Playing Patience (12 page)

She popped out her ear buds and rolled them around her phone. I leaned in to open the gymnasium door for her and she stopped me.

“What in the hell is that smell?” she asked. Her cute mouth curled up in disgust. “Did you just leave a house fire or something?”

Shit! I didn’t even think to run home and change my clothes and now I was about to walk into a place full of juvenile delinquents smelling like weed. She thought I smelled like a house fire, which was hilarious. Leave it to Patience to be the only seventeen-year-old alive to not know what weed smelled like. I bet she’d never even been near the stuff, with the exception of The Pit. I knew for a fact it rotated around the room there.

“No house fire,” I said as I pulled my shirt over my head.

I walked back to my car and threw it in the front seat. When I walked back to the door she was still standing there waiting on me. Her eyes looked like big blue pools of shimmer as she openly stared at my chest. I loved the way she looked at me—like I was the only guy she’d ever seen with his shirt off.

I watched as her eyes landed on each of the tattoos on my chest and arms and then moved down my stomach. Her eyes were taking me in and for some reason it was a massive turn-on. It was as if she touched me every place she looked. I started getting hard. I’d never had a girl get me hard just by looking at me. More than likely it had more to do with that fact that I hadn’t had sex in weeks, but still, I really fucking liked it.

“You’re going to go in there like that?” She motioned at my naked chest.

I chucked to myself. “No, I was going to see if you would run inside and get me that stupid Big Brother shirt.”

“Oh.” Her eyes flicked over my chest once more. “Sure, be right back.”

She pulled open the door and slipped inside. A few minutes later she came back out holding the god-awful blue shirt. I pulled it over my head and shifted my hair out of my face. She watched openly so I smiled down at her as I pulled open the gym door and held it open for her.

“After you.” I motioned for her to go inside.

I wasn’t usually the gentlemen type, but she had gotten a good view of me. It was only fair that I get to watch her tight little ass in those gym shorts I loved so much. She didn’t disappoint as she shifted her hips. Unlike most girls, she wasn’t doing it on purpose. She had a natural sway that had me practically bobbing my head from side to side. Her ponytail bounced with the beat of her walk. I was so involved with watching her ass and thighs that I slammed into her when she stopped abruptly to miss a wild basketball.

I wrapped my arm around her waist to keep her from tumbling over. Her hips and ass melded into me and I’d never felt something so fucking amazing. It turned me into a caveman. I wanted to grab her by the back of her hair and bend her over the nearest anything. Tonight, I’d fall asleep thinking about doing her from behind.

I didn’t let go of her immediately. Instead, I held her close to me and enjoyed the feel of her ass against my now rock-hard cock. Women say men think with their penis and in that moment, my penis was the only thing thinking. It took me minute to realize that her entire body had gone tense in my arms. I didn’t feel her nails as they dug into my arm. I didn’t hear her begging me to let her go.

“Let me go, let me go, let me go,” she was saying over and over again as she slapped at my arm.

I released her immediately and she turned and faced me. Her pupils were dilated and there was more fear on her pale face than I’d ever seen a person display. She was hyperventilating and shaking so badly I thought she’d pass out. Instead, she took off and ran out the gym door. The sun poured in and then the door snapped shut, leaving me in the shaded gymnasium. It was like she’d left the darkness of hell and walked into a heavenly room full of light. It was a perfect metaphor for my current situation. She belonged in the light and I was right where I was meant to be—stuck in a dark, dank gymnasium, surrounded delinquents.

I wanted to chase after her, but that was something I’d never do. Chasing after women was for bitch boys and I was determined I wasn’t going to let this chick change me. As it was, she already had me thinking crazy thoughts. I had more control over my actions than I did my thoughts. So, instead of going after her and making sure she was okay, I went to my group and sat in my trusty chair to wait the hour out.

She never came back and the hour was the longest one I spent at the Boy’s Club yet. It dragged since I didn’t have her to tease and talk to. The boys did their own thing, which made me feel like nothing more than a glorified babysitter. Every now and again, one of the boys would come up and ask where Patience was. I just shrugged and said I didn’t know.

