Page 10 of The Midseason Fakeout

“Hey, can I help you?” Bailey asks. She runs her gaze up and down the girl in front of her, and her shoulders stiffen. It’s apparent what this girl is here for. Her robe is tied loosely, leaving a hefty amount of cleavage to be seen.

“Who are you?” the girl snaps.

“Bailey. Aidan’s girlfriend. Are you here to see him?”

The jersey chaser’s mouth drops, then she shuts it again. Over top of Bailey, I see her looking for me, so I stride forward, throwing my arm around Bails. Like a pro, she cuddles into my side, placing her hand on my abs in a possessive way.

“I just got in from out of town,” Bailey says politely. “We’re both so happy I’ve decided to go here.” Peering up at me, she finds me already looking down at her. “Now we can spend so much more time together.”

Her words and the way she stares at me adoringly hit me in a way they shouldn’t.

She’s good at lying, I’ll give her that.

“You have a girlfriend?” the girl asks, ignoring Bailey completely, clearly put out.

Bailey hasn’t taken her eyes off me, and I haven’t with her either. Her stare drops to my mouth, as if in warning of what she’s going to do next. My heart stammers, and I say “Yes” at the same time Bailey lifts onto her toes and kisses me.

My stomach clenches.

She pauses a moment, like she’s wondering if this is okay, leaving me enough time to take over. I cup her cheek on instinct, and my lips move against hers, slow at first, then fervently as she kisses me back.

Holy shit.She opens her mouth in invitation, and I dive right in, a groan spilling from my throat. My lips buzz in excitement, and I get lost in the feeling of the two of us connecting.I could do this forever, I think, until Darrin clears his throat.

“Alright already. Tell the girl to get lost.”

I pull away, almost surprised to see it’s Bailey looking back at me, her lips plump from being ravaged by my own. Her honey eyes stare openly at me, like she’s as surprised as I am. She made me feel that way, and it’s evident I made her feel something too.

I swallow thickly, my throat as dry as the desert while I try to come to terms with what just happened, which I guess is that Bailey is an excellent kisser. So, there’s that. Yet, she also stirred something inside me too. Something I’ve been missing.

But she’s not for me, I remind myself.

No one will be. Not until after I get my shit together in football. Bailey doesn’t deserve to be treated the way I’ve been treating girls. She’s different.

Bailey puts some distance between us first and smiles at the girl. “Aidan’s going to be too busy to hang out for the foreseeable future, ’kay? Thanks, bye.” Then she shuts the door in her face.

I stand there frozen, trying to get my mind and my body on the same page.

Darrin stares at us. “You guys are lucky the door was in the way for most of that. Can we make a rule that you two don’t kiss in front of me?”

Bailey takes a steadying breath. “You should get over it. Apparently, I have to stake my claim while here on campus.”

Darrin laughs. “If I know Aidan, you won’t need to. He’s too invested in football.”

His words make my stomach turn over. I really haven’t been acting myself. It’s disgusting, actually.

Without responding to her brother, Bailey asks me, “Do they do that often?”

I shrug. “Sometimes.”

“You can stay at our place if you need quiet,” she says, lids fluttering.

It seems like there’s an underlying tone in that sentence.

Darrin shoots up from the bed. “I swear to God, if I hear you guys, I will yeet myself off a bridge. First, I will stick a Q-tip so far into my ear that it permanently punctures my eardrum, then I will wander around aimlessly until I find a bridge tall enough to jump from to do some real damage.”

I peer over at my friend. “I would never—” I stop there because just a minute ago, I would’ve said that there was no chance in hell that his sister and I would ever kiss, but here I was, devouring her face right in front of him.

I was transfixed. Everything else in the outside world melted away until it was only the two of us. I swear, it was magic.

---