“Your boy is here.” Angie’s voice snuck up behind me as I punched something into the computer. My finger froze over the word chicken before I played it off and went about my business.
“Who?”
She snickered. “Oh, stop it. The whole table has been staring at you since they walked in. They’re in your section. I know you can see them.”
I half-rolled my eyes and peeked up at Theo, Aasher, Dax, and Ford all sitting in the corner booth with their menus propped up on the table, shielding the bottom half of their faces. It didn’t matter, though. I could still see that they all were sharing shit-eating grins, per usual.
“They just want extra fries,” I joked, spinning around to pretend like I had no issues seeing Theo after what we did over the weekend. A slight throb started to beat in between my legs, and I sighed under my breath. Damn him. Things had seemed to go right back to normal between us, though. We fell into our same routine, acting as roommates and nothing more, but to be truthful, between running back and forth to classes, studying in the library, my extra shifts at The Bex, and rehearsing every chance I could, we weren’t together much. I did, however, listen to his breathing when I finally lay down at night, and the thought of him touching me again like he did at the party always slipped in before I finally fell asleep.
And as for Chad? Silence ensued, and I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I hadn’t had a single call from my mother either, so I assumed that meant Chad was staying true to his word.
“Get your butt over here, Bryant.” Ford ducked behind his menu as soon as I looked over at him. Theo was grinning at me, and I sighed wistfully as I walked over to their table, knowing all eyes were on us.
“What can I get you guys?” I asked, pulling out my small notepad that I took orders on.
As if on cue, all four of them slammed their menus down onto the table, and Ford tapped his fingers over the top of it. “For you to be our fake girlfriend, too.”
My jaw fell open, and I looked over at Theo. He threw his hands up before showing off his gleaming-white teeth. “I told them you were mine.”
I lowered my voice, leaning into his space. “I’m not your fake girlfriend, Theo.”
“So, you’re my real girlfriend?”
“I could slap you,” I mumbled. Straightening my spine, I leveled my shoulders and glanced around the restaurant. The attention we were gaining was obvious, and the puck bunnies weren’t even pretending not to stare over at the four girthy hockey players sitting in my section.
“Come on,” Ford said, leaning in closer toward me and Theo. “You guys worked effortlessly together the other night—not once, but twice.”
Aasher, who was quieter than the rest of the hockey players, decided now was the time that he wanted to put his two cents in. “You should get her a jersey with your name on it.” He buried himself back in his phone, and I watched the idea come to life on Theo’s face.
“I do not like the look on your face,” I said, tapping my pen on the paper.
“Take a look around, Bryant.” Theo leaned back in the booth and crossed his arms over his chest. “The puck bunnies are waiting to see what you do.” He shook his head, a lock of his rich brown hair falling over his forehead. His hands landed on top of the table, and I watched as his first finger tapped against it slowly. My heart rate climbed, and sweat started to prickle the back of my neck as I remembered all too clearly how talented those fingers were. He made me come without a clue of what made me tick.
A rebellious chuckle left his mouth, and my face burned when he cocked an eyebrow at me. I huffed and glared at all four of the guys who were smiling. “That’s it! I’m bringing you all salads and water.”
“What?!” Ford squealed, and even though I wanted to pretend like I was annoyed with them—especially Theo—I walked off, holding in a laugh. My cheeks ached from holding back my laughter, and when I got back up to the computer, I put in their usual order and caught Angie smiling at me.
“What?” I asked, sneaking a peek at Theo, who was staring at me, still seemingly waiting for me to do something about the girls staring at him throughout the restaurant. Annoyance was quickly replaced with an uncertainty. What harm could it do?
“What exactly is going on?” Angie asked, crossing her arms over her Bex shirt. “You know…”—Angie looked around for a brief second—“Chad came in here yesterday.”
My fingers gripped the cup I was filling with ice. Angie knew that Chad and I were at odds right now, but that was all she knew. “Oh, yeah?” I asked, pretending that it didn’t bother me.
“He was with a girl, and he still had the nerve to ask me where you were. He wanted me to seat him in your section.”
“What did you tell him?” I gathered all the cups for the guys on a tray and saw that some of the football players had gravitated toward their table.
