Truth or Dare You (The Love Game Book 2) Page 9

  I opened the door to the apartment with such urgency that I woke Drew up. He’d been asleep on the couch and sat up abruptly—well, as much as he was able to with a cast on his arm and leg.

  “What? What’s wrong?” he asked, still groggy. He rubbed at his eyes and yawned widely. His hair was tousled in a way that made him look more rugged than he typically did, and the T-shirt he wore was torn around the collar. Why did he have to look so damn good when he should’ve looked so damn bad?

  Part of me wanted to go to him, kiss him, and tell him I’d missed him even though he’d been right here with me the past few weeks. But the stronger, more rational part of me thankfully won out.

  “Everything.”

  I let out a sigh that helped to release some of the tension I’d been holding and moved slowly over to the chair near the couch. I couldn’t risk sitting on the same piece of furniture as Drew because I didn’t trust my body to control itself when I was within reach of him.

  Placing my bag down gently at my feet, I took in his expression. Concern? Curiosity maybe?

  “Everything’s wrong. Or I don’t know. Maybe it isn’t.”

  “I’m confused.”

  “You’re confused? You left without so much as an explanation.”

  His shoulders fell at my words, and he seemed to deflate. I was sure out of all the things I could’ve said, that was one he didn’t expect. He was quiet, his head hanging down as he focused on the floor. There was a long silence, but I refused to fill it. He’s the one who needed to talk.

  Finally he seemed to realize that I wasn’t going to let him off the hook.

  He looked up and said, “I explained it that day.”

  “That’s bullshit, and you know it.” My voice was too calm for my words, and I knew with near certainty that he could hear the sadness in it. “Suddenly telling me I’m too good for you and packing up your stuff isn’t an explanation. It’s a coward’s way out.”

  “So you’re calling me a coward?” He didn’t sound mad, just offended.

  “Yeah. I guess I am. I was scared to visit you in the hospital because I had no idea if you really wanted me there, and I don’t want to have this conversation right now because I’m afraid to hear the truth. But I’m here anyway. I’ve spent the better part of the last few weeks helping you however I knew how, and now I’m asking you for a simple explanation and you can’t even give me one.”

  Leaning back against the couch, he rubbed a hand over his face and dropped his head back so he was staring at the ceiling. “I told you you’re too good for me because you are.”

  Shaking my head, I let out a soft laugh to let Drew know how ridiculous I thought his comment was.

  “No, you’re wrong.” I waited until his eyes locked with mine because I needed him to know that what I was about to say was the truth. “I’m not too good for you. We’re good together.”

  He ran his tongue over his bottom lip before biting down on it as he seemed to be letting the weight of my words sink in. Maybe he really did think he wasn’t worthy of me, but he was so fucking wrong. If anyone wasn’t worthy, it was me. He was gorgeous and sweet and…sitting too far away from me. I needed to be closer.

  As I approached him, he reached out to grab my hand and guide me down to sit beside him, our fingers intertwined in a way they hadn’t been since before the crash. He used to hold my hand like this when we’d lie in bed. He’d look at my fingers, softly tracing the paths where they linked to his. This felt so comfortable, so right, and I wondered if it felt the same for Drew.

  “I know,” he finally said. “Of all the things I’ve done in my life, leaving you was one of the hardest.” He let go of my hand and brought his slowly up my arm until he reached the back of my neck. Fisting my hair in his hand gently, he let his head drop against mine so our foreheads were touching. “We were good together.”

  “Then why aren’t we?” I whispered. “Together, I mean.”

  “Because I’m a fucking idiot,” he answered softly before his lips touched mine.

  D R E W

  From the time Sophia had entered my hospital room that day, I’d wanted to kiss her. Who was I kidding? I’d wanted to kiss her from the second she’d entered my life.

  And somehow I’d been convinced that being with her was a mistake—one that would ruin her future and maybe her life. Her father had been concerned about my presence in Brody’s life too, but I couldn’t find it in myself to care about him.

