Tension between the GSA kids had dissipated as the week progressed. They were all getting along relatively well enough to go to my hockey game on Friday night. However, they missed out on my Tuesday night game because they were still in an awkward place with each other.
The team was able to pull off two wins this week and I was sure the celebration in the locker room was loud enough to be heard from the outside.
"You going to Ryan's?" Fox asked, standing a few lockers down in front of his own.
I shook my head. "Trevor's."
"We're getting together Saturday night too, come then," Fox suggested, though it sounded more like he was ordering me.
I smiled. "Fine."
Fox rolled his eyes, shutting his locker door. "Okay, man of few words, I'll see you tomorrow."
"See you."
Fox slung his hockey bag on his shoulder and sauntered out of the locker room and I watched him as he went, slicking my wet hair back with my hand. He was like a magnet for my eyes, wherever he went they followed. I tried not to dwell on the way his back muscles looked in his tight shirt.
After Fox left the room, I continued gathering my things before heading out to meet up with the GSA kids. I had already told Josh I was going with them, so I didn't feel the need to wait up for him after the game.
"Great game!" Trevor complimented me with a wide smile as I made my way to his car.
I smiled back. "Thanks, Trev."
"I still don't really get it, but I'm learning," he sheepishly admitted, opening the driver's side door.
I chuckled as I got into the passengers' seat after putting my hockey bag in the back.
"You'll get it eventually," I told him as I buckled my seatbelt.
Trevor hummed in agreement as he started the car and maneuvered out of the parking lot toward his house.
"I thought it was going to be awkward with Claudia there," Trevor confessed, both hands on the wheel as he stopped at a stop sign.
"Claudia came?"
Trevor nodded. "Holly invited her. I thought she was going to be kinda salty since Fox broke up with her, but she doesn't seem bothered by it. She was cheering him on and everything."
I had my suspicions that Fox was the one who broke things off with Claudia, so having that confirmed made sense.
The others were already at Trevor's house waiting for us by the time we got there. Trevor led me inside and as soon as he opened the door, we could hear a commotion coming from the living room. He let out a groan as he rushed toward the sound of the noise.
When I reached the living room after Trevor, I saw that the commotion was the group talking loudly over a game of Cards Against Humanity, bottles of alcohol surrounding them.
"Did you guys take this from the basement?" Trevor asked in a demanding tone, pointing toward the bottles of liquor.
Nadia loudly laughed and shook her head, obviously already drunk. "No, silly. We brought it ourselves."
Trevor sighed and shook his head at her, looking over at Claudia and Holly who were cuddling on the couch, seemingly sober.
Claudia held her hands up in defense. "I tried to tell them not to."
Austin looked as if he was ready to pass out while Johnny looked happier than I had ever seen him and Lexa was asleep on the floor. Nadia and Johnny actually seemed to be getting along, which I had never seen. Maybe the two of them should get drunk more often.
"Play the game with us!" Johnny exclaimed, tugging on my arm. "It's fun."
"No thanks," I replied, moving away from him to sit on the couch next to Holly, Trevor moving to sit beside me.
"Boo!" Nadia yelled with a thumbs down.
"At least they'll sleep good tonight," Trevor mumbled, staring at his friends with a dreadful look.
I chuckled and playfully shook my head as I watched Nadia secretly glanced over at Johnny's cards while he was taking a long sip of beer.
"Good game tonight, Elijah," Claudia spoke up, grabbing my attention.
I turned to face her with a tight lipped smile. "Thanks."
"I guess you are as good as they say," she said with a teasing smile.
All I could do was smile because I had no idea what to say to her. Being around Claudia unsettled me and I couldn't pinpoint exactly why that was.
Trevor had the TV on, but none of us were really paying attention to it. We watched as everyone eventually began to fall asleep on the floor. Austin was the first after Lexa, and Nadia and Johnny were quick to follow. Claudia and Holly slept on the couch and that left Trevor and I to be the only two awake.
"I didn't think this is how this night would go," Trevor suddenly admitted in a whisper. "They're not usually like this."
I shrugged. "It's better than them fighting."
Trevor laughed and nodded. "That's true."
