Bending Under Pressure Page 19

  “Impressed,” I decide for her.

  We set up our textbooks and other materials at the foot of my bed. Haley climbs on first and lies on her stomach. I follow her.

  “Science isn’t your strong suit, huh?”

  “Nope. Give me math or literature any day over science.” She sighs, giving me a glimpse into how much the subject frustrates her.

  We begin filling out the basic information on our worksheet like our name and date and period. “Well, let’s get it over with, so we can do something more fun.”

  A flush of pink fills her cheeks. I wasn’t specifically talking about anything, but it makes me really happy that her mind went to the gutter. Our teacher gave us a two-page worksheet, front and back. We silently get started,;Haley stops me every so often for me to help her figure something out. I finish first and start spouting off the answers in an attempt to get her to copy them.

  Haley giggles. “Stop it. How am I going to learn it if you keep telling me the answers?”

  “Because you know he’s going to review it before a test. You can learn it then.” I trail a finger from her shoulder blade to her spine and then down her back.

  She shoots me a dirty look. “No. I don’t like cheating.”

  “You’re one of those girls, huh?”

  “Yep, I don’t want to do all the work and hand it over to someone else, but also because I’m scared to death of getting caught.”

  Her shirt rose up when she shifted under my touch, so I brush my knuckles over the bare skin on her lower back. I must give her credit for mostly ignoring me. There’s been a shift in her breathing, it’s more controlled and cautious, but it’s there. The weather has dropped, so she’s in a hoodie. No skin for me to kiss aside from that showing on her lower back and I can’t do that. Haley would freak out on me; I just know it.

  She clears her throat and sits up, removing her hoodie. She must be getting hot. I grin.

  “What’s the smile for, Keelan?”

  “Nothing at all, Hales. Need any help?” I scoot closer to her. We’re now shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, and leg to leg. She turns her head to answer, but I lean over and kiss her softly. Her lips are already parted, and I push my tongue into her mouth, feeling as if it’s been forever since we’ve made out. While Haley isn’t ready for more, I don’t think she has a problem with kissing. The weariness in my bones fades into the background. I want to kiss her. A lot. For a long time.

  Haley has other ideas. “You’d be helpful if you didn’t do that yet,” she chides playfully.

  “Yet. So...once you’re finished?”

  “Maybe,” she shrugs, turning her attention back to the worksheet. At least she’s on the last part.

  “Maybe? Are you saying you don’t wanna kiss me, Hales?” I begin dragging my fingertips over her back again, barely brushing over the cloth of her shirt. A shiver runs through her, making me grin.

  “I’m saying I’ll have to think about it,” she quips. “Or you’ll have to convince me why I’ll want to.”

  Oh, that sounds like fun.

  “Because you like me,” I begin my list. “Because you like kissing me. Because I’m good at it.” She laughs at that. I lower my voice, leaning closer toward her. “Because knowing you’re going to kiss me the moment you finish that last question excites you.”

  She drops her pencil, officially done. I reach for her hand, so we can move our heads to the other side of the bed. We lie on our sides. Haley’s eyes dart over my face, waiting. Her breathing has already hitched, and all I’ve done is rest a hand on her hip, my thumb moving back and forth underneath her shirt.

  “Well?” she breathes.

  “I said you were gonna kiss me, Hales. Not the other way around.”

  Her eyes widen, but otherwise she shows no emotion. She loves the anticipation. I want to see how long she’ll draw it out to up the ante and the hype she’s building in her head. She wiggles closer until our bodies are pressed together. One of her hands comes to rest on my chest, her eyes dropping there for a moment.

  Haley presses her forehead against mine. God, this was a terrible idea. She’s going to kill me before she kisses me! Her breath is hitting my lips. She’s so close and yet so far; I’m trying my hardest not to just close the distance and kiss her. Our lips are right there. My tongue darts out of my mouth to swipe across my lower lip. I groan and squeeze her hip when I brush over her mouth. That’s how close she is to me.

  “Keelan?” she whispers.

  “Yeah, Hales?”

