“I don't know why you're arguing with me about this, we've already settled this,” a deep masculine voice floated through the cracks in the bleachers and I instinctively began looking for the nearest exit strategy. I knew the owner of that voice and after the last few days successfully embarrassing myself in front of him, I was actively trying to avoid him. But the guy was everywhere.
“Oh right, sure, when you think having a threesome is perfectly acceptable, I'm supposed to go along with it, but I find midget porn hot and everyone loses their mind,” another male voice answered and I suppressed the urge to snort, not wanting to give away my hiding spot behind the bleachers.
“What exactly is wrong with having a threesome?” Brayden asked. I had no idea who he was talking to and there was no way for me to tell, the bleachers blocking my view. I knew it wasn't his brother, because this voice was slightly higher than Caden's.
“Uh, I don't know, Brady, how about the fact that you're fucking another guy?” the other guy answered in a mocking tone and I rolled my eyes. He did know that there were threesomes with two girls and a guy, as well, right?
“You're an idiot.”
“Why?”
I heard Brayden sigh. “Because threesomes can be between two girls and a guy, you limp dick.”
“Oh...right.” I fought the urge to laugh, the poor guy seemed almost shocked at this new information. And as crude as their conversation was, I wasn't surprised; I'd heard many others like it. I spent most of my free time hiding behind the bleachers, either reading a book or listening to music until my next class, and a lot of the hockey players walked through the field to either get to the ice rink on the other side of the campus or wood shop class at the end of the football field. It was the quietest place when there wasn't a game going on or during classes, so most days I was able to hear their conversations clearly as they walked past. It was one of my favorite parts of my day.
Making friends had never been easy for me, from a young age, as hard as I tried, it was always a struggle. As I grew up in a town with people ready to be judge, jurors and executioners at the slightest out of line incident, it was nearly impossible when the news of my father's wrong doings broke. And even though my mother and I had been victims as much as the town, we'd quickly been shunned and written off as bad seeds. Which is one of the reasons I couldn't even begin to understand why one of the most beloved members of this twisted tight-knit community wanted anything to do with me, let alone be his pretend girlfriend.
People didn't really talk to me, going for the easier way out by choosing to ignore the fact that I existed. I had gotten used to it. I'd stopped trying to make friends at a young age, choosing to actually enjoy the fact that I was left alone most of the time. When I'd chosen to volunteer at the hospital, I'd done it solely to make my college applications stand out. I knew my grades weren't going to be enough, since I'd never been particularly good at school. But I'd never actually expected to make a few friends. They weren't the type of friends that invited me over for sleepovers or to tag along to a party, but they didn't make my life difficult at the hospital, and that's all I could ask for.
“Protein bar?” I heard a voice ask from a few feet away, a scream leaving my lips, my book flying out of my hands and landing a few steps away from a pair of black converse. I glanced up and growled.
“You have got to stop doing that,” I grumbled, moving onto my knees to retrieve my book.
“Hey, at least this time you weren't holding hot coffee,” he smirked and I groaned, my face heating up at the memory.
“You know most people stay away from me after hot coffee gets involved,” I mumbled, not meeting his eyes. “I mean, they learn pretty quickly that I'm a string of bad luck. If they had the strength to deal with me for more than a few minutes, I'm pretty sure that I would have a line of people waiting to file a lawsuit for emotional and physical scars...Not that I'm trying to give you an idea. Please don't sue me! I can't afford a lawyer and knowing my luck I'd probably get one that would somehow manage to not only lose the case but also get me locked up with my psychopath of a father.”
“What's he in for?” he asked, curiously and I glanced up to give him an unimpressed look. He raised an eyebrow.
“Right, like you don't know. I'm pretty sure the entire state of Pennsylvania knows,” I muttered, bitterly. The night my father had been dragged out of our home in handcuffs had been broadcast live on every state channel, the entire town hearing about it in a few minutes. Every other secret that nailed the coffin shut on my mother's social life had surfaced the very next day.
“I don't listen to town gossip,” he argued, and I gave him a dubious look. When I glanced away, refusing to answer his earlier question, he lowered his head to avoid banging it against the bleachers and moved closer to me, lowering his body to the ground. I turned towards him and watched with amusement as he tried to fit his large frame under the bleachers, the top of his head pressed against the bottom of them. I huffed a silent laugh when he growled and shifted his weight, giving himself a little more room.
When he was finally in a position that allowed a little room to move his head, he turned towards me and held a protein bar out. “Here, you have to eat something. It's not good for you to not eat anything all day.”
I gave him a puzzled look. “How do you know I haven't eaten all day?”
“I know things,” he replied, shrugging a shoulder as if that should explain everything. It didn't.
He tried once again to give me the protein bar, and when I didn't take it, he sighed and placed it on the ground next to me, pulling out another one from his jean pocket and tearing open the package.
“Um, how did you know where I was?” I asked, suspiciously, while grabbing the protein bar off the ground and slowly tearing open the package. He gave me a quick glance, before smirking.
“Are you always this suspicious of people?” he mumbled around a mouthful of his bar. I bite into the bar and gave him a look.
“Are you always going to avoid my questions, with an unwanted opinion or question?” I replied with a huff.
“I don't do that,” he answered, with a frown, shifting again, but this time he seemed to have forgotten the bleachers over his head, banging the top of his head on them. We both winced simultaneously.
