Parting Chances (Fighting Chance #1) (11 page)

Damn.

“Everything okay?” he asked, startling me.

I recovered quickly. “Yeah. Noah left his phone on silent.” I leaned against his door frame. “You know, they haven’t been apart longer than a day since they started dating. Kyler always reaches the worst case scenario before giving anything logical thought.”

“I wonder why she didn’t just call me,” he said.

“Wait. Yeah! Why didn’t she call you?” That little shit! I was going to have a talk with her later.

“She probably just wanted you to leave the house at eleven.” He laughed.

“Funny. She said she called the house phone, but no one answered.”

“That’s because the house phone is in the kitchen, and we have it on the lowest ring possible. You can’t hear it up here. Plus no one ever calls it. Ever.” Eli chuckled and moved off the bed to his desk chair.

“Well, I’m still going to talk to her about calling you. She should have thought of that.” I knew I should be mad that Kyler dragged me out of the house so late. But it was nice to talk to Eli, so I couldn’t really be truly mad at her. “Though, she probably already feels like an idiot for overreacting. I can’t imagine how she would have handled herself if she called you.”

“Well, you’re a good friend.” Eli smiled up at me.

My heart did that stupid jumping thing it did whenever I was around him. I needed to have a talk with it. It was driving me crazy.

“Are you just going to lean against the door frame? Or do you want to come in and talk?” Eli asked, breaking me out of my trance.

“Oh. Um…” I stared at him, unsure of what to do. He nodded to indicate that I should come into his room. I took a tentative step into his room, feeling silly that I was nervous, since I’d already been in his room before. I stood awkwardly near his door, unsure where I should move to, or if I should sit somewhere. The only seating was his bed or the chair he was currently sitting in.

“You can sit on the bed. It’s not like you haven’t been there before,” he said, reading my mind. “And that came out completely wrong.” He laughed, and I felt some of the tension leave my body.

I sat on the edge of his bed and looked around his room. “Your room doesn’t look like a typical college student room.”

“Yeah? And what is a typical college student room supposed to look like?” He laughed at me.

“Oh you know, half naked girls lining the walls, mixed with some alcohol poster. Random food containers lying around. Loads of energy drink cans lining your computer…” I trailed off, realizing I was being totally stereotypical.

“That doesn’t really sound like a fun place to live in. Maybe I was raised to keep things clean. Plus, it’s nice to not have to worry about what a girl would see when she walks in.” He winked at me.

My heart dropped. How many girls have been in this room? And why the hell was I so jealous?

“You okay? You just visibly paled,” Eli asked.

“Oh, um, I just need a glass of water.” I stood, readying my escape. But Eli stood too and got to the door faster.

“I’ll get it,” he said before disappearing into the hallway.

I took that moment to examine his room a little closer. I walked towards the wall that had the most picture frames on it and studied the photos. Many were of him and a boy slightly younger than him, who I’m assuming was his brother. There were some with his mom. Some with a group of friends. Some with Noah from this summer and freshman year. I was sweeping my gaze over the last row, when my eyes skidded to a stop on the one in the middle. It was from freshman year. Eli was his lanky, long haired, glasses wearing self, sitting next to a slightly younger looking Noah. Behind them, leaning over their shoulders and beaming at the camera was…Kyler and me. My mind flashed back vaguely to that day. I remember Eli had just gotten a new digital camera and was testing out all the settings. He had wanted to use the timer and this was the first picture that he took. It was amazing it had actually turned out well. And I was even more amazed that he had it hanging in his room. I lightly touched the picture where my chin was resting on Eli’s shoulder. Was I feeling the stomach flutters then? Probably not. I traced his huge smile. Was that because of me?

Oh, Haley, get over it already!

“That’s probably my favorite picture on the wall.” Eli’s voice startled me back to the present, and I yanked my hand away from the photo.

“That feels like forever ago.” I turned and peeked up at Eli, hoping he hadn’t noticed my lingering fingers. He was holding out the glass of water to me, his eyes focused on the picture over my shoulder.

“Yes and no. Yes because that was the beginning of freshman year. But no because it really doesn’t feel like much has changed. I mean, if you had told me freshman year, I would still be friends with you guys, I would have agreed instantly. But then I moved. So, if you had asked me sophomore year, I wouldn’t have agreed. Especially when I only talked to Noah. And that wasn’t even frequently. I thought I had lost that amazing friendship I had with the three of you. But…here we are. Pretty much back to the old days.” Eli had walked towards the picture while talking, so now he was standing right next to me. Shoulder touching shoulder. And my heart was going
crazy
.

I really hope he can’t hear that.

“I don’t think you could have gotten rid of us if you tried. You’re kind of stuck with us.” The words just came out of my mouth, but I realized they were completely true. This friendship was something I wouldn’t give up easily.

Eli turned to me. “I definitely wouldn’t want to get rid of you.” His gaze locked on mine.

Thumpthump. Thumpthump. Thumpthump. Holy hell…

“Well, we are kind of awesome.” A blush had crept its way onto my cheeks, and I tried to brush off how he had said those words.
I definitely wouldn’t want to get rid of you.

“I wasn’t talking about the three of you. Just you.” Eli brought his hand up to my cheek, cupping it.

Oh jeez! Breathe. Just breathe.

“Oh. Okay.” Those were the only words I could force out. My heart was beating fast, and I’m pretty sure if he wasn’t supporting me, I would have crumbled to the floor.