We sat in silence for a few more moments, the quiet TV being the only sound in the room along with Nadia's light snores. I felt Trevor's eyes on me, but I stayed facing the TV.
"Are you tired?" he asked me.
I shook my head, turning to face him. "Not really."
Trevor bobbed his head lightly in a nod, his eyes never leaving mine. It was like his eyes were trying to tell me something, but I couldn't decipher what it was. They were pulling me in, making it hard for me to look away. Before I could avert my gaze, Trevor leaned in and captured my lips in a kiss.
The kiss was timid and scared, his lips light as a feather on mine almost as if they weren't even touching. It caused a feeling of confusion to consume me and I began to be suffocated by my own dreadful thoughts of the kiss. I pulled away and stared at Trevor with a shocked look. I knew everyone joked about him having a thing for me, I just didn't think it was actually true.
"I... uh..." I trailed, looking anywhere but him and awkwardly scratching the back of my neck.
"I'm sorry," Trevor blurted, looking panicked. "I shouldn't have done that. I don't know what I was thinking."
"It's alright," I assured him, "but Trev... I'm not... I'm not ready for anything."
"I know, I'm sorry," he apologized again.
I felt as though I was drowning. Trevor's obvious affections for me were finally catching up with me as I thought back on all of the hints he had dropped since I met him. I wanted to believe that he was being nothing more than friendly, but I was wrong, and now I was stuck in an awkward situation that I didn't want to be in.
"You don't need to apologize," I told him with a sigh. "I should go."
Trevor looked at me with a troubled expression. "You don't need to. We can just forget about it and stay friends, okay?"
I nodded. "Of course we can stay friends," I assured him, "but I was going to go home anyway."
That wasn't a lie. I had never planned on staying the night at Trevor's and now was a good time to leave.
"Okay. Do you need a ride?" he asked, letting out a yawn.
I shook my head. "Get some sleep. I'll call Josh."
"I'm sorry again," Trevor said in a soft voice.
"Don't be," I responded with a smile, though I did feel slightly uncomfortable. I just didn't want to make him feel worse than he already did. "I'll lock up when I leave."
I got up from the couch to call Josh, but at the last second I decided to call Fox. I needed to talk to someone to get out my frustrations and emotions about what had just happened, and there was no way I could talk to Josh about this. We weren't that close and he would just boast and tell me that he knew it would happen eventually.
"What?" Fox answered the phone.
"You still at Ryan's?" I asked him, ignoring his slightly rude tone.
"On my way home now, why?"
"Do you want to pick me up?" I asked in a sickly innocent tone.
Fox sighed. "You still at Trevor's?"
"Yeah."
Fox let out a longer sigh this time. "Send me your location."
I stood in the hallway to wait for Fox, peaking my head in the living room to see that Trevor had made himself comfortable on the couch and looked to be asleep. The kiss was unexpected and left a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach. It felt like a sucker punch to the gut and I couldn't shake the feeling.
It wasn't that Trevor wasn't an attractive guy, but I just couldn't see myself wanting anything more with him. Ever.
After what seemed like ages, Fox sent me a text to let me know he was here. I scurried over to the door, making sure to lock it before I left. My hockey bag was still in Trevor's car, but I was sure he'd bring it with him to school on Monday.
"What's got you in such a rush?" Fox confusedly asked, furrowing his eyebrows. I would have thought about how cute that looked if I wasn't so stressed out.
"I just had to get out of there," I told him, buckling my seatbelt.
"Okay... you heading home?"
"No," I quickly denied, shaking my head.
"Where are you headed then?" he wondered.
I sighed. "I don't know."
"Wanna come to mine?" Fox offered, shifting the car into drive.
I enthusiastically nodded and Fox pulled away from the curb to head toward his house. The ride there was quiet apart from when Fox snapped at me to stop bouncing my leg.
"You can sleep in my room or Robin's old room since he's away at school, but it's up on the third floor," Fox told me as I followed him up the stairs. "We kinda have a full house tonight. My brother came home from college for the weekend."
I didn't have to ask to know that Robin must be one of his brothers.
"I'll just sleep with you," I blurted as we got to the top of the stairs.
