“I know. Um…thanks,” Eric said.
He was not handling this well. He seemed completely out of his element when talking to Audrey. Bryna had never seen him like this before.
“I didn’t realize you were going to take another girl on a date with those tickets. Un-fucking-believable, Eric. I wouldn’t have gotten them for you if I’d known. This is absurd.”
Eric shuffled his feet. “Audrey, I appreciate you getting me the tickets, but Bri and I aren’t—”
“Official,” Bryna finished for him.
“What?” he asked. He looked at her in confusion.
Bryna wasn’t having any more of this shit. She had heard this girl was crazy, and the bitch was proving it. Eric was a nice guy, and he was clearly in over his head. He needed help from a real bitch.
“We’re not official yet,” Bryna said. She slipped her hand into Eric’s and leaned against his arm. She made sure not to look up at him to see his reaction. “But thanks for the ticket, Aubrey. It was an amazing date.”
“It’s Audrey,” she spat. She glared at Eric. “Can I talk to you—alone?”
“Sorry,” Bryna said before Eric could speak. “We’re really on a tight schedule. We still have a long night ahead of us.” She even giggled for good measure. “So nice to meet you though.”
Bryna dragged Eric away from Audrey before he could do any more damage. He must really not want people to know he was gay if he had gone as far as dating that crazy chick. She wondered what had happened between them.
When they made it outside, she dropped his hand, and they walked the rest of the way in silence.
It wasn’t until they were seated in his Jeep, driving back across town, when Eric spoke again, “What was all of that about?”
Bryna smiled. “It seemed wrong to let your psycho ex talk to you like that. You were too nice.”
“How did you know she was my ex?”
“I’ve heard the rumors.”
“Great,” he grumbled. “I don’t even want to know what those say.”
“I thought it was easier to pretend this was a date than to have her be so fucking annoying—not to mention, desperate and needy. I can’t believe you let her talk to you like that. I would have knocked her down a few more pegs if I wasn’t so ready to get out of there,” Bryna rambled on through Eric’s silence.
“You know,” he said after a minute, “you’re not the person I thought you were.”
“Thank you?” she said questioningly.
“Seriously, you’re cool as shit. You should let other people see this side of you.”
“I have to keep up my reputation.”
Eric laughed as he glanced over at her. “Maybe people wouldn’t be so scared of you if they saw you fall on your ass while skating.”
“First of all, I didn’t fall. That shithead kid rammed into me. And second, who said I didn’t want people to be afraid of me? It keeps them in line.”
“It just seems to push them away.”
“Sometimes, that’s better,” she admitted. It was how she always lived her life, and it seemed to be working.
Eric parked the car outside of her condo. He angled his body, so he was facing her. She looked up at him, wondering what he was thinking because he sure as hell looked like he was thinking about something. Normally, she would be anticipating the kiss to come…or more. But not with Eric.
“What happened to you?” he asked finally.
“What do you mean?”
“I know this fun-loving girl is in there, but she’s not who you show to the world. You seem like you’re holding something in, so you don’t let yourself fully relax. I don’t know why that is.”
“Life.”
“Maybe.” He didn’t sound convinced. “Is it your parents?”
“No.” Her parents had fucked her up, but this newfound guard she had put up around her heart to prevent anyone from getting to know her was new, fresh.
“Was it that guy you mentioned? The one you went away with last Christmas?”
“I don’t want to talk about him.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”
Bryna cracked open the door and hopped out of the Jeep. She winced when her leg hit the ground. “I had a good time tonight,” she told him.
“Me, too. You know, you’re not going to be able to hide this girl from me now.”
She raised her eyebrows. “We’ll see.” She walked toward the door.
“Bryna!”
“Yeah?” she asked.
“Thanks.”
“For what?”
“For what you said to Audrey.”
“Yeah, well,” she said with a faint smile, “thanks for getting me through Christmas.”
“SPEND NEW YEAR’S WITH ME,” Hugh said into the phone. “It’s been too long since I’ve seen you.”
“I would love that,” Bryna said in a slight panic.
The football team was leaving in two hours for Miami. There was absolutely no way she could stay in town to see Hugh. So far, their relationship had worked out with her schedule. He was always here during the week or when she didn’t have cheer. She had missed practice once to go to Lake Tahoe with him, but the play-offs were a different story. And it wasn’t as if she could say she had cheer. He didn’t know she was still in college.
“All right. Let me get my secretary on the phone.”
“Hugh,” she said before he could get off the phone, “I already have plans. I’m going to Miami with my girlfriends.”
That, at least, was partially true.
“Well, I could be in Miami in a couple of hours. It’s a longer flight.”
She could not let her friends meet Hugh. There were too many things she was hiding for that to end well at all.
“It’s actually a girls’ weekend. We’ve had it planned for a while.” She cringed.
She hoped this worked. In two weeks, there would be no more football to contend with all her time.
“I see.” He sounded disappointed. “How about next weekend?”
She had to bite the bullet. “I’m going to the national championship game in Phoenix. It’s something I do with my dad every year.” She swallowed. Two truths and a lie. She was playing with fire.
“Football?” he asked skeptically. “You’re into football?”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t seem like that type of girl.”
What was with every person trying to put me into a box lately?
“I am.”
“Okay. I really want to see you, Bri. I have your Christmas present. I had to find the right thing to get you, so I didn’t have it when we went to Tahoe.”
She smiled and let the tension leave her shoulders. On the outside, football probably seemed like the last thing she would be into. Plus, a Christmas present!
All the convincing she needed.
“How about the weekend after?”
“Bri!” Stacia screamed. She dropped her bags and sprinted across the short distance to where Bryna was standing. She full-fledged jumped into Bryna’s arms.
Bryna winced as Stacia’s weight hit her hip and was so glad cheer had given her the strength to hold people up…even crazy friends.
“I missed you so much,” Stacia said.
Bryna laughed and dropped her back to the ground. “I missed you too.”
“I so wish Trihn could fly with us.”
“Yeah, but she’s flying in straight from New York.”
“Still.”
“I know. She should have taken up cheerleading,” Bryna said.
“It’s never too late.”