  I’d left because if Mr. Mason was right, there was no way I could live with the guilt of knowing I’d brought Sophia down when she deserved to have someone who’d lift her up.

  How does that saying go? If you love someone, let them go?

  But now that I had her, literally in my arms, my mouth doing things to hers I’d only fantasized about since I’d lost her, I wondered how I could’ve ever willingly given this up. Mr. Mason thought I was a dumbass, and apparently he hadn’t been wrong.

  Though as I slid my hand over her and under her shirt and began to slowly inch it higher as I rediscovered the feel of her skin against mine, I also knew this wasn’t how it should be.

  I swore my heart actually hurt when I pulled away, but I was used to pain, both physical and emotional, especially lately. As soon as our lips separated, I wanted to bring them back together until every part of our bodies connected.

  She was so fucking sexy, so fucking perfect. And I was so fucking naïve if I thought we could pick up where we left off.

  We needed to restart. And restarting our relationship when I was trying to restart my life was asking for failure.

  “Can we wait?” I asked, breathless after only three words.

  Looking like she was unsure of how she wanted to respond, Sophia just swallowed before tucking her hair behind one ear and wrapping it over her other shoulder. She straightened her shirt, attempting to pull herself together like we hadn’t both been turned on, and stiffened her posture.

  “Sure. Yeah, of course. Are you in pain or… We can wait until you’re feeling better. I shouldn’t have—”

  “No, um, nothing hurts. It’s just that… God, this is so hard.” I inhaled deeply and let the air settle into my chest before speaking again. “I already fucked up once, and I can’t let that happen again. You’re right. We’re good together. But we’re not gonna be good together when I’m like this.” I looked down at my body, casts, scars, and faded bruises. “I can’t concentrate on getting us to a good place when I need to get myself to one.”

  “It’s not your responsibility to get us to a good place.”

  “Yes, it is. I need to fix what’s broken. What I broke,” I added. I knew I sounded like a martyr, but I meant it. The garden needed more than just the seeds to grow.

  “Okay,” she said, probably knowing it was an argument she wasn’t going to win. “I’ll be here whenever you’re ready, then.” Rubbing her hands over her thighs, she began to stand, but I grabbed her hand before she could go anywhere.

  “I’d understand if you wanna move on. You shouldn’t have to wait for me.” But I sure as shit hoped she would.

  She smiled a little smile that only showed on one corner of her mouth.

  “Maybe not. But I’ll let my offer stand anyway.”

  I really didn’t deserve her.

  Chapter Twelve

  D R E W

  “Why do you keep unbuckling your seat belt?”

  I looked over at Brody in annoyance. “Because I keep having to shift around to get comfortable, and your stupid seat belt keeps locking up and crushing my arm.”

  “Well, get fucking over it. My car keeps beeping at me because you won’t keep the stupid thing buckled.”

  Sucking in an audible breath, I slid the belt into the socket. “If you stopped making me buckle it in, it would stop beeping eventually.”

  Brody put the next address in his GPS and pulled away from the curb. “You’d think someone who’d been in a near-fatal accident would take more safety precautions.”
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  “What can I say? I like to live on the wild side.”

  “Yeah, well, you go through the windshield, and you’ll be living on the dead side.”

  I felt my face scrunch up in confusion. “That makes no sense.”

  Brody sighed. “Dude, I’m delivering pizzas because I’m not qualified to do anything better. Expect smart shit from someone else.”

  There was really no way to respond to that, so I sat back and enjoyed the ride. I’d gone out on deliveries with Brody a few times, and it demonstrated how pathetic my life was that I enjoyed it.

  “Oh man, I think the next place is a frat. Someone better be conscious enough to pay for these pizzas.”

