Page 80 of Offside Attraction

“Yeah,” Hayes says, rubbing the back of his neck, his teeth catching his bottom lip.

I pause. “I guess you don’t bring people here often.”

He lets out a short breath. “I’ve never brought anyone here.”

I turn fully toward him now. “Not even Shay?”

His gaze flickers—just once—but it’s enough.

“Not even Shay.”

My stomach flips hard, heat rushing up my neck, settling in my cheeks before I can stop it.

So I’m the first.

That thought sits heavy between us, dangerous and intimate all at once.

This is weird.

Too personal. Too close. Too much.

And somehow… I don’t move away.

As the last rays of light fade, I lean back on my hands, looking up at the stars beginning to twinkle above us. I want to reach for him, to close that space between us, but I hold back, afraid of what that would mean.

“You okay?” he asks softly, his voice low and genuine.

“Yeah, just… thinking,” I reply, my voice barely above a whisper.

“About what?”

I sigh, turning to look at the boy sitting next to me, close but not close enough. I can feel the heat radiating from his body, his familiar scent, and slowly realization dawns on me, reminding me how real this is.

“Nothing,” I reply, even though it’s not nothing. It’s everything. How we tend to fight, argue, bash each other, hate each other, and now we’re sitting here in this serene environment pretending like we’re friends. By the dawn of tomorrow, everything’s going to go back to normal, and we’re going to pretend like we didn’t share this moment together. We’re going to pretend as if none of this happened, and the thought alone makes my chest tighten, because part of me doesn’t want to go back—part of me wonders if he feels the same.

“Just to be clear, I didn’t want to come with my family. Seeing you at school was enough, I couldn’t handle eating dinner with you like we’re friends or some shit like that.”

Hayes chuckles lightly. “Yeah, I was surprised to see you honestly.”

“Yeah. That was the weirdest dinner I’d ever had to endure.”

“Yeah, me too.”

We fall into a comfortable silence again as I pick up a rock and toss it into the water, the sound echoing through the quiet.

“You ever stop pretending?” I blurt out, not even sure what I’m asking. I just need to say something, anything to break this weird tension. “All that cocky attitude—it’s all an act, right?”

Hayes doesn’t flinch, but his smirk fades. For a second, I think I’ve got him. Then he surprises me again. “Maybe it is,” he says, voice steady. “Or maybe I’m just trying to get through this the same way you are.”

I don’t know what to do with that. My heart kicks up a notch, and I feel like the ground’s slipping from under me. He’s being too real, too open, and it’s messing with my head.

“Tell me about New York,” Hayes blurts out at once, pulling me out of my head as I turn to stare at him.

“You’ve been to New York and even half the world.”

Hayes chuckles, not staring at me as he glances at the calm, still water, a stark contrast to the thoughts in my head. “Yeah, well, I want you to tell me about New York. Did you like it?”

I sigh, not sure of what to say as I pick another rock and toss it into the water. “Yeah, I did. It was great.”