Once my hour was up, I walked out into the cool evening air and made my way to my car. I checked the parking lot to make sure she wasn’t there waiting for a ride, and then I pulled out and headed home. I stopped at the first red light I got to and my headlights lit up the park across the street. Sitting alone on a swing with her head down was Patience. My headlights practically reflected off her platinum locks. I turned my blinker off and instead of turning at the light, I drove straight into the park parking lot when the light turned green.

My loud car caught her attention and she looked up. I cut the engine and got out. She was writing in the sand beneath her with her shoe as I walked over to the swings. Sitting in the swing next to her, I pushed over and softly bumped her knee with mine.

“The boys were asking about you. I think Keaton has a serious crush on you.”

The side of her mouth tilted up, but she continued to stare at her feet. We sat in silence after that until finally she leaned her head back and sighed.

“I’m sorry for that back there,” she said without looking at me. “I don’t usually claw the hell out of people who are trying to keep me from falling.”

Sure, I had originally wrapped my arm around her to keep from falling, but I kept it there for much different reasons.

“Don’t worry about it. I was feeling you up after a certain point. So we’re even.” I grinned at her when she looked at me with wide eyes.

“Really? Well, in that case, serves you right.” She smirked back at me and let me know she was teasing me. “Is that what happened to your eye? Did some chick punch you for being too touchy feely?” she laughed.

I had forgotten about my eye.

“Yeah, something like that.” I nodded.

She leaned back and pushed off with her feet. I held on to the two chains holding the swing up and watched as she went back and forth beside me.

“So, what’s your deal, snowflake?” I asked.

She looked over at me. A strand of blond stuck to her face.

“What do you mean?” she slowed.

Again, she didn’t correct me when I called her snowflake. I’d won that battle.

“What do you do when you’re not being the governor’s daughter, the soccer star, the Good Samaritan, or a wannabe rocker chick at The Pit?”

Her brows puckered as she thought for a minute.

“I don’t really do much else, I guess. Just school and stuff.”

“You go to the prep school, right?”

She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Yep.”

Chet had told me about the sexy schoolgirl uniforms they wore there, and I pictured her in it. Damn.

“I’d like to see you in your sexy schoolgirl uniform,” I said.

Her cheeks turned bright pink and she shook her head. “Are you always so blunt?”

“Always,” I said as I leaned back in the swing.

“I suppose I like that about you,” she said softly, like she was confessing something huge. “It’s refreshing. Even if you do say some pretty vile things.” She reached out and playfully pushed my arm. “What about you? What’s your deal?”

“I don’t really have a deal. My dad’s no governor, I’ve never played any sports, but I’ve played the guitar since I was seven, I don’t help people, and I could never pull off the rocker chick look.” I swiped at my bangs like a girl would.

She laughed at the last part and it made me smile. She had an amazing laugh.

“Well, that’s pretty cut and dry, except you’re wrong about one thing.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

She looked over at me and her ponytail rested against the side of her face. “You helped me.”

She had me there. I still didn’t know what made me help her in the bathroom that night at The Pit. It was a question I’d asked myself a few times. I was changing some and I wasn’t sure I was okay with going soft since I needed my hard shell to keep myself alive.

“Only because I was hoping to get laid.” I lied.

“If you say so,” she said as she pushed off on the swing once more. “So you live with your dad?” she asked.

I didn’t want to answer, but since I’d initiated the questions, I felt like I had to.

“Yes.”

“Do you ever see your mom?” She stopped swinging and pulled her hair out of her ponytail. I got caught up in her movements as she ran her fingers through it.

“No, I don’t see my mom. And unless I straighten my ass up so I can go to heaven when I die, I probably never will. She died a few years back.” The words burned my throat as I said them.