  “Feeling crazy yet?”

  I chuckle. “Insane.”

  She smiles. “Good. Now you know how I feel when I’m around you.”

  Before I can respond, her mouth is on mine. She really is driving me insane. This kiss is hard and fast and hot. It’s so unlike Haley that it throws me for a loop. But for only a second. We shift so she’s on her back, and I’m hovering over her. She links her hands together at the base of my neck to hold me in place, as if I’d dream of leaving this slice of heaven.

  I can tell the exact moment she feels just how much I’m enjoying this kiss because our mouths go from sliding harshly against one another like we’re going to die in thirty seconds to gliding in slow motion like we have a lifetime. One hand has my fingers locked into her hair while its connecting elbow holds me up, but my other moves up her side, pulling her shirt up a little. My fingertips dig into her skin. I’m dying, dying to feel bare skin, but the last thing I want is to give her a reason to pull away from me. This will have to do for now. My fingers move up her side, down again, over the half of her stomach that isn’t covered by mine, and repeat.

  But then, Haley shatters my willpower.

  She shifts against me, her leg, in between mine, brushes against me as mine rubs against her.

  I groan. Just as I’m about to fuel my scrap of willpower and self-control into a kiss, I hear a throat clearing behind me in a loud, clear, “Ahem.”

  Quickly pulling away from Haley, who scoots away from me, I roll over to see my mother standing in the doorway.

  “I think it’s time for Haley to head home,” she says evenly in her authoritative teacher tone. Shit. I’m in trouble.

  “Yes, ma’am.” I expect her to walk away, but she doesn’t. Haley and I stand, and I pick up her textbook and worksheet, which apparently fell onto the floor. How did we not hear that? After I hand them to her, she stuffs them into her bag. “I’ll walk you out,” I tell her quietly.

  Mom follows us downstairs, Dad shaking his head when he sees us, but thankfully, Mom doesn’t join us outside.

  Haley laughs through her embarrassment. “How did I do a walk of shame without committing the part that causes the shame?”

  I laugh. “I’m sorry.”

  “Think you’ll get in trouble?”

  “A good lecture at the very least.” I take a step closer to kiss her cheek and whisper, “If they ground me, I’ll either sneak out to see you or sneak you in.”

  The tension leaves her shoulders as she relaxes and laughs. “You’ll get caught one of these days.”

  “It’ll be worth it. I figured as long as it’s not dangerous,” she gives me a pointed look, clearly thinking of the races, “and I’m not actually committing the part that causes for shame, they won’t be too mad with me,” I finish. My parents want me happy and healthy. As long as I don’t do something stupid, knock a girl up, and keep my grades good, there won’t be much to complain about. Although, Haley does seem to lure me into situations where I keep getting caught. It’s kind of hard to be the good kid when I keep getting in trouble.

  “Well, let me know. Thanks for helping me.”

  “Any time. Kiera is coming this weekend, so I’ll see what I can do about a race on Friday.”

  Haley tilts her head. “Don’t want to introduce your sister to that?”

  “No,” I reply firmly. “Text me later.”

  She nods and then she’s gone. How can I be the good big brother if I take my baby sister
to a race on a back road? No way is that happening. I hurry back into the house to prevent my parents from being able to stew over what Mom walked in on.

  Guilt shoots through me when I see she brought home pizza. The least I could’ve done was make sure I heard them come home, so she wouldn’t catch me making out with my girlfriend.

  “You get one point for leaving the door open,” Mom begins as I grab a slice of pizza. “You know we don’t want you having sex, Keelan.”

  I groan. “Mom, I’m eating,” I complain. “And we weren’t having sex.” Now that would’ve been mortifying, having Mom walk in on that.

  “Sounded like you were about to get carried away.” Her words make me flinch, and I wonder if I’m going to be able to finish my pizza.

  “I know what you’re going to say, and I hear you loud and clear. Haley and I aren’t having sex. Can we be done talking about this now?”

