EVIE'S POV
the three of us walk into my house, taking off our shoes at the entrance. no one is home, of course, except harley.
"okay, so the game doesn't start until seven. what do you guys want to do until then?" reese asks us while kneeling down to pet harley.
julian runs a hand through his curly hair and lets out a long sigh. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm taking a nap. wake me up five minutes before we leave." he says this while blatantly avoiding my eye contact, as if I'm not even here. reese nods while he starts walking to the living room to lay on the couch.
I scoff. "he's so annoying. why the hell is he mad at me? shouldn't he be apologizing to me already for basically calling me a slut?" I speak in a low voice so only reese hears me. she stops petting harley and stands now, shrugging her shoulders.
"give him a break, evie. he thinks he was just trying to protect you." it sounds like reese is siding with julian, like always. even when he's clearly in the wrong she finds any reason to make him right.
"he always thinks he's protecting me. he can't use that to justify every crap decision he makes." at some point, he needs to realize I'm not five years old and it isn't his job to baby me. "let's just drop it. I have other things to worry about."
"yes, you do," reese smiles mischievously now. "we need to focus on tonight. come on, let's go to your room and figure out what you're wearing." she takes my hand and pulls me in the direction of the stairs.
once we're inside my bedroom, I close the door so as to not wake julian while we talk. reese immediately struts to my dresser and starts opening the drawers, and I lay down on my bed in the meantime. there's no use in me helping to pick an outfit since my taste is not what we're going for tonight.
"nothing trashy," I inform reese, knowing she's going to go overboard with trying to make me look desirable. she waves her hand at me as if to say don't worry.
as I wait, my mind starts to worry excessively. I realize that I'll be spending the night trying to seduce grayson motherfucking dolan. and if it works, I'll probably be having sex with him. it'll of course mean nothing and not be that big a deal, but he has so much experience. while part of me is fretting over that, the rest of me is...
excited?
"try this on." reese tosses some clothes on top of me and startles me from my thoughts. I swallow and sit up, inspecting the outfit she's picked. but I can tell she isn't even pleased with it. "don't look at me like that," she tells me. "your wardrobe is more modest than mary poppin's."
"it isn't modest," I protest. "it's comfortable and better than half the shit these girls wear at school everyday. stop ragging on my clothes." I pick up what she picked out and start changing into it. it's a pair of tight jean shorts and a sheer tank top that I will most definitely not be wearing.
it's already the end of september. it'll be too cold to wear a tank top. plus, there is no way a school event is going to allow me to show off my bra to everyone since this is so sheer.
I go back to my drawers and instead grab an oversized dark grey sweatshirt instead. but reese disapproves.
"that's not sexy." she purses her lips and shakes her head.
"oh well." I go back in front of my mirror and inspect. it's a cute outfit, and it doesn't even matter that much anyway. grayson really only cares about what's under the shirt.
for the next hour, reese sits on my bed with me on the floor while she braids my hair into two dutch braids. but because I'm so impatient, halfway through I fall forward on the ground to lie down and she let go of one of the braids and had to start it over. after her shouting a bunch of profanities at me to let off steam from me making her mess up, we eventually finish with my hair.
I roll my neck in discomfort because it feels stiff from having to stay still so long. reese just rolls her eyes at me inconsiderately. "I swear, you're a child."
"how does anyone expect another human being to sit still so long?" I complain and then stand up to stretch. she ignores me and starts changing into what she's wearing tonight.
after putting on some makeup, I consider myself ready. we have an hour until the game and my palms are starting to sweat a little, but I quickly rub them off and tell myself to stop worrying and focus on the plan. it isn't even like this will go as far as grayson and I actually having sex.
it just needs to get to the point that ethan is jealous.
and just in case any of this goes awry, I already told grayson that I'd be taking my own car because reese and julian were tagging along. if I end up going home with him, reese said she'd drive my car to her place for the night.
there's a knock on my bedroom door, so I go over to it and open it to reveal julian on the other side. based off of his hair being messy, he looks like he just woke up from his nap.
I rest my hip against the door and wait for him to speak first. "your dog woke me up," he mutters while sticking his hands into the pocket of his hoodie and yawning. I look behind him and see harley standing by his feet with a proud look on her face.
that gets a small grin out of me. "disturbed your nap, did she?" there's a hint of joy in my voice just to annoy him and he catches it.
julian narrows his tired eyes at me and just nods his head. "mhm, she did. anyway, before we get going, where does andrew keep his alcohol stash?"
