Page 58 of Racing Hearts

“Where are you going?” Teresa asked from where she was sitting on her bed with headphones on.

Sierra was surprised to hear her voice since it was the first time Teresa had said anything to her (while being sober) since sending that rude text.

“Out,” was all Sierra said in return. Even if she wasn’t going out with the girl she was secretly dating, Sierra stillwouldn’t have told Teresa what she was doing. She owed Teresa nothing.

Honestly, Teresa was probably part of the reason Sierra was so sore right now since Sierra had slept on the couch in the common room several times over the past week. Some nights, she set an alarm and snuck in when she knew Teresa would be asleep, then set another alarm so she could leave before Teresa woke up. Other nights she stayed there the whole night. Even with the couch being so uncomfortable, she tended to get a better night’s sleep those nights since she wasn’t waking up to a bunch of different alarms. The only night she actually slept in her room the whole night was Friday night, because she needed to get a good night’s sleep for her track meet. That plan had kind of backfired when Teresa came back to their place drunk and tried to crawl into bed with Sierra. When Sierra promptly kicked her out, Teresa insisted she had gotten confused and thought that it was her bed, but Sierra had a feeling that wasn’t the case. These were the types of games Teresa had played with her throughout the whole first semester. The only difference was Sierra wasn’t going to let her get away with them anymore. Even though Teresa “didn’t mean to get into Sierra’s bed,” she had spent the next hour going on a drunken ramble about how Sierra was too uptight.

Teresa made a grunting noise, indicating she was unhappy with Sierra’s answer, but luckily, didn’t say anything else. Sierra left the dorm and walked the half mile to the parking lot where she was forced to park her car, because she was a freshman. By the time she reached her car, she could barely feel her hands, but that didn’t matter. Soon her hand would be wrapped around Ellie’s and that wouldn’t just make her hand warm, but also the rest of her body as well. That was the effect Ellie had on her.

Ellie had let Sierra know that Juniper wasn’t home, so Sierra parked her car close to Ellie’s apartment and walked to the front door to get her. She didn’t even have to knock before Ellie opened the door and pulled her inside, using Sierra’s body to shut the door behind them. With Ellie’s body pinned tightly up against hers, Sierra could barely breathe. As if that wasn’t enough, Ellie immediately brought her mouth to Sierra’s and kissed her hard, as if she needed Sierra to live.

By the time Ellie pulled away, Sierra’s head was spinning, because what the fuck had just happened? Ellie ran her thumb along her bottom lip as she bit back a smile. “Sorry, I’ve wanted to do that since yesterday, so I couldn’t resist. You looked so sexy in your uniform, it was fuckingkillingme to keep my hands off of you. Then, I didn’t even get to see you after the meet since Juniper wanted to hang out. Pretty much I’ve been a dam ready to flood ever since, so I’m very sorry about the attack, but I couldn’t help myself.”

Sierra pushed her ragged breaths in and out until she was finally able to speak. “You never have to apologize for kissing me like that.”

“In that case,” Ellie leaned close to her once again, “should we go for round two?”

As much as it pained Sierra to do so, she had no choice but to push Ellie away from her. “I wish. Trust me, there’s nothing I want more right now. But, unfortunately, if we don’t leave now, we won’t make it on time.”

Ellie smirked and lifted an eyebrow. “Make it where on time?”

Sierra squeezed Ellie’s side and laughed when Ellie yelped and jumped away from her. “You’ll find out when we get there, okay? I’ve told you thatso manytimes.” It wasn’t a lie. Ellie had made a really good effort to get Sierra to spill the beans over the past few days, but she had stayed strong.

“Will you at least give me one clue?” Ellie held up one finger as if she was trying to emphasize her point.

“It’s an hour away from here and starts in an hour and fifteen minutes. That’s your one clue. Good luck figuring it out from that.”

Ellie scowled, but her smile quickly snuck through. “Are you trying to one-up me by taking us fifteen minutes farther than I did?”

“Yep, you caught me,” Sierra said sarcastically while rolling her eyes at Ellie. She playfully pushed Ellie’s chest. “Not everything has to be a competition, you know.”

“Well, where’s the fun in that?” Ellie took Sierra’s hand and led them both out of the apartment. “Dude, it’s fucking freezing out here,” Ellie said. “You’re going to have to hold my hand really tight or I might get frostbite.”

“You know, there is this crazy invention that came out recently called gloves,” Sierra joked. “You should try them sometime.”

“Oh yeah? If they’re so great, why aren’t you wearing them?”

Sierra’s face immediately turned red, because she knew she had to admit the real reason she didn’t put any on. “I didn’t want anything getting in the way of feeling your hand against mine.”

Ellie leaned in and gave Sierra a kiss on her temple. “I guess great minds really do think alike.”

Once they were in the car, Sierra put on the new playlist she had made on Spotify that was made up entirely of songs by blonde female singers. Sierra smirked when an idea popped into her head. “I’ll make you a deal. As soon as you figure out what all of these songs have in common, I’ll tell you where we’re going.”

Sierra was sure there was no way Ellie would figure it out, but Ellie was eager to try, so she listened to the songs andverbalized notes about each one. After five songs, she snapped her fingers. “I figured it out. These are all blonde singers.”

To say Sierra was shocked would be an understatement. “How the hell did you do that?” she asked.

“It was actually pretty simple. I knew who was singing each song we listened to so far, and because I think they’re all hot as hell, I obviously know the color of their hair. Add on top of that, with how fucking adorable you are, it was no surprise that you’d take something I told you on our first date and make a playlist based on that.”

“You think I’m adorable?” Sierra’s cheeks warmed from the compliment.

Ellie laughed as if it was ridiculous for Sierra to even ask that. “Of course I think you’re adorable. I wouldn’t try to kiss your face off every time I saw you if I didn’t.”

“That’s good, because I happen to like it when you kiss my face off.”

Ellie cleared her throat. “As much as I love this flirting we have going on here, I believe you made me a deal.”

“You’re right. You definitely earned it.” Sierra took a deep breath. Even though she had worked hard to plan the perfect date, she still worried about whether or not Ellie would like her idea. “We are doing a cooking class. I guess it’s also kind of a baking class, because they help us to make a full meal—appetizer, main course, and dessert. When we’re done making it, we get to sit down and eat it there. It’s supposedly a really romantic setting, but I’ve never been there, so I can’t confirm that.”

---