“Are you okay?” I asked him, fighting the urge to reach up and rub his head to soothe the pain. I was blaming that completely innapropiate thought on the nurses at the hospital I volunteered at. I'd spent so much time around them that they were starting to rub off on me.
He gave me a puzzled look and I vaguely gestured towards his head. “Oh, right, yeah I'm fine. I've had enough hockey pucks to the head that I hardly feel a hit like that.”
“I've always wondered why you guys play that sport, it's so violent,” I muttered mostly to myself, the words escaping before I could stop them. I hadn't meant to say them out loud, I didn't know what his reaction would be and I didn't want to purposely hurt his feelings. I knew how obsessed and defensive the players could be.
“We grew up with hockey. It's part of our family, we're not Cavanaugh's without hockey,” he replied with a small shrug. He crinkled his empty protein bar package and stuffed it into his pocket.
“You know you never answered my question,” I reminded him. Folding the package of my protein bar, I secured the uneaten half and placed it neatly into my backpack. When he didn't answer, I turned back to him to find him staring at me with a frown. “What?”
He shook his head and looked away. “What question?”
I sighed. Well, I guess he'd just answered the question whether he would answer my questions with some of his own. Still, I gave him the benefit of a doubt and asked once again, “How did you know where I was?”
“I told you, I know things,” he answered simply and I raised an eyebrow. Giving me a dramatic sigh, he added, “People tell my brother things...Something about him having one of those faces you can trust.”
“Wouldn't people feel the same about-” He gave me an amused look, effectively cutting me off. “Right.”
“So, have you thought about my proposal?” he asked, changing the subject.
I sighed. “I don't get it, why on earth would you want me to pretend to be your girlfriend?”
“Right, I didn't really explain that part, did I?” I shook my head no. “Okay, um...Ever since I was a kid, my mom has always told my siblings and I the story about how her and my dad fell in love. Even years later, they're still in love. She's always wanted the same for us, and she's never had an issue with the rest of my siblings, they ate up her story and wished to some day have a similar one. When it came to me... I didn't care for it and always looked for plot holes...” He shifted, his body tensing up, almost as if he was getting ready to bolt. Pulling his bottom lip between his teeth, he glanced at me, his eyes searching my face, looking for something.
Seeming to have found whatever it was he was looking for, he scratched the back of his head and continued, “I would ask her all these questions, questions that most of the time she had no idea how to answer. When I was ten I told her I didn't believe in love, that there just weren't enough facts to prove it existed. That's when the worrying started. When I finally got old enough to date, I started sleeping around; she hated it. So, she made a plan...she's been setting me up on blind dates every Friday night for the past year. She thinks I just need to meet the one girl that can make me believe.”
“Except you hate it,” I finished for him, and he nodded.
“I don't want to disappoint her, but I can't keep going on dates every Friday night with the weirdest girls I've ever met. Don't ever let your mom set you up. They have the scariest taste in girls. I actually had someone ask me if I was willing to let their dog watch while we fucked. I mean, I'm all for the kinky shit, but that's just weird,” he replied, with a grimace. I gave him a wide-eyed look, and he nodded. “Do you see what I'm going through?”
“So why don't you just tell her?” I asked. I'd only met his mom once. Caden had sprained his ankle at one of their games and I'd been on shift when they'd brought him in. She'd been sitting in the waiting room waiting for her husband, so I'd walked up to her and offered her a coffee. She'd been really nice and I could tell that she adored her kids. I was sure she would understand.
“My mom is one of the most stubborn people I've ever met, when she sets her mind on something, there is absolutely nothing that will change it.” He rolled his eyes. “As much as I don't want to disappoint her, I'm just not interested in dating. I don't understand why people have to complicate sex with feelings, and im sure as hell not willing to. I love sex,” his eyes clouded over and I rolled my eyes, “God, I love sex. I'm more than happy to fuck any girl into oblivion. It's the whole rainbows and flower fields that I'm not willing to do.”
“Isn't sex weird when you don't have any type of feelings for the person you're with?” I asked, curiously. I'd had sex before with my one and only ex boyfriend and it had been something I didn't particularly enjoy. I'd never had sex with anyone else and the thought of having it with someone I hardly knew, seemed weird to me.
“Best kind in my opinion. Hot, sweaty, dirty sex with no strings attached; it doesn't get better than that,” he smirked and gave me a wink. “I'm always happy to demonstrate.”
I gave him a look. “I'm good.”
“Okay, don't say I didn't offer,” he replied, smugly. “So what do you say, Porter? Do you have the guts to pull this off with me?”
“You do realize that I am a pariah in this town?” I reminded him.
“So?”
“No one will ever believe that you and I are dating,” I argued.
“Why not, you're hot as hell,” he replied, nonchalantly and I gave him a wide-eyed look.
“We can't pull this off, Brayden,” I told him, my resolve starting to wane. He gave me a half smile and I shook my head. “Just for the record, I think this is a stupid plan and it won't work.”
“It offends me that you doubt me,” he gave me a cocky smirk and I rolled my eyes. “If you say yes, I'll make sure that you pass history with flying colors.”
“How do you know I'm failing history?”
“I thought we covered this? Brother with trusting face?” he reminded me and I sighed indignantly. “So what do you say, Porter?”
I stared at him for a few seconds, my brain going over the idea and how ridiculous it was, but when he gave me a desperate look, his eyes boring into mine, I was done for. “Okay.”