Dare You to Hate Me

No wonder Aiden can read me so well.

“What are you doing here? How…?” My eyes pop open as I take another step backward into the room as panic seeps in. “Are Mom and Dad with you?”

“He didn’t tell you?” is my brother’s response, face paling over the revelation.

I slowly shake my head.

“It’s just me and…” He glances down the hall and shifts his weight from one foot to the other. “I didn’t know Aiden didn’t say anything. I came to see the game with his parents.”

It’s hard to swallow knowing Mrs. Griffith is here. The only other person besides Aiden that I idolized.

“I lied to Mom and Dad,” he admits sheepishly, cheeks turning from white to pink in a microsecond. He always did that if he felt bad, blushed. “They think I’m staying at a friend’s house for the weekend.”

Friend’s house. He has someone in his life. That’s…that’s good.

Blowing out a breath, I wipe my hands down the front of the shirt and nod to myself over the admission. Porter’s eyes go to the jersey I’m wearing and his lips twitch, leveling again without giving me a solid reaction of what he’s thinking.

“Will they… Will you get into trouble? If they find out you lied, I mean. I don’t want you to—”

“Stop,” he cuts me off quickly, pain in his eyes as he steps forward. “It’ll be okay. I mean, yeah, they’d be upset but it wouldn’t be the end of the world. I, uh…”

My heart clenches at his hesitation, and I realize I need to be the person I wasn’t to him before. “You can tell me,” I reassure him. “I can take it. If you’re angry or upset…”

His eyes go back to the hallway, looking anywhere but at me. I get it. I’m nothing like I used to be either and have no clue what to say or what not to. “Ivy, I’m not sure angry or upset quite covers what’s happening in my head right now.”

I run my tongue across my bottom lip, as I glance at the carpet. “That’s fair.”

His sigh is heavy. “It’s not because of what you probably think. Listen, Aiden said some…things he wants left between us. His parents are chill people and agreed to drive me here to see you and the game when Aiden suggested it.”

My heart thuds. “You wanted to see me?” When did Aiden suggest it? “But you never replied to my message.”

“Your account was gone before I could,” he explains quickly. Porter starts taking a step toward me but second guesses and ends up taking one backward instead. “I did try, Ivy. It took me a couple days to see it, and I’ll be honest I wasn’t sure if I was going to respond. But then Aiden showed up at one of my practices at school.”

“He what?” Heart thudding in my chest, I shake my head at the statement I wasn’t expecting.

My brother winces. “Shit. Listen, that doesn’t matter. He thought it’d be good if we had a chance to talk, so he got me a ticket. Plus, er, well I’m being scouted by the Raiders, so I want to see what they’ve got going for them before I make up my mind. But I did try to respond, honest.”

Eye twitching, I wrap my arms around myself and swallow my opinion on the school matter. It isn’t me who has anything against the well-known university, but I can’t help but feel bitter in Aiden’s defense. I wouldn’t want Porter to go through what Aiden did.

“I deleted my Facebook account the other day,” I say sheepishly. I’d checked to see if he’d seen my message and when I saw he hadn’t, anxiety got the better of me. Instead of obsessing or waiting for the moment his message was marked as “seen” without so much as a reply, I deactivated my account and told myself I did all I could.

Porter shifts on his feet when a couple doors open down the hall and deep voices echo. “I think the team is getting ready to leave. Mrs. Griffith told me to come get you. She wanted to come with me, but her husband said to give us some space since it’s been a while.”

Been a while. I refrain from commenting on that understatement when DJ and Matt stop by my door and eye Porter.

Matt asks, “Is this kid giving you trouble? We don’t mind helping out if he is. Aiden would want us to or we’d get our asses handed to us.”

Porter’s eyes round at the way the two men crowd his space. “I’m, er— She’s—”

DJ chuckles and smacks Porter. “Nice to see you again, kid. Glad you decided to come after all.”

What the hell? “How do you know—” I stop when DJ shoots me an apologetic smile.

“I promised I wouldn’t say anything,” he tells me, and that’s when I realize where their trip was to. Haven Falls. Aiden, Caleb, and DJ went to my hometown. Our hometown.

I sigh. “This is my brother, Matt. Stop scaring him. Aiden, and apparently DJ and Caleb, thought it’d be good to surprise me.”

Matt snickers. “You don’t seem like the type to like surprises.”