“Haley…how long are we going to play at this?”

I shrugged. Words were not forming. And I tried to play it off like I had no idea what he was talking about. But I knew this moment was going to come. I knew Eli wasn’t going to wait around for me to get my shit straight. And now he was going to make me choose, and I didn’t think I was ready.

“Haley, will you go on a date with me?” His eyes pierced into mine, pleading me to give him the answer he wanted. And my heart wanted to, oh how much it wanted to tell him yes. But my brain was taking the lead on this one, and before I could stop myself, I stepped out of his touch.

My gaze locked on his shoulder as I gave him my answer. “I’m sorry, Eli. I’m just not ready yet.” I swallowed the lump in my throat and forced out the rest. “Maybe it’s time to stop trying with me. Maybe it’s time to find someone else.” I couldn’t look into his eyes. I couldn’t see what my words had just done to him. My own heart was breaking (so much for keeping that safe), so I could only imagine the hurt I would see if I looked at him.

“Hey, Eli, you want to watch—” Noah’s voice came from the doorway, causing Eli and I to jump and Noah to give us a quizzical stare.

“Sorry. I didn’t realize you were still here, Hales.” Noah gave me a slight smirk and damn it, I knew exactly what that smirk meant. He knew I liked Eli. Which was fine, everyone seemed to know we liked each other. But Noah hadn’t heard what just happened between us. I risked a glance at Eli, and his face was wiped of emotion, he stood there looking…
bored
. Maybe he didn’t want Noah to know what had happened? At least, that’s what I hoped.

We all stood silently staring at each other, only the tick from Noah’s watch breaking the silence.

Damn, this is awkward.

“Well, I should get going. I’m beat.” I started to head for the door, setting the glass of water on Eli’s desk. “See you two later.” I gave them a quick wave before bolting out the door.

I made it to my car before the tears started to flow. This was so stupid. I did what I had been saying I was going to do all along. But why did it hurt so much? I brushed the tears and drove away from the guys’ house. Why did I do that? What was going to happen with us now? How was this going to affect our friendship? So many questions played out in my head on the drive home, but there was one that kept repeating over and over again.

What the hell did I just do?

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.” I tugged at the top of my red tank top, trying to cover up some of the cleavage that was threatening to spill out.

“You look hot,” Kyler yelled from the bathroom.

I studied myself in the full-length mirror in Kyler’s room. Tight red and gold tank top that was low enough to show off the girls, shorter-than-short cobalt shorts, gold belt, silver bangle bracelets on both wrists, knee high red socks. The only things about this costume that were remotely me were the red converse shoes on my feet.

“Ky, I can’t wear this. I’m just going to stay home tonight.” I headed to my bedroom to change into yoga pants when Kyler’s hand shot out from the bathroom and grabbed hold of my arm.

“Hales, I didn’t break out the sewing machine to sew those metallic gold stripes across your top or those stars on your shorts, for you to not wear the costume! You look amazing.”

“I’m Wonder Woman, Ky. Isn’t that a little…overdone?” Once again I found myself tugging the tank top up with no success.

“Hey, you could have gone as Daenerys, but you didn’t want to.” Kyler leaned over the sink applying a coat of mascara to her already made up eyes.

“I told you, I didn’t want to have to deal with an itchy wig all night.
You
can go as her, though, since you already have the hair.”

Kyler waved her hand at me. “We needed a couple costume. Plus, Noah has wanted to be Green Arrow forever.”

“Third grade…and fourth grade…oh right, fifth grade.” I laughed remembering back on the string of years Noah insisted on being Green Arrow.

“That doesn’t count. Plus, now he has his Black Canary.” Kyler stepped from the bathroom. She was wearing skin tight black leather pants and a black leather corset that looked as though it was cutting off her breathing. She fastened a black mask over her eyes and gave her hair a quick flip.

“Why do you get to wear pants?” Sure hers were skin tight and should barely be considered pants, but at least her legs were covered.

“It’s freezing outside. I’m not about to go prancing about in fishnet stockings and underwear.”

My eyes grew wide, and I glanced down at my costume. “I’m pretty sure these shorts are considered underwear by some people!”

“For the millionth time. You. Look. Hot. Stop it now.” She shrugged into her short black leather jacket. “Besides, Eli is going to be drooling over you.”

My face turned the exact shade as my shirt. “We’ve discussed this Ky.” Ever since the night Eli asked me on a date and I turned him down, he had kept his distance. He would basically ignore me in class and always leave right afterward, never hanging out with me in the student union anymore. He also canceled the last two study nights we were supposed to have. Always a quick text about something coming up. And whenever I went over to their house, it was with Kyler, and Eli was always missing. It hurt that he had taken to avoiding me and that our friendship was suffering, but I wasn’t sure how to make it right.

“Yeah, yeah. You don’t need any distractions right now. When what you really mean is you are afraid to give your heart away because it’s already a fragile little thing.”

I was about to remind her of how Eli was acting when she continued.

“You hurt his feelings, Hales. He’s been waiting for you forever, and when he finally has the balls to ask you out, you turn him down.
And
you tell him to find someone else. That hurts. Even I told you that was cold. But regardless of what has gone on the last week and a half, he still likes you. So it’s time to put on your big girl panties and beg him to forgive you and
finally
get together!” Kyler slid on her black mid-calf boots with what looked like a five-inch spiked heel.