Falling for Seven (17 page)

“I came by to see if he wanted to come to the game with me. It’s already started but we could catch the second half.”

“If Julian wanted Taj there, he would have asked me to take him.”

“Oh.” Coming here suddenly seemed like the worlds dumbest move. “It was just an idea. Can I say bye to him?”

Kristina let go of her breath like I was hugely putting her out, and disappeared into the living room. Taj came out, a fresh Twinkie in hand.

I wanted to take you to the game, but I don’t think that was such a great idea. I’ll speak to Julian and I’m going to try and swing it for next week, okay?

An away game?
Taj was beaming, bouncing on his heels.
You should give me your number so I can message you about it.

I grinned. He was smooth for a kid. I Agreed and programmed my number into his phone.

I had one hand on the handle of my car door when Kristina shouted out, “You’re wasting your time with Julian.”

I wasn’t here for Julian, and I didn’t like her assumption. “You’ve got it all wrong,” I said, feeling the need to explain myself to this girl, who was obviously somebody in Julian’s life if she was in his home and minding his little brother. “He’s my friend.”

She snickered, shaking her head disbelievingly. “They all are… at first. But they don’t know him like I do—never will.”

“That’s really not my issue.”

“Just leave him alone. He’ll never choose you.”

“But he’ll choose you, right? I don’t know what your problem is, but I came here for Taj, not Julian.”

“I’m trying to save you some time. He might let you into his pants, but he will never let you into his heart.”

I opened the car door. “I don’t want in either of those.”

<>

The stadium looked bigger, the bleachers filled with the Lions dark-green and orange jersey colors and foam fingers. The floodlight’s white beams glared underneath the blanket of inky-blue sky. I sat anywhere, shuffling in on the end of a row that had a space upfront. I had been to a solid
few
football games in my life. After my dad moved back to Boston when I was little, his enthusiasm and professionalism for the sport had no direct effect on me and I never followed his career, and the only sport my mom bothered with was the running away kind. She excelled in that division.

On the field, cheerleaders enthusiastically kicked, gyrated, and punched the air with pom-poms to the beat of hip hop, the crowd getting pumped for the rest of the game. I recognized one of the girls as Katlyn, her brown hair tied up in an orange ribbon, her side-bangs flopping on her forehead as her leg came up in a high-kick.

Half time was almost over and both teams jogged back out onto the field from the tunnel. The whole world slowed down, dulling into an insipid and discolored background when I saw Julian emerge into the spotlight, his helmet in his hand and eye-black hiding part of his face. His shoulders were wide and powerful in his armor, his muscular arms bronzed under the spark of the lights. His sculpted thighs moved with purpose in his dark-green football pants.

I was seeing him differently, looking at him with a fresh pair of eyes. He was too much, and I was sure every other girl and woman in the stadium would agree. I looked around at how many banners were dedicated to ‘Sexy Seven’.

It was going to take all of my strength to salvage this friendship that had only just really started, but I had to somehow make it work. I could never allow there to be a repeat of what happened in the teams’ showers. Getting over Jordan with Julian was never going to work out. Not in the long run. It was destined for failure, and as long as Julian behaved and I kept myself in control, we’d be good. We’d carry on amicable—as friends—and I wanted to be able to say that out loud and mean it. And if we couldn’t even do that, then I wanted to at least get our assignment finished. That was priority. Not how hot Julian was, or how he was hiding a decent human being beneath many layers.

During the final hour of the game I learned that Julian was quite clearly the star of the team (with good right) and that Nicky was his wide receiver. Together they dominated the game. The lions won 30:24 and the players were celebrating on the field while the opposition filtered onto the sidelines with slumped shoulders. One slung his helmet against the advertisement boards, kicking up a chunk of turf. Then he spat, his face ugly and red.

Only a small part of the crowds started to leave while the majority stayed to celebrate and cheer on the team. I got up to go. I’d wanted to see Julian, but now the game was over I had convinced myself I would only be intruding. And then there was that mega-annoying thing called my dad. He was happy. Or as happy as he could get. I had seen a smile, or he had wind. But that happiness from his win tonight wouldn’t stretch as far as me, he would find something to nag me about. Or I’d find something to start on him with. If we were together too long, it was likely to end on a sour note.

I got to the bottom of the bleachers, angling my body to get through the crowds quicker. My attempts were futile. I shouldn’t have looked up. Julian was already walking across the field toward me. It was too late to act like I hadn’t seen him, our eyes had already locked together.

And what the fuck was that in my stomach?
Butterflies?

