Page 40

Brooke

When Bear suggested walking home instead of getting a sober ride when we left the party, we all laughed at him, but then he mentioned walking past the taco truck, and now, all five of us were stumbling down the road carrying our bags of tacos to the apartments.

Bear is carrying Grant on his back and doing lunges as they both laugh so hard they aren't making any progress, and Adam has his arm slung over Cami and my shoulders as we sing off-key together.

We must all look insane.

Once we reach the apartment, Bear fumbles with the key in the lock as Grant asks us if we are coming in to watch a movie and eat our tacos.

Cami shakes her head, and I hope she doesn't notice the pleading eyes Grant gives me.

"I'm not that sleepy yet," I say to her, moving towards the boy's apartment. "I won't be long."

"Don't worry." She yawns. "Once I've eaten this, I'll be out cold." She laughs, holding up her taco bag and heading to our door as Bear cracks the boy's lock, fist-pumping his way into the apartment. I laugh as the boys shake their heads.

I follow the boys in, and Grant slips his hand down my back as I head round to the sofa, all of us crashing down to eat our tacos as Adam turns Friends on.

It’s our go-to TV show once we found out that Bear had never watched a single episode, so it became our mission to educate him about watching it, but not watching it at the same time.

We get through an episode while the boys tell me about their away game and who they play next, when we hear a car door slam and shouting from outside.

Adam stands walking over to the window and pulls the curtain back to look outside.

"Shit," he says before snapping the curtains shut quickly and turning round, looking panicked.

"What?" Grant's brows furrow as he gets up and joins him, peeking through the curtains. "Everyone, move quickly."

"What, why?" I ask, standing up. He practically picks me up as he rushes me into Adam's room. Bear and Adam follow. Adam points the remote at the TV just as he closes the door, and the apartment door slams open.

"What the hell?" I whisper as we huddle near the door.

"It's Sasha," Adam whispers back. "Okay?" I question again, as I still don't understand the issue. Sure, I don't like the girl, but maybe she's surprising her boyfriend?

"She's crazy, Brookie," Bear groans. "If she saw you here, she would go nuts and think we had girls here all the time."

I'm a little hurt that I'm just referred to as some girl when I'm best friends with them, and we live across from each other. "So, what, you make it seem like no one ever comes over?"

"Once, a girl Grant had hooked up with left in the morning and waved at her on her way out." He shudders, and I glare over at Grant, giving him a judging look up and down, and his eyes widen. The thought of Grant with someone else brings out a little jealousy. "She harassed her on social media."

"What?!" I blurt out, shocked, and three hands cover my mouth. I push them off. I don't think a nice guy like Gunnar would be okay with any of that.

"That's horrible? How does Gunnar allow that?" I revert to a whisper, so I don't get another sweaty hand to the mouth.

"He doesn't know," Grant replies, putting his ear against the door as the argument amps up on the other side of the door, and we all listen.

"Seriously, Gunnar, you're acting like you're not even happy to see me," Sasha shouts at him.

"Like I've tried to explain repeatedly to you, it's not that I wasn't happy, I was just surprised," he sounds defeated.

"Because it's just so shocking that I would come to visit," she scoffs.

"No! Just, you knew I was getting back from a game."

"Is this because it stopped you from going out with your little friends?"

I feel the guys bristle around me; I'm not ashamed to say we are all now pressed up against the door, listening.

"I never go out, Sash!" he sounds frustrated. "We just won an important game, and I just wanted to hang with them."

"The team?"

"What?"

"Just checking if it was the team?" She laughs it off.

"Don't put your insecurities on me."

"Excuse me?" Her voice drips with venom like my mom's does when she's caught in a lie.

"You heard me." His tone matches hers, and my eyes shift over to look at the guys, who both look a little shocked at his tone. I've never heard him sound like that before, and it looks like the guys haven't either.

"I just like to know you're staying faithful to me." She put the sugary sweet voice back on to get him on her side again.

" I didn't fuck up. You did."

"Nooo," I whisper, realising what he means, she's cheated on him, and glance over my shoulder. Grant clenches his jaw tightly.

"It was a mistake, I've admitted to that."

"Yeah, and I forgave you both times." I look up at Adam, who's facing me, and he holds up two fingers and mouth twice, looking pissed. "But you still act like I'm going to go out and get revenge."

"Sorry that I think you might have used your free ticket with that stupid ice skater," she hisses.

I move to open the door at the mention of Cami, and Grant pulls me back, holding me against him, resting his head on my shoulder to calm me down, so I don't go out there.