  “We discussed it,” Dad begins and I immediately want to ask when. I was outside for like two minutes. “We don’t want you here with Haley by yourself. Between us finding you two sleeping in the hammock after you snuck out in the middle of the night to bringing her over here after an argument with her mom and this, I can’t say we trust you when she’s involved.”

  My hand freezes midway to my mouth, my slice of pizza with it. “Come on, you can’t be serious. I think the key word there was sleeping and she was here for my help with her science homework, which we did. Making out with her can’t seriously be why she can’t come over without y’all here.”

  “Our house, our rules,” he answers simply. “Someone needs to be there if you go to her house, too. Don’t make us have to start verifying with her parents either.”

  I want to argue, but I know better. “Yes, sir.”

  “We do like Haley,” Mom says. “But your behavior when she’s in the picture is what worries us. That’s all.” She squeezes my shoulder and kisses my head. “We love you.”

  “Love y’all too.”

  They leave me to finish my pizza. My behavior? Aside from today and the hammock incident, what have I done? Nothing that I can think of! Nothing that they would know anyway. After a while, my mulling turns into guilt. Guilt at making them worry over me. Guilt for not hiding what I am doing better. I want to be the best damn kid they could ask for. I don’t want to be a hassle, burden, or anything other than a reason for them to smile, be proud of me, and not regret adopting me.

  Today, I failed at that.

  My second period class is weight lifting. Thankfully, one of the nicer assistant coaches is the one who supervises us. Otherwise, it would suck having this in the middle of the day. We don’t have the option to shower afterward. Coach would surely run us hard enough to get sweaty and filthy. As long as we’re doing something and not goofing off, he leaves us alone.

  Weight lifting I like.

  The talk that seems to happen during it, I don’t like.

  We’re guys and I get that we like to brag and talk about our latest conquests, but some of these guys are ruthless.

  “Picking a truck over a car was the best damn decision,” Wade says. “There is plenty of room for Bianca to ride me. I thought she was going to bust my windows, she was screaming so loud.”

  I roll my eyes. Wade has supposedly slept with all the cheerleaders. I don’t think he has that much charm or whatever it is he needs to convince them. Some of the guys are clearly impressed though, always eager to hear about his conquests.

  “Have you banged the new girl yet, Keelan?”

  At this, I turn to see all eyes seem to have landed on me. “It’s October. You don’t know the new girl’s name?”

  Laughter barks out of them and Wade says, “I’ll take that as a no.”

  “We’d ask Cameron, but he always ignores us.” That is true. Cam doesn’t even acknowledge the fact they’ve asked him.

  “If he hasn’t tapped Jess by now, he’s an idiot,” Wade comments.

  “Change out!” the assistant coach shouts from his office.

  We begin shuffling to the locker room and I glance at Cameron. As usual, their comments don’t faze him. It’s reassuring after what happened between them. Once the bell rings, Cameron and I head outside and to the main building for lunch.

  “So, have you banged the new girl yet?” Cam mocks their question.

  “No, and it’s not in the foreseeable future.” Haley isn’t ready, my parents are obviously going to do their best to make sure it doesn’t happen, and honestly, I’m ninety-nine percent happy with just making out. That other one percent is a horny teenager who doesn’t care about waiting and only wants to come, but I’m ignoring the one percent. There’s way too much going on for me to tack on something like sex.

  Besides, the waiting and anticipation is what makes it worthwhile, right?

  I’ve been a little withdrawn today, only because I’m already missing tennis. We have two games this week and then our season will be over. The end of a season always leaves me with the same set of questions. What am I supposed to do every day after school now? Which of the girls will want to keep playing to stay in shape? What am I going to do? It’s not as if I’ll have more time with Keelan because football season is nowhere near done. They still have a month to go and that won’t count the games for the championship.

  Sliding into my seat next to Seth for my fourth period class, I realize that while I won’t have tennis, I’ll have more time to do anything I want. A guy sits down in front of me, but immediately turns to face me.

  “Haley, right?”

  I nod. I can’t place his name, but I know he’s on the football team.

  He leans forward, his eyes seemingly laughing at me already, and then asks, “So, why haven’t you had sex with Keelan yet?”