I shrug, not even knowing whether or not he has one. "I think he just has that wine in the office."
julian gives me a disbelieving look. "what, is his taste too refined? he has to have just some beers somewhere around here." contrary to what julian might think, I honestly don't think andrew likes beer. he's too stuck up.
but an idea pops into my head. "he has a mini fridge in the garage that my mom and I aren't allowed to go into. maybe he has some there."
"see, now you're thinkin," julian says in a pleased voice. I disregard the fact that he's only just now speaking to me to get beer out of it and walk down the hallway and stairs with him towards the garage. reese stays in my bedroom with harley.
"it should be back here," I tell him once we enter the garage. I lead him to the back side of the garage where it's more secluded, which is andrew's space to store whatever shit he has. I also happen to know this is also where he goes to get away from my mom and I.
because sometimes, apparently, we're the problem.
I peer around the area and see the mini fridge tucked into the corner. I start moving some of the stuff resting on top of it out of the way, but as I'm kneeling down and moving stuff, something catches my eye. julian notices me pause and kneels down next to me.
"what is it?" he asks, but I don't answer for a moment before I realize what it is I'm holding and drop it immediately.
"oh hell no, that's fucking disgusting," I hold up my hands and feel the need to wipe them on something. I resist the urge to use julian's shirt.
sitting on top of the mini fridge is a porn magazine—actually, make that several—and a bottle of lube. julian grabs what I dropped to see for himself and cringes right away upon realizing what it is, too.
he looks at me, displeased. "dude, why'd you let me touch that," he mumbles in mirroring repulsion. quickly, he puts the lube back on top of the porn magazines and wipes his hands on his jeans.
my mind is venturing into disturbing territory. "oh god, this is where he jerks off, isn't it? that fucking dick sits back here and jerks off all over our garage?" my stomach feels so unsettled.
julian nods his head while looking down at the ground. "evie, the fucking pages are doggy eared. it's safe to say that's what he does."
I stand up and take a step back , holding a hand to my stomach. "just grab the damn beer and let's get out of here." I don't want to be in andrew's space another second.
julian gives me an incredulous look. "why do I have to grab it?"
"hey, I'm the one doing you a favor getting your underaged ass any alcohol. the least you can do is grab the beer yourself." there is no way I'm touching anything else andrew could have touched here.
julian groans and opens the mini fridge, and just like we assumed, there's a case of beer sitting on a shelf inside of it. it doesn't look suspicious since it's a brand new pack, so he grabs the case and closes the fridge again.
"wait, you're taking a whole case?" I ask him having assumed he'd just take one or two bottles for himself. julian nods like it's no big deal though.
"there was like three other cases in there. I really doubt he spends his time here counting how much beer he has stocked."
I sigh and nod, agreeing since he has a point. andrew won't even notice, just like neither he nor my mom noticed us taking wine from the office a few weeks ago. I'm quick to get out of there with julian following behind me as we go back inside the house.
it feels like every day I learn something more and more unsettling about andrew. I can barely even look at him when he's home.
"reese, let's go!" I call out in the direction of my bedroom. julian and I start putting our shoes on at the door while we wait for her.
"hey, julian," I try to get his attention. he looks up at me for a moment to see what I have to say. "just... be chill tonight, okay? make friends with them." the last thing I want tonight is julian trying to pick a fight with ethan, or any of them for that matter.
he nods his head like he's already one step ahead of me. "what do you think all the extra beer is for?"
my lips can't help but form a smile, and he reciprocates with a grin himself. even though I'm still pissed at him, he never fails to make me smile. and I guess he was already one step ahead of me.
___
"first football game of the school year, here we go!" reese shouts in between us from the backseat. I find an empty parking spot among the very full parking lot and park the car. since it's the first game of the season, pretty much everyone is here. at least, all the seniors are.
it's tradition.
once the car is off, I turn to julian in the passenger seat. "alright, what's the plan? you can't be seen carrying around those beers on campus." if any school official who's chaperoning tonight sees him, he can be expelled since he already has other marks on his record.
"still can't believe you decided to bring a hole friggin case of beer to a highschool football game," reese chimes in, disappointment laced into her voice.
"think of it as a peace offering," he tells us both. "this way there's nothing but good vibes between me and all them. you both know ethan and I aren't on chill terms."
this is very true. after ethan took advantage of his sister and slut shamed her to the entire school, it was obvious julian had to retaliate. and that he did. it wasn't pretty and resulted in some bad wounds on both sides, but those injuries are in the past. the bad blood between them is not.
