Text from: Jake Morris-Whittaker, 7:01 am
Screw reminders
Can we please talk about that bouquet?! 😲😍🌹
They're just flowers
Uhh huhhhhh 😏😏😏
I know a grand gesture when I see one
Please stop
Fine
But I'm pretty sure I won't be the only guy saying the L word to you anymore...
JAKE
😇😇😇
LOVE YOU EL
~*~
Theo's stunt went viral, which meant of course my brother had seen it. One of the other boys' varsity players had recorded the whole thing, and later that night, after Theo had paraded me through the common room with my massive bouquet, he'd uploaded it to his Instagram and tagged me. It was the last thing I'd wanted to deal with when I had to explain the sudden arrival of two dozen roses to Gyeong-Ja. Especially when I was still inwardly cringing after what I'd blurted on the field.
It only got worse when I had to relive it after Gyeong-Ja demanded that I spill all the details while she helped me trim the flowers and scrounge for a water pitcher in the dining hall. The bouquet looked ridiculous, overflowing from the scratched plastic on the edge of my desk. I couldn't help but wonder if girls like Madeleine and Emma had expensive, cut crystal vases for this exact occasion. Anything to keep my mind off that something that had awoken in my stomach.
All night, I tried and failed to think of anything else. Especially since I kept catching whiffs of the roses—the same scent that had surrounded me when Theo had taken his hopeful step towards me on the soccer field. And as the scene replayed in my head, I blushed. Hard. Why hadn't I just shut that whole thing down and told him that I wasn't interested in kissing him at all? Because I definitely wasn't. Not even a little bit. It was just the whole grand gesture thing that had caught me off guard. And I only kept glancing at my phone because of the Instagram notifications. Not because I was debating sending him a text to thank him for the flowers. A text he would grin down at, his face going all soft and gentle and eager again...
I rolled over with a groan. I needed to get Theo Ellerby out of my head. Which meant turning off my phone to shut down both the notifications and the temptation to thank him. It's not like the flowers meant anything, anyway. They were all an act, just like him. I had to remember that. And most of all, I had to remember that he was a liar, and that this was all a game.
A game that wouldn't let me go, if the next morning was any indication. Before the sun had properly risen, Gyeong-Ja was shaking me awake, already dressed for her run.
"Someone's here for you," she whispered conspiratorially, then bolted out the door.
Right past Theo, who leaned on the frame and smirked, cradling a soccer ball.
"It's way too early for this," I moaned, pulling my pillow back over my head. The something in my stomach was awake again, and I ground my teeth, willing away the heat building beneath my skin as the door snicked closed behind him.
"You never answered my texts." Theo sat with a whomp at the end of my bed. "I had to be sure you hadn't died, Emdubs. And it's time we practice your keep-away skills."
"If your damned video hadn't been blowing up my phone all night, I wouldn't have turned it off," I muttered into my pillow.
"My 'damned video' got almost a hundred thousand views last night," he said matter-of-factly. "Now get up and change into practice clothes. Unless you want the entire school to know that you sleep in One Direction pyjamas."
I whacked him with my pillow. Which was a mistake, because he wrestled it away and left nothing but my duvet between us. I whirled and face-planted back into my sheets before he could see my blush, then tried for a desperate change of subject. "I'm not leaving this bed until you tell me the truth."
"About what?"
I rolled over and wrapped myself deeper in my duvet. "About everything."
"Sorry, Emdubs, but I don't know if there's life after death. Or if the aliens built the pyramids. Or if—"
I kicked at him through the duvet, but just ended up getting more tangled in it. "If you're going to bother me in my bed, you're going to tell the truth!"
"Fine." He blew out a sigh. Shook his head. Leaned closer, as if he was about to confess a secret.
That something fluttered in my chest. I clutched my duvet tighter.
"The truth is," he said, "You're never going to make starter if you don't—"
With a growl, I tumbled out of bed and reached for my phone. "That's it. I'm calling the headmistress and telling her you—"
"Okay, okay!" Theo laughed. "I'll tell you the real truth this time." He checked his watch. "The truth is that we only have an hour until the lacrosse teams take over the field."
"I hate you so much," I grumbled. But I detangled myself from my duvet, grabbed a change of clothes, and got ready. He obviously wasn't leaving without me, and I didn't want to spend any more alone time with him anywhere near my bed.
It was only when we were sneaking down the dorm stairs that Theo asked, "So...what truth were you hoping for back there?"
I shoved open the common room doors and inhaled a calming lungful of late autumn air to buy myself time to formulate a response. And to shove down that swirling something that was messing with my head again. There was only one truth that I was supposed to care about, and it had nothing to do with what had almost happened yesterday on the soccer field. "I want to know what this new plan is."
