Playing to Win

Payton scowled. “None of your business. Why are you even awake? You never get up before noon on Sunday.”

Truth. But I had a hard time sleeping after last night.

I put my hands on my hips. “Not the point. Do Mom and Dad know where you are?”

Payton’s jaw tightened. “No. And they don’t need to know.” He pointed a finger at me. “And if they find out, I’ll know you were the one to tell them.”

“So what? They deserve to know if you’re doing something you shouldn’t.”

“Hey! Hey! What’s going on out here?” Asher came striding across the yard wearing a concerned expression and looking incredibly sexy in a I-just-woke-up kind of way.

I whirled toward him, ignoring my lustful thoughts because he’d become enemy number one again. “You!” I poked his chest. “What are you doing with my brother? He’s supposed to be at his friend’s house.”

Asher glanced at Payton. Some kind of silent communication passed between them making me more angry.

I poked Asher again. “You were supposed to help him!”

Asher caught my finger in his hand. “I have been helping him.”

“Oh, really? How? And how did he get here?” I thought back to the night before and the text message on Asher’s phone. The one he wouldn’t tell me about. The one he left me for. “It was Payton? On your phone last night?”

Asher’s lips pressed together.

I turned to Payton. “You texted him? Why?”

“Butt out, Jordan. This has nothing to do with you.”

“You’re my brother! And you.” I turned back to Asher. “You’re supposed to be my friend.”

Asher’s eyes narrowed. “Friend? That’s what this has been, Jordan? Friends.”

I shrank back a little from the rancor in his tone. “Not anymore, it isn’t.”

Asher reared back as though I’d slapped him. And I might as well have for how awful I felt as soon as the words left my mouth.

“Asher-”

“No.” He put his hands out to stop me. “No. You don’t trust me enough to believe in me and you’re right. I don’t need friends like that.” He looked to Payton. “I’ll see you tomorrow, man. Remember what we talked about.”

Payton nodded while I struggled to breathe.

What had I just done?

Asher walked away. Without a backward glance, he left me standing there with my brother.

“Nice one, Jord.” Payton shook his head, and then he left me, too.

How did things get to be such a mess?

Slowly, I followed my brother into the house. He’d already gone upstairs. I heard the shower going. No longer feeling the need for hot chocolate, I grabbed a half eaten container of ice cream from the freezer in the basement and settled onto the oversized bean bag chair in front of the television.

Thank goodness for the Hallmark Channel.

The next morning, I didn’t wait around to see if Asher would stop by to pick me up for school. I knew he wouldn’t. I tried not to look for his car in the parking lot, but my brain had already been conditioned to find it. My stomach fluttered even though I knew I probably wouldn’t see him.

Natalie and Kelly had been calling and texting me since the concert on Saturday, but I’d been ignoring them. When Natalie approached me, it was with some trepidation. I didn’t miss the way her eyes flicked to the empty space on either side of me- Asher had been filling one or the other for weeks now- or how her face fell to find him missing.

“What happened?” she asked.

“Nothing. We broke up.” And I’d been crying for almost forty-eight hours, but why dwell on that? Or admit to it?

“What? Why?” Natalie thought Kelly exaggerated Asher’s interactions with his fan club. She called it ‘being nice’, while Kelly insisted he’d been flirting. At this point, I didn’t know what to think, other than I missed him.

And I’d really screwed things up.

I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. It’s over.”

“What’s over,” Kelly asked and I barely hid my irritation. I should just wait to say anything to Natalie until Kelly showed up. Every morning we had to rehash the first five minutes of conversation Kelly missed.