Offside (31 page)

“Do you miss it?”

“I was there,” she said. “How could I miss it?”

“You know that’s not what I mean.” Greg’s voice darkened a little.

“Sometimes,” I heard Nicole mumble. “Not enough to play right now. It’s okay just having someone to cheer for, you know?”

“I guess so,” he said.

“He needs someone on his side,” she said so quietly, I thought I had probably dropped back into my dream. She shifted in my arms, and I felt her nose against my jaw.

“I have to admit,” Greg said, “he seems pretty different when he’s here compared to what I’ve seen of him in the past.”

“I wish I knew which one to believe,” Nicole said.

The warmth of her breath against my neck kept me comfortable and soothed as I continued to drift in this strange dream about Nicole and her Dad’s conversation—so different from the way my father and I talked. I suppose that’s what made it the most dream-like, since it didn’t really make any sense to me at all.

Maybe Shakespeare would have said I only wanted “to sleep: perchance to dream.” Somehow, their conversation was completely surreal to me.

Now how long could I just sleep here with her?

CHAPTER 16

HALF-TIME

Lying on the Skyes’ couch, wrapped up in warmth, my dream continued.

“What do you mean
which one to believe
?” Greg asked.

“Well,” Nicole started and then paused. I could feel her body twisting in my arms and felt her fingers pushing the hair off my forehead. “It’s like he’s a different person depending on what he’s wearing. He even said something about it once, when he was dressed up for that banquet thing you dragged me to. He was so…
suave
, I guess, because he was wearing a tux. Then when he puts on his jersey, he acts like someone completely different. That first day he was here—when I found him at the cemetery—that was the first time I thought this is the real Thomas, you know? Not an act.”

“That’s got to be a little confusing for you, hon,” Greg said.

“It’s giving me whiplash.”

I felt her hand on my cheek and pushed against it instinctively even in sleep.

“His Mom’s death…that really messed him up, you know?” she said softly.

“It messed them both up,” Greg replied.

“Did you know her? Did you know Thomas’s mom?”

“Yeah,” he replied, “I did.”

My dream deepened as I felt Nicole’s fingers twisting bits of my hair around my ear. I lay back on the picnic blanket in the yard, and the rain misted over us though we never got wet. Fucked up dreams.

“
They dated in high school…”

“
She left town and moved to Chicago, following some artist type…”

“
Lou brought her back here…”

The words in my dream didn’t really make sense to me still, and the sensations of Nicole’s touch were more than enough to capture and hold my attention. I sighed and nuzzled against her, feeling her hair tickle my nose as I basked in her scent.

Warm…delicious…my Rumple.

“
They got married…”

“
Thomas came shortly after…”

The voices in my dreams faded with the scene, casting me in deeper sleep. As I felt consciousness grip me again, I groaned at my stiffened muscles as I shifted on the couch. I rolled off and on to the floor with a thump and a gasp.

I heard giggling.

“Oh fuck, that hurt,” I moaned. I flopped over onto my back and rubbed at my shoulder, grimacing.

“You’re funny,” Nicole said as she crouched down next to me. “Hungry?”

“Very.”

“Get up, then.”

She giggled again as she headed into the kitchen and left me on my back. I tilted my neck backwards painfully as I watched her saunter out of the room, her long legs teasing me with the tightening muscles as she walked. I moaned again as I rolled over and pushed myself up on my hands and knees.

“I thought you soccer players were supposed to be in good shape.” Greg’s voice jumped out at me from his chair. I startled, having no idea he was sitting that close, and just about fell off and on to my face.

He laughed at me, too.

“Anytime you want to come lift weights with me,” I suggested as I looked up at him, “you let me know. We’ll see how you’re doing a couple hours later, old man.”

He laughed again as he stood and offered me a hand. I took it, and he hauled me from the floor.

“I think I’ll give it a pass,” Greg said. “Fishing is more of a sport for my tastes.”

“Fishing? A sport? Seriously?”

“Of course it’s a sport!”

“Oh good lord,” Nicole groaned. She rolled her eyes as we walked in and sat at the table. “We’ll never hear the end of this one now.”

“Fishing is the greatest sport there is, right after baseball…”

She was right. He didn’t shut up through all of dinner.

Despite my gagging noises and complaints about how freaking boring both of those so-called sports were, before the meal was through, my stomach was cramping up due from laughing. Greg shook his finger at me, and as soon as the dishes were cleared, he dragged me around the house to show me all his sportsman spoils, including a deep freezer filled with enough dead fish to…um…well, to fill a deep freezer.

Nicole joined sides with me as we argued about how much better soccer was over baseball, and eventually, Greg gave up and went upstairs. He yelled down to Nicole and me not to be too loud before he shut his bedroom door for the night. Nicole sat down on the couch next to me and glanced at me sideways with her teeth embedded in her lip.

“You still look tired,” she said softly.

I shrugged.

“Do you want to go home and get to bed?”

I didn’t have to think about that one for too long before I was shaking my head vigorously. I reached over and grabbed her hand and pulled it over into my lap, suddenly feeling weird about it all, and thinking maybe I shouldn’t have touched her. I let go, but her hand was already in my lap, so that seemed stupid, too. I picked her hand back up again and just stared at our fingers laced together.

“You said your dad is out of town?” Nicole asked softly.

“Yeah,” I confirmed. “He’ll be back next Saturday.”

“Do you…um…want to stay here tonight?” Nicole’s cheeks turned pink when I looked up at her.

