I don't think I've ever felt as much love for someone as I did when I spotted Bryan holding a Java Jen's cup in front of my locker. When I'd walked in after my late night venture into the wild with the mysterious alter ego of Liam Scott, it was just after four. I hadn't even bothered to try and get a couple hours asleep, there wasn't any use. Not with my thoughts and heart racing million miles per hour as I tried to figure out a different angle to approach Liam from after seeing his guard drop last night. Not when my father came stalking out of the bedroom at five-thirty, stirring my mother awake just to start an argument.
"Oh, Bryan." I gasped, tearing the cup from his grasp the second I approached. "I could seriously kiss you right now. I love you so much."
Brianna, who was leaning against the locker beside mine, peeked over her phone to take in the scene before her. Seeing it wasn't anything of interest, she dropped her hazel eyes and full attention to her phone, a Andrew Wilde induced smile touching at her lips.
"I figured when you texted me at three in the morning telling me that Liam Scott was kidnapping you that you'd be an exhausted mess this morning." He considered what he said for a minute, looking toward the ceiling with a frown. "Or possibly dead, but of course I was hoping for the former."
I jabbed my finger into his side as soon as the words broke passed his lips. Brianna perked up, suddenly on high alert after hearing about my late-night escapade. This had been the only reason I had texted Bryan instead of her about my whereabouts; her inquisitive nature always left her asking millions of questions and expecting an answer to every last one of them.
"Wow, wow, hold up." She slipped her phone into the back pocket of her red jeans, eyes wide. "Why was I not told about this? What happened? What did you guys do? Did you make out?"
I started to respond, but Bryan cut me off before I could get a full, coherent word out. "What the hell are you wearing? Is that Liam's Letterman?"
My own eyes grew a little as I looked down. I had been in such a tired daze this morning I'd grabbed whatever clothes I could find, shoved all my stuff into my backpack, then left. I hadn't even bothered running a brush through my hair, but thrown it into a messy, and most definitely tangled, bun.
"Oh My God!" Brianna squealed, grasping my shoulders in her hands as she hopped up and down like an excited child in a toy store. "You didn't!"
"Let me talk guys!" I held up a hand, taking a swing from the coffee cup, then looked at Brianna. "No, I didn't. It was cold last night so Liam let me borrow it."
The twins opened their mouths at the same time to speak, but I shot them a look that had them shutting it seconds later so I could continue.
"He just drove us to like a cliff overlooking the city and we talked."
"Talked about what?" Bryan inquired.
Brianna was still bouncing on the balls of her feet, but the look in her eyes was conflicting. As if she didn't know whether to be excited or worried.
"Nothing, really. We just talked in the back of the truck." I could see the skepticism in my best friend's eyes and pointed a finger against my chest. "There is nothing going on between Liam and me, I solemnly swear it, Bryan. Don't you know who you're talking to? I'm the matchmaker, but I don't believe in love."
He reached out and grabbed a fistful of Liam's Letterman in his hand. "Well, then you might want to take this off before people think something is going on."
"He's probably right." Brianna added after a moment of thought, "We don't really need to make an enemy out of Nicola."
Thrusting my cup into Bryan's hand, I slid out of the jacket and draped it over my forearm, but Bryan was staring at my shirt with an irritated look. "That's my shirt."
"More than half my wardrobe are your shirts, Bry." I answered with a grin, taking my coffee back from him. Bri made a face, as if the thought of her brother and I sharing Tees was the most disgusting thing in the world.
"We need to fix that, Reese. You need to dress more girly. Especially With Jason freaking McDermott having his beautiful eyes on you."
I waved her off, downing the remainder of my lukewarm coffee. I was quite literally saved by the bell and stole a mint from the tin in Bryan's pocket before kissing his cheek, then hugging Brianna and heading down the hall. As if my friend's words had summoned the man of the hour himself, Jay came jogging down the hall and ran into me, knocking both of us to the ground. He started to curse under his breath, looking ready to lash out as Liam did whenever he ran into someone else in the hallway, but the look dissipated when he saw it was me in front of him.
"I'm so sorry, Reese." He jumped to his feet in a quick, graceful movement.
These damn football players and their energy and flexibility. Maybe I should start working out more.
"Andy and I were messing around and I didn't see you when I rounded the corner." He explained as I took his hand and pushed myself from the tile. "I really am sorry."
"You're fine, Jay." I fixed my backpack strap on my right shoulder, eyes falling on the Letterman still hanging loosely off my arm. "Hey, do you think you could give this to Liam for me? I haven't seen him this morning."
Jay's grin shook a little as he took the Letterman from my extended hand, clearly surprised.
"Sure. But why do you even have this? I haven't seen it off him since. . . since I actually don't remember."
I frowned, "We hung out last night and he let me borrow it."
"Hung out?" He laughed. "As in you guys had hooked up or you actually hung out?"
"Actually hung out, Jay. I wouldn't do that." I answered quietly.
He looked almost relieved.
"Okay, good, good. You deserve better. But yeah, I'll definitely give it to him as soon as I see him."