He pushed a gloved-hand through his short hair and quickened his pace into a jog. I stopped at the railing, wrapping my fingers around the cold metal, hoping the contact would drag me back down to earth. The stadium was still in boisterous uproar, but in those few seconds I watched Julian get nearer, everything was silent, fading into a kind of nothing.

He held his arms out to me, and I smiled, perplexed. The noise from the stadium returned, filling my ears.

He kept his arms out, prompting me with his fingers. “Come on,” he said, smiling.

“Forget it,” I said, harnessing a smile of my own. “I’m not jumping down there.”

“Im’a catch you.” He was still smiling.

“No.”

“Come on. I won’t wait all day.”

“What if I fall?”

“I told you I got you, didn’t I?”

My mind flashed to him in the showers. With me. Right before we kissed.
I’ve got you.

Too surreal.

I blinked it away.

He was still waiting for me, arms stretched out. Julian lived in the moment, and if I hand any chance of keeping up with him, I had better get my ass in that moment with him. I climbed up onto the first rung and then brought my leg over the railing, holding my balance with my arms, then shuffled to a sitting position. Julian moved forward ready to catch me, and I let myself drop—right into his arms.

He held me where I landed, pressed up against his jersey, looking down at me over his eye-black. The thick stripes made his eyelashes stand out more—dark on dark against his deep-blue eyes. There might as well have been no one else on the field but him. I shouldn’t have jumped, but it was too late now to dig in my poles. I was past slipping, and however much I hated to admit it, I was flat-out falling.

My fingers were wrapped around his thick biceps and the corner of his mouth curled up into a smile. “It’s noisy as fuck out here,” he said, his arm cradling the lower of my back. He tapped his helmet over my chest, his gaze drowning in me. “But I hear you, Angel.”

It was noisy, deafeningly so, but where our bodies collided and his gaze held me captive, no words were necessary. The trance I was caught up in was so overpowering, that honestly, I couldn’t agree with his body more. “You wanna hear without the noise?”

Speak.

Do something…

Those eyes.

Those magnetic blue eyes.

Too late.

Julian leaned down, his lips hovering for a second or two before they melted onto mine, into a kiss for the whole goddamn stadium to see.

HE PULLED AWAY, like what he had just done was the most normal thing in the world.

“Man, I need a shower.” And just like that, Julian had succeeded in chasing away the thick and heavy static that fizzled between us. “A bunch of us are heading to Emery Lake, you coming?”

I was stunned into a silence.

“Angel, you coming?”

Speak.

I swallowed, moistening my mouth. “I don’t know where that is.”

This made him laugh, and I became aware I was still caught in his arms, our bodies still molded together after my second kiss with Julian, my dad’s QB, my Sociology partner, and the guy I had no doubts that Kit was possibly in love with.

So many bad choices, where the hell to start?

“You don’t need to know where it is. I’ll drive.”

“Okay.”

“Okay you’re coming?”

“It beats going back to my dorm and not being bothered by Mia.”

“Chick is insane,” said Julian. “I don’t know how you room with her.”

“She’s not so bad, just quiet.”
Until she’s had a few drinks.
“I’m sure we’ll graduate to be the best of friends,” I joked.

“I wouldn’t put money on it. Anyway, I’m gonna hit the showers and I’ll meet you out front. Wait by my car, I’m right by the locker room.”

He took his arm away, jogging backwards toward the tunnel. “Don’t bail on me.” He called out.

I was still on the field when Katlyn came to a running stop by my side. I kept walking and she fell in step with me. “I guess that was Seven inviting you to party with us tonight?”

“Uh-huh.”

“That one’s got it bad.”

“Not with me,” I blurted out. “I know the deal with him and kit.”
Did I, though?

Katlyn glanced sideways at me. “They aren’t together,
together.
I can’t see it ever happening personally.”

“Why not?”

She shrugged. “Even if it did, it wouldn’t last. You can’t hold down a guy like Seven forever. Even if they miraculously survived until senior year, Seven will be drafted into the NFL, and then the world is his. Kit will be long forgotten.”

“What about you and Nicky?”

“He’ll get picked up too. I’ll become a professional cheerleader, and our paths will cross, they’ll have to. But he’ll have other girls and I’ll be lucky to be one of them.”

“I couldn’t do that.”

We came out into the parking lot, the crowds fanning out around us, splitting off into smaller groups to make the walk home or get into parked cars.

“It sucks,” Katlyn carried on. “But he’s what I want.”

“Then maybe that’s what will happen for Julian and Kit.”