  I watched the houses whirl by as he drove past, the Greek letters affixed to them soundly. Part of me wondered what it was like to belong to something like that while another part thought it was strange how content these people all seemed to be with sharing an identity—like a cult with nonlethal Kool-Aid.

  Sophia seemed to both love it and hate it simultaneously. Though she also seemed to feel that way about me, so maybe that was just who she was as a person.

  “This is it,” Brody said as he stopped in front of a large stone house that appeared to have every light on inside.

  There weren’t people spilling out the front door and I didn’t hear music pumping from the house, so maybe Brody wouldn’t have a hard time getting someone to pay the tab.

  “Be right back.” He exited, only to pull open the back door and extract eight boxes. “I’ll have to come back for the others.”

  “Others? How many did they order?”

  “Twenty.”

  “Jesus Christ,” I muttered as Brody kicked the door closed and ambled to the front door, thumping on it with his foot since his hands were full.

  I watched as the door flew open and three guys filled the entrance, gesturing wildly and laughing. One took the pizzas and disappeared. Brody gestured over his shoulder, probably telling the guys that he had the rest of their order in his car.

  Another guy, who was wearing cargo shorts and a striped collared shirt, seemed to wave him off and yelled into the house. Within seconds, three other guys appeared. Collared-shirt guy gestured toward the car, and the three men started toward me. When they opened the back door, I turned as much as I could to see them.

  “Hey, dude, thanks for the pizzas,” one of them said.

  “No problem,” I replied, because what was I supposed to say? It wasn’t like I’d made them or was even supposed to be in the car while Brody delivered them, but there was no point in explaining either of those things to these guys.

  They were gone in seconds, carrying the rest of the pizzas into the house. I wished I’d thought to make sure they were only taking their order, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it after the fact.

  Brody stood talking to collared-shirt guy for a bit longer before accepting a wad of cash, offering a wave, and finally returning to the car.

  “What took so long?” I asked as he settled behind the wheel.

  “Aw, miss me?”

  “You wish.”

  “We gotta make a quick stop before we head back to get the next batch of deliveries,” he said as he started driving. “Those guys gave me an extra hundred bucks to go get them more beer and some Black & Milds. They said I could keep the change.” After a few seconds, his face lit up. “I’m going to get them Advil and Gatorade too. Go above and beyond to meet their hangover needs and all that shit.”

  I shook my head as if to make sense of his words. “So, they asked you to be their errand boy, and you agreed?”

  He briefly took his eyes off the road to glare at me. “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  He shrugged. “Why not? And I can probably get what they need for half of what they gave me. Fifty bucks is fifty bucks.”

  “Isn’t that a line from a movie?” I asked. It sounded familiar.

  “Yes, it’s from the comedic tragedy entitled The Sad, Sad, Sad Life of Brody Mason and His Even Sadder Friend Drew.”

  “Hmm, I feel like that title needs work.”

  “It was called Dipshits for short.”

  “Ah, much better.” I shifted around to try to get my leg more comfortable. It was starting to ache from being cooped up in the car for so long. “Seriously, though, you do realize you don’t need the money, right?”

  I mean, granted, the guy had been dodging his parents for months, but it wasn’t like they’d cut him off.

  “I don’t, but you do.”

  I felt…touched. “You don’t need to knock yourself out on my account. It’s more than enough that you’re working this job in the first place. You don’t need to go to more trouble on top of that.” My voice was soft and heartfelt because I really appreciated what he was doing.

  Not only had he opened his home to me and gotten a job to help support me, but now he was also running side gigs just to earn more money for me. I wasn’t sure what I’d done to deserve friends like the ones I’d met at Lazarus, but I needed to get my head out of my ass and stop taking them for granted.

  “Jesus Christ, stop looking at me with hearts in your eyes,” he snapped, breaking me out of my sentimental inner-musings. “I didn’t really do it for you. It was a rush…those guys looking at me all desperate and then like I was their savior when I said I could help them out—for a price. I was like the fucking Godfather of booze and cancer sticks.”