“Could I?”

“Well, then you wouldn’t have to be alone all night, right?”

“Yeah,” I agreed with a nod. I looked up at the clock and saw it was a quarter past ten. “Um…I could run home and get some shit…you know, clothes for tomorrow or whatever.”

“Okay.”

“Be back soon?”

“I’ll be watching for you,” Nicole said with a smile and another lip bite.

“I’ll hurry,” I said. I stood up, and she stood with me. I grabbed both of her hands, stared down at them in mine for a minute, and then looked back to her eyes. She was looking up at me through her lashes and just looked so damn beautiful—I couldn’t help but lean in to kiss her.

Her lips were soft, smooth, and warm against mine. I tasted her gently, just running the tip of my tongue across her bottom lip before I pulled back from her warmth.

“Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,” I whispered against her mouth. I took a step back and saw how her chest was rising and falling with her breaths.

“Do you always quote Shakespeare to girls?” she asked.

“Never have before,” I replied with a shrug. “I’ll be back soon.”

“You’d better be,” she replied.

I practically ran to my car and took the evil curves between our houses far quicker than I should have. I scampered up the front steps and left the door wide open as I leapt up the stairs, two at a time. I threw some stuff in a backpack and raced back the same way, barely remembering to close the door to the car before I ran back inside Nicole’s house.

Even though I had slept with her in her bed twice before, I felt weird standing on the porch with my backpack full of shit to spend the night at Nicole’s house. The other times had been pretty spontaneous, and this felt a lot more planned. Was I supposed to ring the bell or knock? I had been there just twenty minutes before, so maybe I should just go in. She said she’d be watching for me—did that mean she already knew I was here, and she’d just open the door without me doing anything?

All of this shit was just too unfamiliar to me. I didn’t know what to do.

Thankfully, Nicole
was
apparently watching, because she opened the door before I managed to make a decision or chicken out and just go back to the car.

“You’re soaked.”

I glanced down, and she was right. I hadn’t really noticed the rain soaking through my shirt. I dripped into the foyer, and Nicole made me stand there while she got a towel from the bathroom.

“You want a shower or anything?” she asked.

“You want to join me?” I replied with raised eyebrows. The comment just kind of jumped out of my mouth without discussing itself with me first.

“Do you have to act like an adolescent boy?” she asked.

“I am an adolescent boy,” I reminded her. She dried my hair with the towel and then pushed me up the stairs to her room. Nicole took a handful of clothes into the bathroom to change, and I just kind of stood in the middle of the room and looked around, noting the few changes from the last time I had been here.

When she came back, I took my backpack into the bathroom, changed into some lounge pants, and brushed my teeth. I debated putting on the Donovan T-Shirt I brought with me, wondering if it would be better to leave it off.

It was kind of hot tonight.

All right, that was bullshit; it was actually pretty damn chilly.

I put the shirt on.

I returned to the room to find that Nicole had already climbed into bed, so I climbed in after her. I was on my left side, which really didn’t hurt anymore, but it still felt all wrong immediately.

“Nicole?”

“Yeah?”

“Can we…um…switch sides?”

“Switch sides?” Her eyes narrowed in confusion.

“Yeah,” I said. I ran my hand through my hair. “I was…I was on the other side of you before.”

Her mouth turned up into a half-smile, but her eyes remained curious.

“O…kay…”

We fumbled around a bit before we ended up with her going over the top of me while I shuffled to the other side of the bed. She landed beside me with a soft thump, and I rolled to my side and placed my hand on her hip. I sighed, feeling much better.

“Did that really bother you?” she asked softly.

I glanced up at her and then looked away immediately. I pushed my head against the pillow a bit more and shrugged. I didn’t know what to say. I knew it was weird to be so fixated on that kind of shit, but I couldn’t seem to turn it off.

Finally, I spoke up.

“Sometimes my head just kind of…decides things should be a certain way,” I told her. “Once it’s decided, it just feels weird if things aren’t where they are supposed to be.”

“Like in my locker?” she said. She raised an eyebrow at me. I licked at my lips nervously.

“Yeah, sort of,” I said and then decided that really wasn’t right. “Well, I mean…it
was
a mess…”

Nicole cleared her throat and glared at me. I cringed.

“But usually other people’s stuff doesn’t bother me that much because I don’t usually come into contact with it. I just…like things to be organized.”

I lowered by eyes and turned my head into the pillow for a minute before I looked back at her through my eyelashes.

“I thought you’d like it.”

“I didn’t.”

“I know that now.”

“Good.” Nicole reached out and ran her hand through my hair and seemed to be watching her fingers as they moved over my head. After a minute, she looked around her own room. “This place doesn’t bother you?”

“Not really,” I said. I smiled a little. “It was like this the first time I saw it.”

“So, since the mess is all in the same place, it’s okay?”

“It’s not in exactly the same place, but essentially—yes.”

“Not exactly?”

“Well, you had three Clare books on the nightstand when I was here before,” I told her. “Now there are only two and a Bracken book has been added. You had a blue shirt over the rocker arm before, and now your jeans are there. The hamper lid was open before, and there were hoop earrings on the dresser, not a necklace. There was English homework next to your computer, not biology, and two pencils were with it, not a pen, and a pair of socks was sticking out from under your bed before. Those are gone.”

Nicole’s eyes went wide, and her mouth dropped open.

My chest tightened when I realized everything I had just revealed. I wanted to take it back.