“I told him it was none of his damn business.”
A laugh flew out of my mouth. Rebecca came up behind Angie to punch something into the computer and said nonchalantly, “I almost fake tripped and dropped a plate on his lap, but I didn’t want you to get mad at me.” She said the last part to Angie, and the loyalty of everyone at The Bex resonated within.
“I love you both.” I stepped in between them, wrapped my arms around their waists, and hugged them at the same time. “You don’t have to drop anything on Chad’s lap. I have my own ways of making him feel like shit.”
“Oh, yeah.” Rebecca continued to put her order into the computer. “I saw you and Theo at the party.”
“What party?”
My face was hot to the touch, thinking about how Theo and I must have appeared from the outside looking in. My ears rang as Rebecca filled Angie in on the kiss that everyone saw, and even though I told myself not to do it, I looked over at Theo from across the busy establishment, and the brief longing of feeling desirable came rushing back in. When our eyes caught, he mouthed the word, “Jersey?” at me, and I couldn’t find it in me to shake my head. Instead, I turned around and sucked in a deep breath before I grabbed a glass of water and walked over to the man sitting in the corner booth.
“Here you go,” I said, placing it down before pulling out my notepad. “What can I get you?”
The man leaned back in the booth and stared up at me, saying absolutely nothing. I couldn’t help but wonder who he was, because most of the people that came into The Bex were college students, and occasionally, those college students would bring their parents who were visiting on the weekends or during move-in day.
But the man was alone, and I could tell by the way he was peering up at me from his sitting position that he was studying me. I began to shift on my feet, glancing over to Theo, seeing that Rush and a few of his friends had pulled up chairs to his table. I quickly pulled my attention back and sent the man a hesitant smile before he shook his head and pulled open the menu.
“Uh, what’s good here?” He chuckled. “Besides the hockey team.”
An abrupt laugh left me. Was he saying that because he caught me looking over at Theo’s table full of hockey players? I mean, they were in my section, although that wasn’t the reason I was glancing at them.
“Well…” I started. “Honestly? Everything is good here. I’m a burger gal myself.”
A warm smile flitted across his face, and he shut his menu a moment later. “You know what, surprise me. I like any and everything. Order me what you would order yourself.”
I shifted on my feet again, but then I nodded and grabbed his menu. “I can do that. It’ll be right out. Can I get you anything else to drink? Or is water okay?”
“Water is fine,” he said before seeming uncomfortable. He glanced away before mumbling, “Thank you, um…?”
“Claire.” I smiled as I walked away, feeling strange the entire time I put his order in the computer. It wasn’t until I wandered back over to Theo’s table that I felt the strange feeling lessen.
“Here you go,” I said, putting their drinks in front of them. “Fries are on their way.”
“Thanks, Bryant,” Dax said. Ford blew me a kiss, and Aasher laughed at him before taking a sip of his water.
As soon as I turned around, I realized I was suddenly trapped behind a group of girls. One was sitting on Rush’s lap, and the other three lingered, chewing on their fingernails and batting their eyelashes at anyone who would look.
“Um, excuse me,” I mumbled, suddenly annoyed. The girls parted, and I watched as the one on the left, with her hair in a high pony, sighed in relief, setting her eyes on the prize.
Theo.
I took a step forward, my tennis shoes lightly pressing against the sticky floor, but then paused. Irritation landed on my skin like I had been sprayed with little droplets of water, and before I knew it, I was spinning around and putting my hands on my hips to stare at Theo. His eyebrows jumped with surprise. I licked my lips and sighed before I walked over to him and peered down at his pleased expression.
“Take a seat, roomie,” he whispered slyly with his arms spread open, motioning to his lap instead of the empty seat beside him.
Silence fell over the table like a plague when I sat down on his lap, and as if the stars aligned, the door to The Bex opened, and in walked Chad with Iris, one of the girls he had studied with in the past. My heart slowly dropped to my feet when the realization hit me like a ton of bricks.
Did he cheat on me with her too?
