Page 36 of A Little Bit Reckless
FOURTEEN
Bow
Things surprisingly weren’t awkward during my tutoring sessions with Wells and Bru. They should be, gosh should they be, but they weren’t. Things were naturally easy between Bru and me normally. We got along really well, which was why I liked him so much.
I expected to lose that with everything that happened between us recently, which would be my fault. We didn’t though. We seemed to pick up right where we left off with our ease. Maybe that was because he was taking things seriously by tutoring Wells. He didn’t want to go to the ballet again.
Bru seemed to forget about everything that happened between us with the kiss, and, though that stung a little, I was glad. It kept things less awkward and the return of our ease seemed to transfer to Wells. He was also taking his tutoring seriously, which was crazy. He wasn’t much of a serious guy when it came to anything. Let alone school. With Bru and me tutoring him though, he was trying.
Wells showed up every day on the quad for our tutoring sessions. He participated and appeared to be a sponge forthe information. He didn’t always get the concepts Bru and I attempted to show him, but he worked at it until he did. He must really not want to be cut off by his parents.
It was easy to forget that was the reason we were hanging out when we were together. Wells wasn’t only on board with learning, but he was civil to me. Herespectedme, and that was something I hadn’t felt since we were younger.
It was something I hadn’t felt since before I screwed up.
When the three of us were together, it was like none of that had happened, but gosh, those first few days had been weird. The boys had this weird tension, but I supposed I got that. After they hooked up, all Wells did was hand Bru a tissue box. It was like Wells didn’t want anything to happen between them but something obviously had.
That was where my own awkwardness came in. I’d witnessed something that happened between them, but I had to keep all that to myself. I thought things would be weird for me being around them because I had kissed Bru and also got drunk. I made things weird forall threeof us, but I found that what I thought about most was the night neither guy knew I’d been watching them.
It was the time I came only several feet away from them.
“Come on. You got this, Ambrose,” Bru said. He was sitting on the couch with an Algebra textbook in his hands. It was Wells’s textbook, and Wells himself sat on the armchair across from Bru. Wells had his long body draped across it while he tossed a stress ball in the air. Bru frowned. “You know this. Now tell me what you got for x.”
Wells sighed. He continued to toss his stress ball, which was something Bru gave him around our third tutoring session. Bru and I both noticed Wells liked to work his hands when he was thinking, which made sense. Wells really enjoyed cooking, which was honestly the only thing he took seriously outside of football.
The three of us normally didn’t have tutoring sessions at Legacy House. Wells knew I liked to be out on the quad, especially since it’d been warmer. Our group could be seen there, and he knew I wanted that for our deal. People stared at me now, but not in judging ways because it looked like Wells was cool with me. People smiled at me, and some even said hi. The power of Wells Ambrose was something I hadn’t felt in a positive way for a long time, and once upon a time, that would have meant everything to me. I wanted to be acknowledged, be cared about.
Now, I was only grateful for his presence, and, though I would prefer to be outside, it was raining, so we had to stay in.
I sat on the floor of the guys’ living room, waiting for Wells’s answer too. I crossed my legs in my dark leggings. I had another one of Wells’s textbooks on my lap. “Come on, Wells. I know you got this one.”
It was a complicated equation but Bru and I had taught Wells hacks he could use for some equations that wouldn’t require paper or even a calculator. We found that Wells was perfectly capable of doing the work but sometimes got lost in the numbers. Many equations did need to be written out, but the one we were working on now didn’t.
Wells continued to toss his ball. His legs were so long they were basically touching the floor and the room smelled so much like both boys. I noticed that Wells’s scent was fresher. He smelled like a tidal wave, whereas Bru gave off a more oaky smell. Bru was like the forest and Wells the sea. I thought of both when I was around them.
I shouldn’t have been thinking of either boys’ smell. It was weird, so I focused as I waited for Wells’s answer.
Wells caught his stress ball. He popped one of his high-tops on the arm of the couch Bru sat on, his eyebrows scrunched. “Uh, 149?”
Bru and I exchanged a glance, my insides fluttering that Wells got it. Bru shot Wells a grin. “Uh, yeah, dude.”
“You’re fucking kidding?” Wells dropped his ball. He’d been tossing it again, and the ball hit his face before tumbling to the floor. Wells popped up. “You’re joking?”
“He’s not. You totally got it, Wells.” I clapped, so excited for him, and I was thrown when Wells launched off his chair and grabbed me. He pulled me up off the floor, my feet pedaling beneath me. The tall football player did this as if I weighed nothing, and, after he put me down, he grabbed Bru too.
He grabbed us both.
Wells hugged us both, and soon, I found myself sandwiched between both guys when Bru stood. I was surrounded by the forest and hit by that tidal wave. I was both drowning and dizzy in the breeze of both of them, which didn’t seem possible, but it was.
It was.
“Fuck, yeah,” Wells said. His arm was beneath mine but also around Bru. I was right, Wells had the wingspan of a swimmer. Wells’s cheek touched the top of my head. “Thanks, Squeak.”
Thanks, Squeak.
“Of course,” I said, and soon, I found myself hugging him. I squeezed him, and I realized I hadn’t had my arms around him since that day in the pool that summer. His embrace had been so warm then, solid.
“Don’t know how I would have done that without you and the kid,” Wells continued, and I noticed he didn’t let go of me. He didn’t even though he had to know I was squeezing him tight.
