Page 14

CHAPTER 14

IMGONNAGETYOUBACK BY TAYLOR SWIFT

Brianne Archer:

I walk into my apartment and I see Bellamy’s open bedroom door and his body sprawled on his bed. He’s alone, for once. Lawson is lying across the couch and he looks freshly showered. He nods at me as I throw my keys in the bowl on the counter. I shove my duffle bag off and my backpack on the floor next to our table. I walk straight into Bellamy’s bedroom and he eyes me from where he lounges.

“Hey, B.”

He pushes himself up to a sitting position with his back leaning on the headboard behind him. He pulls his knees up to his chest and opens his arm to me. I kick off my shoes and pull myself onto my brother's bed. He gives me a side hug and I rest my head on his shoulder. I look at his TV and he’s watching football tapes. I don’t know if these are scrimmage videos or not, but we’ve only had two games officially so far. We’ve won both but barely scraped by on the last game so he’s probably trying to fix that. Maybe that’s what Parker is doing…

“Is Parker Thompson shitty at football?” I ask him and Bellamy pulls back to look at me.

“No, he’s—”

“He’s stellar, actually.”

We both turn and Kamryn walks out of Bellamy’s bathroom. Steam from the shower she obviously just took billows out from behind her, and a towel is draped over her body.

“You’re actually the perfect person to ask,” I turn my attention to her as she rummages through my brother's drawers.

“Rude. I play the sport,” he argues.

“And I’ve been studying all of the prime players on SPU’s football team for years including Parker. You know your stats. I’m sure you know some things about Parker, but you don’t know everything,” she tells my brother.

“Why do you want to know?” Lawson comes in, leaning on the doorframe of Bellamy’s room.

He has a knowing look on his face. I know he witnessed what happened between Parker and I in the bathroom, but it wasn’t what he was thinking at all.

“Because apparently, your coach thinks he needs ballet practice to make him play better. I’m just trying to figure out why,” I admit.

Lawson chuckles slightly. “I had to do ballet when I was a freshman,” he tells me. “That didn’t last long.

“Why? Because you slept with the person who was teaching you?” I ask him and he scoffs and makes a face at me.

“No,” he argues.

“Yes,” Bellamy corrects.

“I didn’t know she would stop being my teacher if we slept together. There’s no hard feelings anymore. She’s probably married with kids now and I’m in the happiest relationship I’ll ever be in,” he shrugs.

“Anyway…” I glare at Lawson and turn to Kamryn.

She walks out of Bellamy’s closet wearing a giant t-shirt and what I assume is no pants. She has her hair wrapped in a towel still as she sits on the bed.

“Parker is really good. He was on scholarship even in high school at a really prestigious place in Cali. Apparently SPU, along with California Sun University, were fighting for him to come to their school. He was trained by the best before and he’s being trained by the best now. The issue is, he plays with a lot of aggression. So, I assume that’s what Coach is trying to eliminate,” she tells me.

“What about Lawson? He’s aggressive,” I tell her.

“Yes, but the only times he lets that show on the field is if someone pisses him off. And even now, he tries to maintain it. Lawson plays like any player should. Parker plays like a battering ram. He’s going to get himself hurt if he does that forever. His career will end the first injury he gets,” she tells me.

“Wait, so are you…” Bellamy asks and I groan.

“Yes, I am. My dance professor asked if any of us wanted to get extra credit hours. She said that it would be simple so I said yes but she never told me it was a football player. It was so awkward,” I admit.

I feel awkward now talking about it when none of them know how fucking stupid I was a few weeks back. But outwardly, none of them seem skeptical of my questions. Well, except Lawson but that first bit of suspicion seems gone now.

“Awe, Parky is probably embarrassed. I bet that’s why he didn’t tell us. I never had to take ballet,” Bellamy practically brags.

“Yeah, because you don’t have to prance down the football field like a wee little fairy like me and Parks do,” Lawson tells us and I scoff.

“You are nothing like a fairy,” I joke, looking at my brother's best friend.

He’s probably 6’4 and I know he spends more time at the gym than most which is why his arms are so large. Lawson is the opposite of a little fairy but he does shoot down the field like lighting. It’s insane how fast he is, and now that I know he’s taken ballet classes, that checks out. He’s nimble despite being a giant.

“I just need to figure out what he needs to work on,” I admit.

“Parker is always insanely tense. He’s always got something weighing on him. That weekend of our first game, he was great, like he had his mind elsewhere, but this past game, he was back to his usual tense self. It’s weird.” Bellamy tells me and my stomach sinks a little.