Theo must have felt the way my body went rigid, because his hand rested over mine for a brief second, and he squeezed it twice, bringing me back to the present. I pulled myself away from Chad’s hand around Iris’s back. He was coming in here on purpose. His small smirk in my direction told me he was enjoying this little game he was playing with me, and he thought I’d be his prize when it was all said and done. That was why he wasn’t bothered by Theo.
“See you tonight in our room?” Theo asked, tapping the inside of my leg. I looked back at him, and his eyes bounced between mine, like he was trying to read my emotions from seeing Chad. His brows folded in on themselves, and his eyes dipped down to my lips.
“Order up!”
I nodded to Theo and faked a smile. “Yeah,” I lied. “Now let me go so I can go get your fries.” I spun around and told myself not to look, but sure enough, everyone was watching us, including the lonely man in the corner booth. He eyed me suspiciously, but I didn’t focus on that as I moved on to Chad and Iris. The anger rushed in, and I gritted my teeth before standing up and leaning down to kiss Theo on the cheek. I squeezed past Rush and the groupies quickly, all while keeping my face even.
“Shit, man,” I heard him say. “I thought you didn’t date.”
I didn’t wait to see what Theo’s response was. Instead, I focused on putting on a brave face for the rest of my shift, especially in front of Chad.
The music blared from my phone as I focused on keeping my back engaged and my head up, waiting for the count to start my jeté—a leap I’d been practicing nearly all my life.
I was preparing for two different auditions. My duo with Adam, which was hard to perfect when he didn’t put in nearly as much time as I did. I didn’t blame him, though. He didn’t have as much at stake as I did. And then my solo, which was the number that I was most in tune with.
A ding came from my phone as I landed on the opposite foot, ignoring the slight sting on the outer part of my ankle. I wiped my sweaty forehead on the back of my hand and huffed my way over to my bag, hearing two more dings throughout the melody of “She” by Jake Scott. I paused the song, and silence erupted around me. I was the only one here, which wasn’t a surprise, but it did get a little eerie after hours.
Taytum: Emory just texted me and asked where you were. I’m assuming he is asking for your boyfriend.
I texted back quickly.
Me: Theo isn’t my boyfriend, and I’m practicing.
Taytum: You’re gonna end up killing yourself from exhaustion. It’s almost 10. Go back to your room. Or are you avoiding Theo?
The little voice in the back of my head taunted me as I typed.
Me: Why would I be avoiding him?
It wasn’t like we were going to be touching or acting like boyfriend and girlfriend while in our room, alone. It was all for show. No one would be watching us. We could just be platonic. Friends, even.
I sighed and clicked my phone off, not wanting to read her response. Just as I was about to press play on the song, I got another text and did a double-take at the name.
Theo: Didn’t you say you’d see me later in our room?
A drop of sweat fell onto my phone from my forehead, and I quickly wiped it off, rereading the text.
Me: Did you put your number and name in my phone?!
Theo: …where are you?
Me: When did you steal my phone? How did you even manage that?
Theo: Shouldn’t your boyfriend have your phone number?
My stomach dipped so quickly I confused it for butterflies.
Me: You are not my boyfriend, Theo.
Theo: Campus thinks I am. 😉
The next text that came in was a news article from The Bexley University Newspaper with an image of Theo in his hockey gear, storming the ice, from the last home game. I quickly read the contents and exhaled when I realized that I wasn’t in there by name. Not that my mother or Chad’s parents were even interested in Bexley U’s newspaper, but I knew there would be many questions if I was pictured with a hockey player or, even worse, if my name was listed.
Theo texted again, and I quickly closed out the article.
Theo: Where are you? I thought you nodded when I asked if I’d see you in our room later.
Me: I only said that because everyone was listening. Thought it would be a good way to keep the puck bunnies out of your bed for the night.
Theo: Nice play, Bryant.
He texted back just as my finger hovered over the play button for the song to begin again so I could continue perfecting my jeté.
Theo: Not gonna tell me where you are?
Me: Rehearsing. I’ll be here for a while. I’ll be quiet when I come in so I don’t disrupt your sleep, Grandpa.
I quickly pushed play on the song and put my phone down. I shook out my hands and stretched my neck before taking position in the middle of the stage to run through my number. Again.
