Faking the Play (Hot Mess Harems #2)

5. Ethan

Chapter five

Ethan

T he guys were immediately on my side when I explained to them what happened, and they said they’d have some pizza waiting for us when we got back. The moment I arrived at Newsom Hall, I was glad I’d decided to drive to get her. I didn’t know if the crowd outside the dorm and in the lobby were here because of her, but I heard enough whispers to know that at least some of them would just love to get a picture of Amelia with me, to add to the shit storm surrounding my friend.

Her hallway was empty when I reached her door, and when she opened it, I was glad no one else could see how puffy and red-rimmed her eyes were. The flare of anger that went through me was hard to hold back, but I managed to paste on a smile.

“Ready?” I asked, keeping my tone as casual as possible, like I was here to take her on a date or something.

My stomach gave a weird twist at that thought, but I didn’t pay any attention to it. Amelia was hot, but I wasn’t here because of that. Besides, I wasn’t about to screw up a friendship just to get laid.

“Yeah, we can go.” She stepped into the hallway, careful not to touch me, but I caught her arm as she headed for the stairs to the lobby.

The shock that went through me nearly made me forget why I’d stopped her.

“There’s a whole lotta people in the lobby,” I said. “I’ve got no problem walking through a crowd with you, but I figured you might like the choice to go out a…less noticeable way.”

Her mouth tightened but she nodded without hesitating. “This way.”

She gestured in the other direction and we made our way out to my car without anyone saying a word to us. She seemed to relax the moment we were in the car, and something that had clenched inside me finally loosened.

“The guys are getting pizza,” I said, glancing over at her as I drove. “We just finished practice and, technically, pizza’s not on Coach’s approved diet, but we figured one time isn’t going to kill us.”

“I honestly don’t know if I can eat,” she said, wrapping her arms around her middle.

I shrugged as I parked the car. “More for me, but Logan probably won’t let you get away with it. Unless you’ve already eaten dinner.”

“He still thinks he’s the boss of everyone?” One corner of her mouth twitched, and I seized on that.

“When we moved here two years ago, he made a chore wheel.”

I felt a swell of pride when she laughed at that. I’d always been the one who could get her to laugh, and it was nice to know that hadn’t changed.

When we walked into the apartment, her face lit up. Logan and Ryan hadn’t just ordered a couple pizzas. They got her favorite, plus a bunch of sides, and four or five different kinds of soda.

“There’s ice cream in the freezer for dessert,” Logan said as he came over to give Amelia a hug. “We plan on putting you into a food coma, so I hope you’re hungry.”

The sideways glance she gave me had both of us laughing while the other two exchanged confused looks.

“I told her you’d make her eat,” I said as I walked over to the couch and plopped down on the end. Looking up at her, I patted the cushion next to me.

“Come on, I won’t bite.” I couldn’t help myself. I winked and added, “Unless you ask me to, of course.”

Ryan smacked the back of my head. “Not cool.”

“It’s all right,” she said with a smile. “I remember how Ethan can be.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

“I seem to remember someone saying that you’d flirt with anything that’d stand still long enough.” Her dark blue eyes danced with humor. “Even if it was a plant.”

Logan made a choking sound and I glared at him. “When did you say that?”

He shrugged even as he reached for a slice of pizza. “I’ve probably said it a dozen times since I learned what flirting was. To be honest, I do sometimes say ‘tree’ instead of ‘plant.’”

“Oh, yeah, that’s so much better,” I said. “Just for that, I get to choose what we watch.”

“Hell, no,” Logan said, making a grab for the remote.

I cackled as I snatched it first. “Too slow, old man.”

“You’re only two weeks younger than me,” Logan pointed out.

I opened my mouth to say something snarky, but suddenly, the remote was yanked out of my hand. I turned to see Ryan holding it, a small smirk on his face.

“What was it you were saying about being old?” He sat down on Amelia’s other side. “Experience trumps youth.”

Amelia barked a laugh, then clapped her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide. “Sorry.”

Her apology was muffled, but I wasn’t having it. I reached over and wrapped my fingers around her wrist, tugging her hand away.

“You can laugh all you want. Hell, we like hearing it.” I let her go before I could talk myself into keeping hold of her. Leaning forward, I grabbed a napkin and put a slice of the pepperoni and bacon pizza on it. “Here. Eat. Laugh. Relax.”

“Thanks,” she said quietly as she took the pizza. “Not just for the food. Thanks for all of this, guys. I don’t know what I would’ve done today if I hadn’t run into you.”

“Well, you don’t need to figure it out,” Logan said as he dropped onto a chair. “Because we’ve got your back.”

“Like if you need someone to help you get rid of a body,” I put in. “We can help with that.”

“Or with the murder,” Ryan added, his eyes darkening.

“Or anything else you need,” Logan said.

“Thanks.” She seemed to settle into the couch. “Right now, I just want to not think about it. Not about Jason or school or what’s going to happen tomorrow when classes start. I just want to turn off my brain.”

“That calls for classic comedy,” Ryan said as he pulled up one of our streaming apps. “I hope this is still one of your favorites.”

The moment The Princess Bride showed on the screen, a smile broke out across her face, so wide and bright that it was like seeing the sun come out from behind a cloud.

“It is,” she said. “I just haven’t seen it in a long time.”

I didn’t know about the other guys, but I remembered exactly when the last time was that I saw this movie. It was the weekend before the three of us decided that hanging out with our brainy little friend would ruin any chance we had at fitting in with the rest of the football team. After the movie had ended, Ryan’s mom drove Amelia home and then that was it. I’d never been able to bring myself to watch it again.

Even if I hadn’t admitted it back then, I knew we were assholes.

After The Princess Bride , we swapped pizza for ice cream and continued the nostalgia theme by watching The Goonies . Yeah, it came out before we were even born, but Ryan’s mom had a collection of movies that she’d loved as a teenager, so most of what we’d watched back then had been from the eighties.

As we watched, we talked, but not about anything serious. Definitely not about what had happened, or about the bad part of our past. Instead, we did the whole “walk down memory lane” thing, covering the things we hadn’t touched on earlier today. We were on the subject of mementos when Ryan said he needed to call it a night since his first class was early tomorrow. Logan had already been asleep in the chair for nearly twenty minutes.

I should have offered to take Amelia back to her dorm, but instead, I stood and held out my hand.

“Can I show you something?”

She took my hand and let me help her up, but it took her a moment to let it go, making me wonder if I was the only one who felt that spark whenever we touched. I didn’t bring it up as I led her back to my room.

We sat on my bed next to each other as I reached underneath and pulled out a box. My heart pounded, but I knew she wasn’t going to make fun of me. “The guys still don’t know about this.”

When I opened the box, she gasped. “Is that…?”

I lifted out a notebook and handed it to her. “Our notebook of fanfiction.”

“Did you ever finish the one with Starfire and Aquaman?” she asked as she began flipping through it.

I shook my head. “I couldn’t write any of it without you, but I didn’t want to get rid of it either. I haven’t looked at it in years.”

I stretched out on my bed and she moved up next to me, resting the notebook on our laps. The two of us were really into superhero comics when we were kids, and at some point, we started writing fanfiction about our favorite characters. It was only ever a thing for the two of us, and I hadn’t let myself admit how much I’d missed it until this very moment.

How much I’d missed her.

As we read through our old stories, I found myself looking at her more than at the page, and I realized that I’d do anything to keep from losing this again.