"well, they'll definitely appreciate it." I say in full honesty. what kind of underaged, dipshit guys wouldn't?
suddenly, something clicks in julian's head. "I got it, reese hand me your backpack." he reaches out his hand above the center console, palm facing up waiting for her to hand it over.
she hesitates, but then gives it to him. "this better not make me an accomplice to anything in case you get caught."
he laughs under his breath while shuffling some things around in her bag. "I won't. how many times have I done shit like this and gotten away with it?"
after making space in the bag, he grabs the case of beer and places it at the bottom. then he uses her folders and notebooks to layer over top of it and keep it hidden. in all honesty, a school official or officer wouldn't be able to find it unless they were purposefully looking for it.
"okay, we good." he smiles proudly and then opens the car door as we follow. we make our way towards the football stadium and since the game is starting in fifteen minutes, the bleachers are filled to the brim with students. we even have to pause at the entrance of the stadium.
I'm concerned whether or not we'll even find ethan and everyone else.
"looking for me?" a voice says in my ear, and I jump a little from being startled. I turn my head and feel the tiniest bit of comfort at who I see.
"you wish," I reply back snarkily, but ethan is never fazed by my honestly irritable attitude. I press my lips together while I take in his appearance, and I can tangibly feel my pulse quickening.
despite my best efforts not to recognize it, he gets more attractive every time I see him.
especially now. he's wearing rings on his fingers and boy, is it doing things to me.
"so where's grayson?" I say, veering myself back to the plan. also, he's supposed to be thinking we're not on good terms right now.
he swallows, keeping his eyes hard on me for a good few moments before responding. "everyone's up here." he cocks his head in their direction on the bleachers.
as we start making our way up there, I notice ethan eyeing reese and julian. specifically julian. "they're my friends," I tell him clearly to imply that they're tagging along.
he looks away from them and back to me. "no, yeah, it's not a problem. it'll just be tight but we have some spare seats."
once we reach the very top of the bleachers, an area that's honestly a little secluded from the rest of the bleachers since it's in the top back corner, I see kellan, lennox, jack, and grayson all sitting together. once we shimmy past everyone else in the row, we start finding out seats.
ethan sits down in between lennox and grayson, and then julian and reese sit together at the end. it's at this point that I really begin to realize ethan wasn't kidding when he said it'd be tight.
grayson's eyes meet mine, and then he shoves kellan's shoulder next to him as if to tell him to scoot over. which he does. grayson then puts a hand on my hip and pulls me down next to him, and I can't help but notice how my entire side is pressed against his. and since it's pretty cold out, it feels really nice.
"hey," I tell him while biting my lip out of being nervous.
he smiles at me, and that alone puts me at ease. "hey. you look really good tonight." his voice is soft and low, his words only intended for me to hear.
"I know," I respond jokingly, and he laughs. him finding something that small funny makes me happy, for some reason. I even feel a blush creeping on, but it might be passable as me just being cold.
it's interesting how different our dynamic is now. I've been talking to him everyday for lunch for a couple of weeks but now, with the mutual idea of having sex in mind, we're... different. just the way he's looking at me is different.
obviously.
when I look to my left, I see julian unzipping the backpack I guess since the football game is just beginning and there'll be a lot of noise right now. he starts taking the beer out of the case and passing it down the line, to which everyone is pleasantly surprised.
"the fuck is this?" kellan asks, inspecting a beer bottle in his hand.
julian pauses from passing them down and looks at him. "to make tonight more fucking fun." kellan flashes that perfect smile of his in response, then continues to pass down the beer.
"look at diaz coming through," jack praises him. funny how some beer can make everyone friends again.
julian zips the bag closed once everyone has one and then we start passing around a bottle opener. it really is perfect timing because the stadium is roaring with school spirit and none of what we're doing can be heard.
after grayson opens his and mine, he drapes his arm over my shoulder and takes a swig.
"so, are you and my brother not talking anymore?" he asks me curiously. I check to his side to see what ethan's doing, but he's just watching the game and talking to lennox.
"something like that," I reply unsurely. "but me wanting to be here with you isn't about him. at all." I want to make sure he believes I'm interested in him just for him and not for any kind of revenge purposes.
he nods understandingly and even looks reassured by my response. and then he pulls me a little closer and nuzzles his nose against my hair, speaking in my ear. "is it bad that I want to ditch the game and be inside you instead right now?"
my throat goes dry instantly, and out of the corner of my eye, I notice ethan glance at us probably because he noticed grayson suddenly scoot away from him and closer to me. but I can't even focus on what his reaction is to grayson cuddling up on me because of my fucking ovaries exploding.
this is gonna be a fun night.
______
OMFG I LOVED WRITING THIS CHAPTER. it's very long just as requested :,)
btw stay tuned for the next chapter bc SO MUCH MORE is going to happen at this football game and after hehe.
and I'm so conflicted idk if I want evie to sleep with grayson lmao, but smut is always fun. we'll see ;)
love you guys!! comment lots and voooote <3
- lexi