Theo bounced his ball. "That's all? You made such a scene over that?"
I bit my tongue to keep from grimacing. My blush was rising again, and I had to change the subject fast, before he noticed. "If you won't tell me the plan, then tell me what the deal is with Madeleine."
That stopped him in his tracks. When he didn't catch up to me, I glanced back over my shoulder. His hands had gone white around his soccer ball.
"There's no deal with Madeleine," he said firmly.
"Then why—"
He fixed me with a glare so intense that it silenced me, then stormed right past me towards the soccer field.
I reached for his shoulder to stop him. "Theo—"
He whirled on me. "You want the truth? Then fine. Here's the truth. William asked Madeleine out because he's calling our bluff."
My head reeled back at the venom in his tone. Hesitantly, I ventured, "But William said—"
"You shouldn't trust a damn thing my brother says. Least of all what he says to you, and especially if it's about Madeleine." Theo stormed off, shoulders tense, and tossed his ball onto the field.
Frowning, I chewed my cheek. I toyed with my own soccer ball as he raked a hand through his hair, then plunked down on one of the benches to tighten his laces.
"I didn't mean to—" I began, sliding in next to him.
"It's fine." He sprang to his feet and jogged to the net.
I blew a sigh through my cheeks and gave him some time to cool off while I pretended to fuss with my own laces. Clearly, I'd touched a nerve, which meant that there was definitely something to this whole Madeleine and Theo business. But it was also abundantly clear that he wasn't about to explain it to me while he was this worked up.
When I joined him at the net, I said, "Can we work on how to defend against a cross? And a fast striker?"
Finally, his shoulders relaxed from where they'd hunched up towards his ears. "Sure."
We spent the hour with Theo attempting to get around me. He was fast—faster than the Harcourt striker—and every time I messed up, he offered a correction as he blew past me and fired a shot at the net. I had to chase every one of them down, and I had a sneaking suspicion he'd missed more than a couple just so I'd have to do some extra running. By the end, though, he was still getting around me, only with more difficulty than before.
When the lacrosse teams arrived and we had to give up the field, we moved to the grassy area behind the nets to practice my keep away skills.
"Use your body more," he said, when he managed to steal the ball away from me far too easily for the fifth time.
"I am!" I shoved the flyaways from my sweat-slicked forehead.
"You're not." He came up behind me. "I mean like this."
My stomach tightened when his hands found my waist and he pulled me back towards him.
"Butt check them if you have to, but use your body as a barrier. You're dancing around the ball when you should be acting like a wall. If they want it, they have to go through you. Now, show me." He released me and lunged for the ball.
I threw myself into his path, shielding the ball with my body. It was awkward as hell having him bump up against me as he tried to get around me, and I'm pretty sure my cheeks were on fire from the way we kept pressing up against one another. But at least I managed to keep him away from the ball. And at least whoever I had to actually use this move against in a game wouldn't be taller and stronger and feeling up my waist every chance they got.
"Okay, Ellerby. I think I get the picture," I said finally, whirling to face him when his hands had lingered for just a little too long.
I must've surprised him, though, because he was mid-lunge, and his chest slammed into mine. I took a step backwards, only to trip on the ball. Instead of letting me tumble, though, he caught me around the waist.
He held me there, hands warm through my practice jersey as I clung to his shoulders. I don't know why it felt more intimate than all the other times he'd held me or cuddled me or even kissed my head. But it might've been because of the something that was positively fluttering around my insides. Or the way he glanced down at my lips, then cleared his throat and looked away, setting me back on my feet.
"Sorry." His voice came out gravelly until he cleared his throat again and stooped to collect the soccer ball. "Though I guess you had it coming. Payback for almost nailing me with a door the first day we met."
"Pretty sure you deserved that," I called over my shoulder as I jogged away to collect my ball and put some extra space between us. When I came back, his smirk was firmly back in place.
"Really? Because I seem to remember that you started it by smacking me in the back with a ball," he said, falling in beside me on the way back to the dorms.
"By accident. You of all people should know how crap my aim was back then."
He chuckled. "Fair enough. Breakfast?"
"Obviously," I replied.
It was only when he held open the common room door that I realized he hadn't slung his arm around me the way he always did whenever we walked around campus together.
**A/N: My kingdom for an update scheduling feature!! Sorry readers, Wednesdays around here have just been nightmarish until after the workday rush. I'll try to post earlier if I can, but I might have to switch to later in the day on Wednesdays until work calms down.
That said...*Something* is definitely up, whether or not Ellie (and maaaybe Theo?!) want to admit it or not. SO that leads me to ask - who do you think is going to make the first real move?? 👀😻😇
As always, if you enjoyed it, please take a moment to vote and comment!**