Page 41 of Playing Dirty (Leighton U #4)

Torin pelts him with one of his road pieces. “Stop being you for five seconds and hand out my damn brick cards.”

My friends are a bunch of menaces sometimes, but thankfully, Theo doesn’t seem to mind. If anything, he’s entertained by it, if the way his attention darts around the room while they toss banter—and game pieces—is anything to go on.

“So if you’re in theatre,” Theo starts, glancing from Vaughn to my other friends, “then what are you two majoring in?”

Miles slaps down a few cards and starts building roads on the board while he answers, “Business, with a focus on organizational management. ”

“Visual arts,” Torin says before grabbing the dice for his roll.

Theo’s brows furrow as his gaze moves between my friends, only to land on me.

“What’s wrong?” I ask quietly, assuming his confusion is about something happening with the game.

Theo leans toward me, his musky scent invading my senses as he whispers, “Nothing’s wrong. I just feel like I’m sitting at a table with the group from The Breakfast Club . ”

The chuckle that escapes me can’t be helped, though I do attempt to cover it with a choked cough. It’s not the first time the comparison has been made in regard to the Core Four, and I doubt this will be the last time either.

Then again, looking at the group of us from an outside perspective, it’s clear why people think it. What exactly would a happy-go-lucky theatre kid, a professional-bound athlete, a jokester frat boy, and a grungy artist really have in common?

Vaughn shoots me the most intimidating look he can muster from across the table. “Are you table-talking right now?”

“Table…talking?” Theo echoes beside me, confusion tinting his tone.

“Ignore him.” This comes from Torin, who has a bored, vacant expression pasted on his face as he absently stares at the game board in front of us. “He’s just having a hissy fit because I’m about to take the longest road card from him.”

“If they’re making an alliance, then they should be freely discussing it aloud,” Vaughn quips as he begrudgingly relinquishes his card to Torin.

“They’re not talking about the game, you dolt,” Miles chimes in, and I glance over to catch him eyeing the two of us with equal parts suspicion and intrigue.

Granted, he’s the only one who knows about what’s really happening between me and Theo—at least the emotional depths of it on my part. Though, after tonight, I know Torin and Vaughn will have some kind of inkling as well.

Vaughn’s gaze collides with Theo’s again, and he motions around the table. “Let me guess. You can’t believe a big jock could possibly be friends with any of us, right?”

“And here we go again,” Torin mutters under his breath .

I roll my lips inward, knowing Vaughn is two seconds away from going into his spiel about our friendship defying stereotypes and societal expectation. Thankfully, Miles steps in, holding up his hand and answering Theo’s non-question.

“Yes, we’re an eclectic group, but that’s what makes it all the more fun to hang out with us.” He shoots a wink Theo’s way before adding, “Stick around, stepbro. You’ll find out soon enough.”

“Whatever you say, frat boy,” Theo shoots right back.

Well, I’ll be damned.

He fits in better than I could’ve ever imagined, let alone hoped. And from the way my friends all share a glance, they’re thinking the exact same thing.

Torin emerges victorious less than ten minutes later, much to the dismay of Vaughn and Miles. I’m not sure why they’re surprised, seeing as Tore or I usually win when they’re too busy picking on each other, but they clearly haven’t caught on to that tactic yet.

Theo, on the other hand, doesn’t look the slightest bit perturbed for having lost the game. If anything, he’s the picture of content; smiling and laughing right along with my friends while they toss little jabs and insults at one another.

And the sight…it does something stupid to the organ in my chest.

“On that winning note, I’m going to bed,” Torin states while rising from the floor. For the first time all night, a smirk hints at the corner of his mouth when he looks between me and Theo. “You two kids keep a lid on it, all right? I don’t wanna hear you through the walls all night.”

I can’t help the way my jaw slackens slightly, the comment being one I’d expect from Miles, who is covering his mouth in an attempt to hide his snickering as he gets up too.

I’m gonna kill them all. Every single one of them .

But again, Theo surprises me by smirking at him and offering a quick, “If you’re jealous, just say that, Torin.”

Then the wildest thing happens. Torin lets out an amused chuckle while shaking his head.

“Careful with this one, Maddy Boy. He’s gonna get you in trouble,” Miles quips while motioning toward Theo.

“You guys are dicks. I think they’re cute together,” says Vaughn as he shoves Torin and Miles away from the living room.

Okay. Maybe Vaughn is safe.

The three of them disappear from sight, Torin and Vaughn calling out a goodnight before heading back next door. Miles lingers in the kitchen for a few, grabbing water and not-so-subtly watching us clean up the game pieces before turning in for the night too.

I know Theo’s probably looking to do the same, but no part of me wants to call it a night yet. So I try to stall the inevitable moment of him going home by offering another activity.

“Wanna watch a movie or something before you go?”

I’m fully prepared for him to say no. I can’t even blame him if he does, the game having gone on longer than expected.

Yet, to my surprise, he shrugs and replies, “As long as it’s nothing scary.”

Shit, I’d put on fucking Frozen if it meant keeping him for another hour.

I settle onto the sofa, dragging him down with me before he can change his mind. He does his best to get comfortable while I grab the remote, but when I look over, I find him in some weird, contorted position over a foot away.

Laughing softly, I mutter, “What the hell are you doing?”