Fox turned to face me with a coy smirk on his face. I rolled my eyes at him.
"That's not what I meant and you know it," I said with a scoff, crossing my arms over my chest.
"Okay," he said, sounding unconvinced. "But don't act like you haven't put out for me before."
I was surprised Fox was even teasing me about this. Before, he would get angry if I even looked at him in the wrong way. Now, he was casually bringing up the time the two of us hooked up.
All I did was chuckle and follow him as he opened the door to his bedroom. The room was neat and clean, a pleasant surprise when talking about the room of a teenage boy. Hockey trophies lined up on his dresser and medals were pinned to the wall. He even had a framed picture of the team from last season and a cork board hanging on the wall above his desk with pictures of him and his friends pinned to it. I didn't let my eyes linger on the picture of him and Claudia.
Fox sat down on his queen sized bed in the corner of the room, motioning for me to come over. So I did and I sat down beside him.
"So, are you going to tell me why you had to leave Trevor's house?" Fox questioned, his eyebrows raised in a way that told me I wasn't going to get away with not telling him.
I let out a long sigh, looking around the room, but Fox grabbed my attention by loudly clearing his throat. I turned to him to see his impatient expression and I sighed again before telling him.
"He kissed me," I admitted, looking down at my lap.
When Fox didn't say anything, I glanced up at him to see that he looked unfazed as if waiting for me to continue.
"That's it?" Fox wondered. "I could've told you that was going to happen eventually."
I glared at him. "Yeah, well I didn't see it coming."
Fox laughed and shook his head at me. "Everyone else did. You're just oblivious and don't listen."
I couldn't exactly pinpoint why, but I grew angry at Fox. I thought talking to him about it would make me feel better, but all it was doing was making me feel stupid. The strange feeling in my stomach came back like an annoying reminder that what Fox said was true.
He must've noticed my sour expression because his expression softened and he looked as if he was battling between being apologetic and being annoyed.
"Hey, look, I'm sorry," he apologized, putting his hand on my shoulder. "I know it must be weird for you, I'm just an ass."
I snorted a laugh and looked at him. "You know what? You are an ass."
Fox playfully rolled his eyes with a small smile on his face.
"So what's wrong with Trevor?" he asked. "He's cute, why don't you just sleep with him or something?"
I rolled my eyes. "There's nothing wrong with him, I just don't like him like that. And you and I both know he's not the type for hook ups, not that I really wanna hook up with him."
"I wouldn't be so sure, I bet he's secretly freaky," Fox teased with a coy smirk.
I shot him an annoyed look and he responded with a faux innocent expression.
"I just don't want to make him feel bad," I mumbled, looking down at my lap.
"Just let him down easy," Fox suggested. "I bet he's sensitive."
"Do I just act like it didn't happen?"
Fox thought about it for a moment before answering, "Just act like it's not a big deal. That way he won't feel bad."
I nodded, but didn't say anything.
"Let's go to sleep, I'm beat," Fox said. I nodded and stood up from the bed, ready to sleep on the floor before he stopped me. "What are you doing?"
"Getting on the floor...?"
Fox scoffed. "You can sleep in the bed."
I wasn't sure I wanted to sleep in the bed with Fox. Although we were friends now, there was still a slight awkwardness about being too close to him because of what we had done together. His face told me he wasn't going to let me sleep on the floor, so I obliged and got back in the bed.
"I just have to go take my contacts out," he told me, standing up from the bed.
"You wear contacts?"
He left the room, not answering me. A few moments later, he came back with black glasses on his face, looking undeniably attractive.
"I like your glasses," I teasingly told him.
"Shut up," he snapped.
He motioned for me to move over toward the wall as he took his glasses off and placed them on his nightstand before turning the light off and climbing into bed beside me.
And soon enough the two of us dozed off.
**
Sorry for the late update. This weekend has been so busy for me and it's only Friday.
Anyway what did you think of the chapter? About Elijah hanging out with the GSA kids? And Trevor kissing him? Were you surprised Elijah called Fox afterward?
Let me know!
Also I did end up making a cast so if you want to look at it, it's posted as the first part of the story.