Katlyn gave her head a severe shake. “No. That would never be enough for Kit. You know, I could be wrong. It’s pretty much been kit and Seven all the way through college. Who knows, they could work out. Kit’s nothing if she isn’t determined.”

I let what she said sink in. She was right about one thing, holding down a guy like Julian would be like trying to pin down a bucking bronco. The outcome wouldn’t be pretty. Not until he was ready to be pinned.

Katlyn stopped in front of me, spinning around. “Oh, and I saw him kiss you. But don’t worry, I won’t say anything to Kit.”

<>

I rode in the back, insisting Nicky ride up front despite Julian’s protests. I was squashed up against the window next to two hulking bodies in the form of Dan and Rixton. They were pure muscle and testosterone.

Rixton leaned forward, to see around Dan. “Seven say’s you skate. That you’re good and everything.”

“Yeah. One perk of BU.”

“What, like hockey?” asked Dan, with a slightly raised eyebrow.

Julian pulled a face at him in the rearview. “No, not like fucking hockey. Like figure fucking skating. Leotards and shit.”

Nicky twisted in his seat, eyeing me up suggestively. “Nice,” he said.

He thought he was God’s gift to women, but I’d determined he was harmless. I took anything he said lightly and with a pinch of salt. His game was to un-nerve every woman he came into contact with, but I’d spent enough time around Julian to know that all the big talk was just armor and jokes. They exposed everyone to it, it wasn’t personal. A lack of maturity, sure.

“Yeah, I’m picturing you in a leotard.”

Julian landed his elbow in the middle of Nicky’s stomach, making him sputter with a pained laughter.

“You on the team?” Rixton asked. “There’s a team, isn’t there?”

“Yeah, there’s a team, but I’m solo. Synchronization isn’t really my thing.”

Julian steered the Range Rover along a narrow dirt path through the trees. It was pitch-dark out here, not even the natural light of the moon could penetrate. We drove out onto a clearing and Julian parked up. I got out, thankful for air and to move my legs. We’d been driving around twenty minutes, but the lack of space made it feel so much longer. I had the urge to stretch out my limbs.

There was a bonfire already blazing, orange flames rising to meet the sky, so bright and hot I had to shield my face. I walked around it, keeping out of the way.

We were on the lake, a mass of black silk rippling along the grassy banks. The full moon sat in its reflection like a mirror, glittering on top of the surface.

People were already dive-bombing, disturbing the lake’s calm. I could have been the only freshman here, everyone else mixed like they’d known each other for years. I had the strong desire to bail and hit the ice rink. Luckily it wouldn’t be open.

“Angel.” Kit pulled me into a hug. “I’ll get in if you do.”

She was totally different from when I had last seen her. She was perky and chilled out. And I had kissed Julian—fooled around with him. There was no way I could keep that a secret. I would have to tell her, or stop hanging out with her. No, I was telling her. Tonight, I was telling her. Tonight or tomorrow. Ruining her good mood probably wasn’t such a good idea, just a selfish one.

“I never brought my bathing suit.”

Kit giggled, already stripping off her cut-offs and untying her halter top. She was standing in her bra and thong. The cups of her bra barely contained what was inside and in no time, we had attracted the attention of most of the party. “Let me show you how it’s done.”

She swept up her hair into a ponytail and then out of nowhere Julian appeared behind her, picking her up off her feet and throwing her into the lake. Her arms were flailing in thin-air and her screams echoed around the tree-tops. He pulled off his own sleeveless, thermal shirt and kicked off his high-tops, following behind her in a swift dive.

I sat on the table of a picnic bench near the bonfire. Nicky looked up from around the fire, noticing me. He took a bottle of beer from the cooler beside him and sauntered over to me. I looked for Katlyn but I couldn’t see her.

“She’s in the water.” Nicky tipped his head in the direction of her slender frame sitting on the banks, her legs submerged under the surface. I knew the water wouldn’t be as warm as she was making it appear to be. This was Boston after all. Even the water in Cali didn’t stay warm. I was hit with a wave of nostalgia thinking about the Pacific along the golden beaches.

I accepted a beer from Nicky. “Thanks.”

It was just as well I never drank before this, because I was more than making up for it now.

“Do you suffer from a social disorder, sitting here on your own?”

“What gave it away?” I said with a faint smile.

Music
started to play out from a car stereo. Nicky and I drank our beers quietly. He leaned back, propped up on his elbow with one leg on the table bent at the knee. He lifted his beer to his lips. “Fucking Seven. He gets all the pussy.