"She's my friend Sasha!" he shouts. "How many times do I have to say it?!"

"You message her all the time," she shouts back. "And it's not friendly texts. Don't even pretend like it's like your texts to the guys."

"How do you know what I'm texting Cami and the guys?"

"Huh?"

"You just said it's not how I text the guys, so how do you know that? " I turn around to look at Grant, confused, his brows furrowed with concentration, trying to hear through the door, but by the look on his face, he doesn't like what he's hearing.

"Gunnar, this has gone on for too long. Let's just move on; you're right, of course, you're happy to see me."

"Have you been checking my phone?" My mouth opens in shock because there is no way that this girl has been doing that. Right?

"Gun..." she tries.

"Have you been checking my fucking phone, Sasha?"

"Only when I needed reassurance," she begs. I cover my mouth in shock while turning my head to look at Grant, silently talking him down because he looks like he's about to burst through the door.

He nods against my shoulder, leaning on me a little more, letting me know he understands what I'm trying to say, his face full of anger, which is understandable. This is his teammate and best friend, and he wants to protect him, but Gunnar needs to do this by himself.

"Get out," Gunnar says calmly.

"No! Come on, let's talk, this is just your friends in your head."I can hear the desperation in Sasha's voice. She's losing him.

"They don't say shit about you. Maybe they do it to protect me. I don't know, but I damn wish they had now."

"Sweetie." I hear footsteps across the room, but heavier ones follow and come closer to the door we are all behind. Sasha must have moved closer to him, and he's walked away from her.

"Get the fuck out."

"It's the middle of the night," she whispers.

"Stay in my room and leave in the morning." I back away from the door as quietly as I can, my hand still covering my mouth. Bear joins me, putting his arm around my shoulder like we both need a little comfort after hearing all of that.

"Gunnar, please let's work through this like we always do."

"I swear to God, just do this one thing and get away from me right now."

We hear shuffling and the sound of a door shutting. We all look at each other, unsure of what to do.

"I'm going out," Adam whispers after we’ve waited a minute to make sure Sasha isn't coming back out. He creaks the door open. We see Gunnar sitting on the sofa with his head in his hands.

"You guys hear all that?" he asks, not looking up as we shuffle out.

Adam rounds the sofa to sit next to him, and Bear follows him on the other side of Gunnar, wrapping their arms around him. He instantly breaks down crying.

I lean against the door frame, tears forming in my eyes, feeling heartbroken for my friend.

I nudge Grant's side. "I'm going to head out. He needs you guys," I whisper, and he nods, running his hand through his hair.

"I'll text you." I rub his arm in response as I move from the doorway and hug Gunnar from behind.

"You're a great guy, Gunnar," I say into his neck as he clutches my arm. "Any girl would be lucky to have you exactly as you are."

"Thanks, B," he mutters, sniffling.

Walking to the door, I leave their apartment and enter my own. The lights are all off, meaning Cami's asleep. I look towards her room before walking into mine, tempted to tell her what's just happened, but that can wait till the morning.

I get ready for bed and fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow. It's early in the morning and I'm so exhausted.

I must have only been asleep for an hour before my phone was buzzing; I can feel it against my face.

"Hello," I manage to answer groggily.

"Hey, it's me," Grant's voice fills my ear.

"Hi." I yawn, turning over with the phone pressed against my ear, snuggling into the bed and keeping my eyes closed. "What's up?"

"Can you come to the door?"

"Huh?" I sit upright, blinking sleep from my eyes, before scrambling out of my bedroom and walking down the hall as quietly as I can. I unlock the door, and standing there in just his Pyjama pants is Grant.

"I gave Gunnar my room for the night." He gives me a half smile and a shrug.

I sigh, smiling softly at him. Is this guy for real?

I grab his hand, and we walk to my room in silence, and he shuts the door behind us.

I turn to look up at him, and his heated gaze meets mine.

"Why do you always have to be such a nice guy, Grant Anders?

" I put my arms around his neck and whisper up at him as he lowers his head.

"I don't know if that's true," he whispers against my lips.

"I think it is," I whisper back. He kisses me, cupping my face and deepening the kiss. I hold his sides before he presses his forehead against mine and rubs my cheek with the pad of his thumb.

"We still having fun, Brooke?" I blink up at him and nod, giving him a small smile before he picks me up and lays me on the bed, getting under the covers and pulling them up around us before pulling me back against his chest, cuddling me.

"Do you mind if we just have fun sleeping tonight?" he whispers in my ear. I nod my head, yawning before falling back to sleep with him rubbing soft circles on my hip.