I tried to slip passed him, but he caught my wrist before I could. "I actually wanted to ask you something."
"Go ahead." I nodded toward the clock over his head. "We're kind of on limited time here though, Jason."
His infamous crooked grin appeared. "I was wondering if you might want to go to Homecoming with me on Saturday? I know it's only like three days away and a little late, but I didn't really talk to you until recently."
Liam must have talked to him. It wasn't even the end of the week or the beginning of the next Play, why would he already be trying to get Jay to ask me out?
"We're on limited time here, Reese." Jay joked, eyebrows shooting up. "So?"
"Can I get back to you at lunch?"
Being rejected must not have been something he was used to, because his entire face fell, then twisted into one of surprise. "Yeah, yeah, sure. But I'll be waiting."
*
It be a bold faced lie to say I wasn't surprised to find Bri and Bry already at our table, Liam and Andy keeping them company, when I walked into the cafeteria. Bryan touched the top of my hand comfortingly as I sat beside him, opposite of Liam-who must have had a run in with Jay sometime over the last three hours because he was in his Letterman. He must have felt my wandering eyes, because he looked from the courtyard to his left to me, a small smile on his face.
"Reese, hey." Jay took the vacant seat beside me, momentarily distracting Brianna from her intense conversation with Andy beside her. "Did you have enough time to consider it?"
"Consider what?" Liam and Brianna both asked with completely different expressions. My friend looked ready to kick me under the table until I spilt in depth details of what happened in the hallway after I'd left them. Liam's eyes, now their signature blue, were dancing back and forth between his teammate and me.
"I asked her to Homecoming." Jay replied as if it wasn't a big deal, swinging his other leg over the bench. "And her being her, she told me she needed to think about it and would give me an answer at lunch."
Shay and Nicola joined us as Liam and Bryan sized the boy beside me up, as if they were older siblings trying to figure out if they should give him the Talk or not.
"I. . . yeah, sure. I'll go with you." I said quickly, feeling the tip of Brianna's shoe nudge mine under the table. "Wait, does that mean I have to go to the game on Friday?"
Jay, looking as if he'd just been told he won the lottery, reached out and rested a hand on top of mine. "Yep. All the players girls show up for support. It's just how it works."
"You don't have to go." Liam spoke for the first time since I'd sat down, glaring at his friend. "But it's kind of an unwritten rule you do."
I couldn't get a good reading on his expression; he was just as much of a closed book as I was. What I could conclude from his shocked look is that he had nothing to do with Jay asking me to Homecoming, which was both terrifying and a little worrisome all at once.
"I'll go." I reached across the table and touched my fingertips to Brianna's. "Someone's gotta keep Bri company."
"Awesome." Jay smiled and tossed a piece of a Milky Way into his mouth. Seeing my eyes on the remainder of it in his hand, he laughed and held it out to me. "Want some?"
I thanked him quietly and took a piece, my eyes drifting to Liam, who was talking to Nicola, but they both kept looking in my direction. They succeeded in making me feel uncomfortable because I started to shift on the bench beneath me. Bryan touched my knee under the table, steadying it.
"So, Liam," Jay said through a mouth full of chocolate. "why'd you kidnap Reese last night?"
Everyone's eyes went to Liam, who didn't look at all interested in answering his friend's question, but eventually said, "I didn't kidnap her, we went for a joyride."
"Joyride?" Shay threw herself into the middle of the conversation between the boys. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? Didn't I tell you idiots she wasn't to be messed with?"
I had a newfound love for the beautiful girl at the end of the table hearing her sharp-tongued response to Liam. Even hardly knowing me, she had tried to ensure that the boys didn't try and add me to their never ending pile of one night stands.
"Shay, Chill." Liam said with a hand up in surrender, then his eyes found mine. "Reese didn't mind, did you?"
I scanned every pair of eyes on me, then looked to the untouched white tray in front of me. "It was ok. We didn't do anything but talk."
Just as I was starting to think that maybe Liam was starting to change, that the Playbook was blossoming into a nice guy, he made a dig at Bryan again.
"You should be proud of me too. She was hardly wearing any clothes."
My hand grasped Bryan's under the table, squeezing it to keep him from finally snapping. He grimaced, turning away from me and rubbing his other hand down his face. Jay, witnessing firsthand the rise he was trying to get out of my best friend, chunked an empty soda bottle across the table at Liam.
"Dude, chill out." Jay snapped when Liam whirled around, hands clenched into fists. "You're supposed to be following her guidelines, right? Pissing off her best friend isn't part of that."
Liam snickered. "Aww, is Jay Jay trying to show off for his new girlfriend?"
It wasn't Jay who responded, but me, catching Liam's eyes so he saw how serious I was. "You want to make that two strikes, Scott? I have no issue taking the nosedive in my grade for this one. I can just make it up. But you? You'll be benched for the rest of the season."
Andy let out a quiet whistle at the threat, but Liam, as usual, looked amused. "Are you threatening me, Reese? First blackmail, then threats? You're not being a very good girl, are you?"
"Oh, Liam, it's not a threat." I stood, making sure I had his full attention. "It's a promise."