  So much for all those good feelings. I scoffed as I turned my attention back out the window.

  “You’re ridiculous.”

  “I know.”

  We were mostly quiet while Brody got the requested—and unrequested—items and returned them to the frat house. The guys all high-fived Brody, and the dope was grinning like some kind of loon at the attention.

  It made me sad for him in a way—he was clearly basking in the adoration, and it wasn’t hard to understand why. His own sister never missed an opportunity to remind him what a fuckup he was, and his parents seemed to have pretty low expectations.

  Brody Mason was fulfilling a prophecy foretold by the people who were supposed to love him the most. But in the few instances where people had put some genuine faith in him, he’d come through: first with getting this job and now with the frat guys. It might not have been much to many, but it was something to him.

  When he came back to the car, he sat in the driver’s seat, hands flexing on the wheel as he stared out the windshield.

  “You okay, man?” I asked.

  He jarred a bit, as if he’d forgotten I was there for a second.

  “Yeah, yeah, great,” he said as he put the car in drive and pulled onto the street.

  We traveled in silence for a while as Brody drove us back to the restaurant. It was a task that was especially uncomfortable for me because I’d have to lean my seat all the way back to stay out of sight since he wasn’t supposed to have passengers while he was working.

  When we were still about five minutes from the restaurant, Brody pulled over to the side of the road, threw the car in park, and looked over at me intently.

  “I have an idea, and I want you to hear me out.”

  Brody’s track record with ideas wasn’t stellar, but the serious way he was regarding me, almost as if he were begging me to give him a shot, had me holding back any snarky comments.

  Instead, I uttered, “Okay, lay it on me.”

  S O P H I A

  “Drew? Brody? You guys here?” I shut the apartment door behind me and looked around for any signs of life.

  Last night, we’d had a long planning meeting at the sorority house for an event next Friday, so I’d decided to stay there instead of coming back to Brody’s apartment late at night. And while it hadn’t been the first time I’d spent a night away, I was still anxious about not being able to check on Drew—a feeling I felt all the more acutely since we’d shared that kiss a week ago.

  Maybe it wasn’t fair to say I wanted to check on him. My motives weren’t
necessarily fueled by feelings of caregiving. Truth be told, I wanted to be near him, and saying it was to ensure he was okay was easier than admitting that I simply felt better—more me—when I was somewhere in his orbit.

  “We’re in here” came a yell from the bedroom.

  I plopped my things down on a chair and made my way toward them. When I pushed the door all the way open, I saw them both leaning against the headboard, hunched together as they looked at a laptop. There were a couple of notebooks and stray pieces of paper littered over the comforter.

  If I hadn’t known better, I’d have said they were doing homework, but neither of them was enrolled in any classes, and Brody had never given his assignments anywhere near the level of focus he was currently giving the laptop.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Starting a business,” Brody answered gruffly. “You’re not allowed to be part of it. Goodbye.”

  My hands went to my hips in irritation. “Like I’d want to go into business with you.”

  “That works out, then. Later.”

  Neither of them looked in my direction, and while that was incredibly infuriating, it also made me curious as hell.

  “It’s not illegal, is it?”

  That made Drew’s head pop up, and he graced me with a small smile. “Nah.” Then his face contorted a bit as he seemed to mull something over. “At least I don’t think so.”

  “That’s encouraging,” I muttered. “Spill.”

  They exchanged a look that did not make me feel better. They looked like two people trying to communicate telepathically when they didn’t even speak the same language.

  “You tell her,” Drew said.

  “Why do I have to tell her?”

  “Because she’s your sister.” I ignored the fact that Drew didn’t say this like it was a good thing.

  “But she’s your”—Brody waved his hand around vaguely—“whatever.”

  “She expects bad ideas from you,” Drew whispered harshly.

  “Are you guys unaware that I can hear you?” I asked, though they both ignored me.