“Are we talking about the same guy?” she questions, cutting me off as we fall into my couch. “Nate Ryder? Nathaniel Ryder, king of the twats?”
“Yeah,” I laugh before looking up at her. “He really cares about me,” I tell her.
“Are you sure?” she questions. “He was with that girl on Friday night.”
“He had his arm around her,” I clarify. “But the second you left, he was making sure I was ok and offering to drive me home.”
My phone vibrates in my pocket and I pull it out to see a new text.
Nate – You ok? Let me know if you need me.
“See what I mean,” I say as I turn the phone around to show her the screen.
“Shit,” she sighs as she reads over the text. “So, this is really happening.”
“No,” I sigh. “Maybe. Yes. Oh, I don’t know. He treated me like shit for five years. It’s not like I can just forget that.”
“Good,” she grunts. “I was worried about that for a bit.”
I roll my eyes before replying to Nate’s text to let him know I’m fine and at my place. Brooke’s silent for too long so I look back up at her with a grin. “Well, go on,” I say. “Ask away.”
“Oh, thank god,” she sighs with relief before letting it all come out like word vomit. “What was it like? Is it as good as they all say it is? Is he like, hard and fast or a slow and gentle kind of guy? Oh, oh,” she says with a wide grin. “Is it big?”
Rather than answer all her individual questions, I tell a recap of how it all happened, starting with the very first night at dinner where I threw up, though, I tell her it was food poisoning. I know I’m all about sharing right now, but that secret will be remaining my own for now.
I tell her how we fought in the hallway and how I had gotten the best of him the next morning. I tell her how he had snuck into my room that night and was gone in the morning. She even goes as far to put together the fact that I was in a foul mood that day and is proud that she pieced it together.
I tell her everything, right up to the talk we had in his car on Friday night and how he said he’s liked me since we were twelve.
“So, what happens now?” she questions.
“I don’t know. I haven’t spoken to him since then, apart from this morning at my locker and all he was doing was making sure Josh was leaving.”
“And he actually wants to be with you, like, full on, boyfriend/girlfriend, lovey-dovey type of shit.”
“I think so,” I say.
She bites the inside of her cheek as she gets lost in thought. “I think you should go for it.”
I raise my brow at her. “And just forget about the past five years?”
“No. I mean, forgetting all that would be impossible, but I think if he works for it, you could learn to forgive him. I think you guys would actually be pretty good together,” she tells me. “He’d be intense, but a good intense.”
I think it over for a bit before falling back into the couch. “I don’t know,” I say. “There are a few things he needs to sort through first,” I tell her, thinking of how he couldn’t tell me why he treated me the way he did for the past few years. “After that… we’ll see.”
“Yeah, well,” she says with a sigh. “It’s about the same with me and Maxen. He claims he’s not a girlfriend kind of guy, yet he hasn’t left my side. He even introduced himself to my mom.”
“Shit,” I gasp with wide eyes. “How’d that go down?”
“Good,” she laughs. “I don’t know how he did it but he has mom eating out of his hand. She’s constantly asking me to invite him over.”
“Holy crap,” I laugh. “That’s funny.”
“I know,” she laughs as another text comes through, lighting up my phone on the coffee table. I lean forward and scoop it off the table before reading over the text.
Nate – I got your shit out of your locker. Bring Brooke back to my place.
I pull myself off the couch and pull Brooke up behind me. “Come on,” I tell her, “We’ve been summoned.”
“Huh?” she grunts as she grabs her things off the coffee table.
“Ditching party at Nate’s place.”
A grin sweeps across her face. “Hell yeah,” she says before ducking past the kitchen and grabbing a banana out of the fruit bowl.
We walk out and before we know it, we’re pulling up at Nate’s place to find not only his car but all the guys’ cars. We walk on in and she does her usual look around, still not used to being here.