  My jaw drops, my eyes widen, and I stare at him. Did he really ask me that? How does he know what we have or haven’t done?

  “Wade, you’re such a prick,” Seth says with annoyance. “Leave her alone.”

  Wade holds up his hands and laughs. “I was just curious.” Then he stands up and sits down in his normal seat.

  “Haley,” Seth begins.

  “What was that about?” I ask him, though I doubt he knows.

  But the funniest thing happens. He gets an almost guilty look on his face. “Nothing really. Wade was being a jerk after some talk during weight lifting.”

  Some talk during weight lifting?

  “Sort of like locker room type talking?”

  Seth nods. My stomach plummets. Keelan was talking about us like that? My Keelan? I can’t believe it. Something was obviously said though; why else would Wade ask me such a question? Before Seth can say another word, the bell rings and our teacher starts talking. I sink into my seat, feeling as if every single person now knows that I haven’t had sex with Keelan. They shouldn’t, but I don’t know who overheard Wade. Or who he’s mentioned it to since their second period class.

  Suddenly, I don’t feel so well. My hand shoots up before I can change my mind.

  “Yes, Haley?”

  “Can I go see the nurse?” If I complain enough, she might send me home early.

  My teacher nods. “Go ahead.”

  I bolt out of the room, ignoring the snickering, which is probably coming from the annoying football player at fault here. When I make it into the office, it turns out the nurse isn’t here today. I call my mom instead. I want to leave. I don’t want to face Keelan. I don’t want to face anyone. I want to go home.

  “Hello?”

  “Mom,” I begin.

  “Haley? What’s wrong? Is everything okay?”

  “I think I’m getting sick. Can you tell the secretary I have permission to go home early?” I can drive to school, but can’t check myself out early without permission.

  “What’s wrong? You don’t think you can make it through your last class?”

  “No. Please, Mom?”

  She’s quiet for a moment before I hear a small sigh. “Okay. Let me talk to her.” I hand t
he phone back to the secretary.

  A few minutes later, I’ve retrieved my things and am on the way home. I’m almost scared to hear the full story from Keelan. This will buy me more time before I have to ask him about it. I know if I were to see him after school, and I would have, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from asking.

  At home, I get my homework done and out of the way. The moment I see school is out for the day, I realize my biggest mistake.

  I’ll miss practice today.

  Which means I can’t play in the game tomorrow.

  One of the last two we have.

  Fantastic!

  My phone beeps with a text, and I reluctantly check it.

  Keelan: Seth told me what happened & that you left early. Can I come by after practice?

  What does it mean that he hasn’t tried to explain or say sorry yet? I don’t want to avoid him anymore than I already have though.

  Me: Yes. Mom and Walter should be here.

  He told me at lunch what his parents said. I don’t want to get him in trouble. I feel bad enough that they think I’m a bad influence. Me! I’m not the girl who is racing. I’m not usually the one asking Keelan to sneak out. And I definitely wasn’t the one who started climbing up water towers first. Jess thought it was hilarious his parents are implementing that, which tells me there is no such rule with Cameron. They are the ones who need it!

  But whatever. It is what it is. I like his parents too much, despite this, to react in any way other than just going with it.

  Today is going to be hard enough as it is. I’ve yet to tell Mom about Dad’s wedding and I can’t put it off too much longer. I’ll most likely have to spend the night there and come home in the morning, and because Keelan is going, I don’t know how that is going to work. We can’t book a hotel room; we’re too young. Our parents wouldn’t allow it anyway. I don’t want to ask Dad what to do. Unless Mom is okay with me making the two-hour drive late in the night, then I don’t know how I’m going to the wedding. I still don’t even know if I want to attend.

  I spend the next few hours preparing dinner. Mom will know something is up the moment she gets here and sees me cooking, but I don’t care. Plus, I don’t have anything else to do. Maybe this will help when she realizes I’m not coming down with something and I really had no reason to leave school. God, it’s been a stressful day. I’m ready to grab a book and get lost in someone else’s problems. Let them be the stressed ones.