about how Logan would treat me."

Jake's face wiped blank as if I ran a giant eraser over it. Within those dark shadows, his eyes darkened with whatever mental hamster ran its wheel. After a pause where we breathed and looked at each other, he relented and raked one hand through his hair. The dark brown waves curled and flipped over his knuckles.

"Ellie, look. This girl..." he said in a low, thick voice. "I told you, she's different. I want you to meet her. I'm here so I can pick her up and take her out. We're not staying at the party and I'm not drinking. She's not allowed to date, so I had to meet her here. I won't even make you go inside."

Jake spoke with no edge of cockiness. His normal confidence was stripped down to sincerity. An honest admission and he must like her if she's not allowed to date. "We're... not going inside?"

"You're not," he reiterated. "Stay here. I'll get her, and we'll leave."

Relief flooded into me and relaxed a tension I hadn't realized scrunched up my shoulders. It was short-lived.