Without giving him a chance to answer, I grab his wrist and pull him toward me until we’re both lying down.

The couch isn’t quite big enough for two six-foot-plus athletes, and with him tucked between my side and the backrest, I have to have one foot on the floor for balance.

But there’s not a chance in hell I’ll be caught complaining—it’s certainly better than him over in Siberia on the other side of the sofa.

“You think it’s safe to watch a movie crushed together like this?”

I laugh a little while I scroll through our streaming services to find something for us to watch. “I don’t know about you, but I have mastered the art of self-control.”

“Right,” he muses, his voice practically dripping with dubious sarcasm.

“It’s not my fault you live to push the limits of it.”

“And it’s not my fault you enjoy it.”

Every damn minute of it, and boy, does he know it.

I’d love to put some three-hour action flick on just to keep him here longer, but I decide to play fair and put on the obvious choice: The Breakfast Club.

His soft chuckle floats over my skin when he sees my selection. “How fitting.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not like we all actually met trapped in detention,” I tell him while dropping the remote on the coffee table. “I think Vaughn would’ve rather been hung on the flagpole in his underwear than ever get in trouble back then.”

Though, thank God neither of those happened.

“It’s cool that all of you ended up here together. And that you’re still close.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty lucky how it all worked out.”

So many people lose touch with their friends in college, everyone going their separate ways and becoming consumed by everything new and fun.

But I also have to believe the four of us would’ve found a way to maintain our friendship if we’d ended up at different universities.

That we still will once college is over .

“If it wasn’t detention, then how did you guys meet?”

My fingers sweep over the patch of skin just above his hip bone, moving in slow circles while I talk. “Miles and I have known each other since elementary school, but we didn’t really become friends until freshman year of high school. Accidental trauma bonding over our dads does that, I guess.”

“His passed too?”

“No,” I whisper, my attention shifting back to the screen.

Though I’d never admit it aloud, especially to Miles, sometimes I wish that were the case.

Theo must realize it’s not my story to tell, because he doesn’t push or question when I quickly move on to Vaughn’s and Torin’s entries to the fold.

“Vaughn’s the son of my mom’s best friend, so I’ve actually known him the longest of all.

My earliest memories involve him at birthday parties and crap, and he’s always been this ray of sunshine.

Even when he’d get picked on for being gay or liking theatre or anything else that was so ‘uncool’ in high school, he didn’t let it affect him—not that he showed, anyway.

He’s the only person on this planet I know who is unapologetically himself, which is why he was the first person I came out to. ”

As I recall the kid he was back then—how resilient and unwavering he taught himself to be—I’m hit with a sense of gratitude.

He might get on my last nerve sometimes, but I don’t know what I’d do without him in my corner.

Especially back then, when I was terrified being gay would ruin my chances at going pro one day.

“And what about Torin?”

“Ah, yes. The black sheep,” I muse wryly.

“He…was kind of an accident, I guess. He was the new kid when freshman year started, transferring like a week or two into the term. Not super late, but everyone had kind of already broken off into their own friend groups and cliques wh en he showed up, and he didn’t do much to try fitting in. ”

“I get the vibe that not much has changed there,” Theo murmurs in observation, and I shake my head.

“Not in the slightest. And he definitely looked and played the part of the outcast back then too. But Vaughn being Vaughn, he finally had enough of watching him eat lunch alone every day, so he took his tray over there and sat down across from him.” A stupid smile pulls at my lips, remembering the scene like it was only yesterday.

“Of course, Tore thought he was fucking insane and ignored him for a solid week, just letting Vaughn chatter on the entire lunch hour without uttering a word back.”

The heat from Theo’s soft laugh fans over my shoulder when he murmurs, “Talk about persistent.”

Or insane.

“You don’t know the half of it. The kid pretty much forced Tore into friendship, and that was right around the time Miles and I started becoming tight, so…” I trail off, motioning obscurely with my hand. “There you have it. The origin story of the Core Four.”

A little snort leaves him, and I know the comment he’s about to make before it even leaves his lips. Which is why I mutter an indignant, “Give us a break. We were fourteen.”

“And I assume it was all Vaughn,” he teases, to which I nod.

“Look at you, already growing to understand the inner workings of a Blackmore Falcon your first time behind enemy lines.”

“I like them,” he whispers after a moment. “Your friends, I mean.”

I turn my head and grin down at him. “Wow, how did that feel to say?”

He shrugs. “Seems the rivalry only applies to Blackmore athletes.” There’s a hesitancy in his gaze when it lifts to meet mine, almost like the words that leave his mouth next do so without permission. “With one exception, I guess.”

It’s the closest thing to an admission I’ve gotten from him, and I know it’s in spite of himself. But him coming here tonight, meeting the three people who—besides my mom—mean the most to me?

It has to count for something, even if it still makes him uneasy.

Keeping it as light and teasing as I can manage, I mutter, “Should I be jealous of the lucky guy?”

The joke works, and his easy smile sends little zaps through my extremities, only to turn into a full electrical current when his focus dips from my eyes down to my lips. His gaze lingers there for longer than can be deemed innocent before sliding back up.

“Don’t let it go to your head, all right?”

“Oh, it’s way too late for that.”

And when he shifts upward to press his lips to mine, I realize it might be too late for my heart as well.