“He got laid the day after our first game like he said. He was probably thinking about his booty call the next day and not over stressing the game,” Lawson tells us and I control my breathing to a T, not letting any of their words panic me.

This is fine, they don’t know. This shouldn’t be awkward for me because Parker should be just another one of Bellamy’s friends.

“I’m glad you’re helping, B. He does need it,” Kamryn tells me and I nod with a sigh.

“He needs to learn to relax more. He needs to get out of his head,” Bellamy tells me.

“So, center himself and keep his head in the game. I can fix that,” I tell him.

“I’m sure you can, you’re bossy,” Lawson tells me and I throw a middle finger in his direction.

“No, she just talks too much,” Bellamy corrects and I scoff, pushing off the bed.

“I did not come in here to get bullied. I came for advice. Goodnight, Kamryn. The rest of you can kiss my ass,” I reply.

“Your boyfriend can do that,” Lawson tells me and we all have eyes on Dakota who is walking through the front door.

I run over to him and jump to hug him.

“Good morning!” I shout at him and he hugs me back with one arm.

“It’s almost 11 pm,” he argues.

“I’m so happy to freaking see you, let’s go, now,” I urge him up the stairs.

I have a lot to spill to Dakota and he has a lot to spill to me. Apparently, he knows something about Leah and who she’s apparently been seeing. It shocked me that she was seeing anyone at all. Leah is private and to herself, so I don’t know who he had to threaten to get this info but he’s got it now.

I yank Dakota into my bedroom and start stripping my dance clothes.

“Tell me about Leah Ashley,” I urge.

“No, you tell me about Parker Thompson,” he commands.

“Say please.”

“Brianne, I hate you sometimes.”

“Don’t say it too loud. It turns me on,” I joke.

“Leah apparently is in some deep shit with her family. I don’t know for how long but she’s working at a bar on campus. None of us knew,” he tells me and I gasp.

“What the fuck? Which one?” I ask.

There are a lot of popular bars for the students on campus but I’ve never seen her at any of them.

“I have no idea, I was just told all of this. Apparently, one of the hockey players saw her at the bar at the end of her shift and the secret kind of got out. I’m not asking any other questions. I’m just hoping if she’s bartending that it will help her get laid so she can release some of that tension,” Dakota shrugs.

“Interesting… Our hockey team actually requires its team members to be indescribably hot so I hope it’s one of them. I hope she’s okay.”

I go through my laundry and throw the flannel I stole from Parker the second it touches my fingertips.

“You still have that?” he asks.

“Well yeah, what the hell am I supposed to do? Drive to his house and give it back? I'm not doing that so this is mine forever. I’ll just… Get rid of it, I don’t know.” I tell him and put on one of my brother’s old SPU shirts that’s ratty and should probably be thrown away along with the flannel

“Tell me about Parker now. Is he cute in tights?” Dakota asks and I roll my eyes as I climb into bed.

“He wasn’t wearing tights, idiot. He was wearing normal clothes and it was… it was hard,” I admit, my voice dropping.

“Awe… Come here.”

Dakota opens up his arm and I nuzzle into my best friend's grasp with a sigh.

“It was just weird. I mean I know that he had a reason for sleeping with me. It’s college. Hookups happen, we move on. But it's just… It’s not supposed to feel this unsettled. Yes, it’s my fault that it feels like this, but—”

“Don’t do that. Don’t blame yourself. Seriously, Baby. It’s not your fault. You hooked up with him and you left. You two are done. End of story,” he tells me.

“I offered him the option for me to find a new teacher for him and he insinuated that I would be a problem,” I tell Dak.

“Well, I’ll make myself a problem for him if he’s going to be a dick. I’m sure after a handful of practices together it will just feel professional and it’ll be fine. Don’t you think so?” He asks and I sigh.

“I hope. I’m just going to avoid him outside of rehearsing with him even if he tries. We both got sex. We both should move on and we can do it while helping each other in our careers. That’s fair. It’s just hard looking at him and not wanting to punch him knowing he slept with me because of some weird agreement he made with my brother. And to top it off, he chose me for his game just because Bellamy was annoying him. It’s gross. Parker is gross,” I tell him.

“He’s really hot for a gross guy,” Dakota jokes and I groan.

“It’s always the hot ones who are complete assholes,” I make light of it but still

feel that sting and burn in my chest. Parker's cut definitely hurt.

“You could always hit him with your car,” Dakota jokingly suggests.

“Part of me wants to do that, part of me wants to hurt him the way he hurt me and part of me wants to ignore the red flags and just hook up with him all over again,” I admit, knowing how crazy I sound.

This is tough and sticky… but I know that this agreement needs to happen, even if it’s not going to be easy.