I followed Nicky’s line of vision. Julian picked Kit up out of the water and threw her over his shoulder, landing her in a splash. They looked so natural together—a ready-made couple. They always found their way back to each other. Same way I kept finding my way back to Jordan. Didn’t matter how lost I got, he was always my end route.

Julian shook the water from his hair and waded through the lake. He snatched up his top and sneakers from the grass and grabbed a beer from one of the coolers. He shifted out of view and then came back a few minutes later wearing a pair of dark-green sweatpants with the team’s logo printed in orange, and a snug white V-neck shirt.

He gave Nicky a shove to make more room on the table and then fastened his gaze onto me. He drank slowly from the rim of his beer and I looked away, avoiding the snare of his trap again so soon.

Nicky stood up on the table and jumped to the floor. It was a wonder the ground didn’t shake under the size of him.

“Where you going?” Julian asked.

“Katlyn just went into the forest. I’ll be back.”

“Is she okay in there?” I asked Julian.

Nicky ran into the shadows, dissolving into the trees.

Julian had his bottle tipped at his lips and I could see his smirk underneath it. “She won’t be when Nicky gets in there. He’s like a fucking animal back in his habitat. The forest is exactly where that beast belongs.”

Well, I walked right into that one.

He arched his eyebrow. “You wanna go shake down some trees?”

“I’m good,” I said, ending all roads to that conversation.

The song switched to
‘All my friends’,
and my body automatically swayed to the mellow beat, my lips catching onto the tune. I was a sucker for a good song, always working it into some semblance of a routine in my head that I could use for skating.

I knew Julian was watching me without having to turn around. He finished his beer in one long drink and climbed down from the table. He held out his hand to me and I looked into his palm, torn between taking it and slapping it away.

It could have been the blissful high from the song, or my one-beer-buzz, but whatever was driving me, I placed my hand in his. I stepped down onto the bench and he helped me to the ground. His fingers tightened around mine and his arm came around my waist. I let him draw me in, and my head fall to his chest. We moved in sync to the rhythm of the song, his body hard against my softness. The flat of his hand moved down to the curve of my bottom and I kept my arm draped over his, my hand on his shoulder. I felt his lips move against my hair and I reared back to see his face. He was miming along to the song lyrics, a sexy smirk darkening his eyes.

You didn’t call me…

The end of his serenade curved up into a question, but I pressed my head against his chest and closed my eyes, smiling against his T-shirt. He smelled good, he felt good. How had I not
truly
noticed him before?

Because he wasn’t like this before. He was hostile and arrogant. Obnoxious…

“Do you regret what we did?” He asked me, his voice low. We kept moving, our slow dance nearing its end.

I sighed, my face hidden. “Yes.” A singular beat of reconsideration. “No. But it didn’t mean anything either.”

“Hey, Jules.” Kit tapped Julian on the shoulder and I pulled away from him too fast. Julian’s arm was strong around my waist, though, and he stopped me bolting.

“What’s up, Kit?”

“You mind taking me home real quick?” She was still in her bra and thong and that didn’t go unnoticed by Julian. His eyes dropped to her dripping wet cleavage and her see-through bra. Her hair was out, plastered to her back.

“I drove the boys and Angel here, you can’t get someone else to take you?”

“I left my cell and my mom’s supposed to be calling me.”

An unspoken bond passed between them and Julian sighed. “Fine. Put some clothes on and I’ll meet you at my car. I don’t want you drenching out my seats.”

“They’re leather,” said kit.

“Just get some clothes on.”

I understood Julian not wanting to get in the car with Kit while she was in her underwear looking like a lingerie model who had just won the wet T-shirt contest. I suspected they had done that a few times before and he knew from experience that he’d never make it back to the party.

“I won’t be long,” he said, his hand slipping from my waist. “You just gonna hang with Dan and Rixton?”

“Ah, now there’s an offer.” He grinned and then fished his car keys out of his pocket.

It felt like I had been sitting on my own for a lifetime after Julian’s Range Rover pulled away, and then Katlyn and Nicky broke free from the trees. Katlyn led Nicky toward me and then sent him to get drinks.

“He works fast, but man is he thorough.” Katlyn scanned the faces at the clearing. “Where’d Kit go?”

“With Julian. He took her to go pick up her cell. Her mom is gonna call her or something.”

“Oh, right. I wouldn’t expect them back any time soon, then.”

“I wasn’t.”

Nicky came back empty-handed and with a joint hanging from his lips. He sucked deeply, smoke billowing out around the blunt and his mouth. He had to squint his eyes against the thick and creamy cloud. He toked at his own leisure and then passed it to Katlyn. “Leave some for Angel.”