I rarely talked about my mom. Mostly because it caused this strange pressure in my chest that I didn’t like, but also because I didn’t think it was anyone’s damn business. It was different with Patience. She wasn’t being a nosey bitch. She was just making conversation.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. She looked over at me with a wounded look in her eyes. “My mom’s dying.”

I didn’t say anything. There’s not really much you can say to something like that and even if there was, I wasn’t the kind of guy who’d say it. Instead, I looked away.

“I don’t know why I said that,” she mumbled. “It’s actually the first time I’ve said it out loud. I’m sorry.”

When I looked back up at her, her bottom lip trembled and the strange pressure that I hated so much when I talked about my mom seeped into my chest.

“Don’t apologize,” I said as I stood up. I needed to move. I needed to do anything that would make the pressure in my chest go away. She stood up next to me and looked back at me with those big blue eyes. “Come on, let’s get you home.”

I reached out and tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear. She jerked at the contact and then her body relaxed.

“Thanks,” she said as she started to walk next to me to my car.

“No worries, you’ll owe me one,” I grinned over at her.

Ten

Patience

I’m not sure what made me tell Zeke my mom was dying. Even saying the words made me feel sick, but we were having an honest moment and I wanted him to know I sort of understood his pain. I’d seen the look in his eyes when he said his mom was dead and it had been like a punch to the ribs to see such a hard, carefree guy show so much pain in that brief moment.

Being around Zeke was like watching a movie on a broken TV and having the screen blink on and off. Every now and again, I got to see brief flickers of the real him and I had to admit, I really liked those brief moments. More than I should.

We didn’t say much on the drive to my house and he even stopped and pulled over before getting to my house without me saying so. I appreciated him doing that.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon?” I said, before I got out of the car.

“It’s a date.” He grinned over at me.

I popped open the car door and got out. I shut the heavy door and turned to walk away.

“Hey, snowflake,” he called out. I turned back around and leaned into the car window. I was starting to like my nickname, although I’d never admit it to him.

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry about your mom. I’m an asshole, but even I wouldn’t wish that kind of pain on someone.” He looked uncomfortable with his confession.

I nodded my understanding and stepped away from the car. I stood there as he drove off. His car stood out in the upscale neighborhood. It wasn’t often a car with a mismatched hood and smoking tailpipe drove through here, but truth be told, I was even starting to like his car. It suited him somehow.

Once he was out of sight, I turned and jogged the rest of the way home. After my shower and visit with my mom, Syd and I watched a movie in my bed. She fell asleep halfway through and I didn’t wake her. I turned off the TV, got under my comforter with her, and then got another amazing night of sleep.

Thankfully, Megan’s car was back on the road and she was able to pick me up for school the next morning. I was told to stay away from her, but Dad was already gone before she got there. I’d have to make arrangements for her to pick me up at the stop sign near my house. She’d question it, but I’d cross that bridge when I got to it.

I was never so happy to see her jerk into my driveway. I hated riding the bus full of staring freshmen and sticky seats with gum on them. It was disgusting and I prayed I’d never have to do it again. Still, it was better than riding with my dad or driving the car that was supposed to be mine.

“I’ve missed you, chick. Anything new going on? How’s the voluntary community service going?” She laughed.

I immediately thought of Zeke and how glad I was that I’d decided to volunteer. I couldn’t deny the fact that I was starting to like him. Nothing could ever come from it because I was a total mental head case, but still, it was nice to think I was capable of liking a guy. It gave me a tiny spark of hope and I wanted to latch on to that hope and water it and load it down with sunlight so it could grow.

“What is
that
look about?” she asked with wide eyes.

“What look?”

“Oh my God, don’t even try to play me! I’ve seen that look before, just never on
you
.” She giggled. “So, spill it, woman! Who’s the guy?”

I tried to school my face, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get the smile to go down. I tried to smooth the sides of my mouth down with my fingers, but still the goofy smile remained.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I looked out the window since I couldn’t keep a straight face.

“Oh come on, Pay. As women it’s our job to talk about boys. Tell me about him. Anyone I know?” She tapped her fingernails on the steering wheel.