Page 39 of Steeling Her
“Alright, but honey, it was going to come out one way or another. If he treats you differently, then that’s on him. He doesn’t deserve you then.” I groan out loud that quickly forms into a scream. The music is over taking the sound, which I’m grateful for. She’s treating as if it were so simple, but it’s not. It never is. I can’t go near him now. He’s going to treat me differently, he’s a football player who will look at me like a prize to be won. They all will.
After a few minutes of my mom trying to calm me down, I plaster on a fake smile and help her with the food and cutlery, trying my hardest not to look up and make any eye contact with anyone around me. My heart is beating a million miles an hour, afraid of the next encounter.
I made the mistake of looking up to find my brothers. I caught Nick’s eyes, and once he sees me, he starts making his way over to me almost immediately. Thankfully, my father interrupts his mission.
“Good evening, everyone. I would like to thank you all for coming tonight to listen to my boring self-talk about football. But first, I want to call up my two boys to the stage with me. Austin, Chris, where are you two . . . There you are. Come on up before I embarrass you guys!” I watch my brothers head up the steps to my dad and hug him, but they look out into the crowd for someone.
Me. I know they’re looking for me. My dad continues, “I’d like to have all my kids with me when I do these type of events, so I want to call up my beautiful daughter, Carter, who is currently studying here. This is her first year. Sweetheart, where are you?” I start to make my way up to the steps and both of my brothers are smiling goofily at me while I’m silently praying I don’t trip and fall flat on my face in front of this crowd. “There you are, my baby girl.” He hugs me close to his body and, once he lets go of me, I stand next to my brother, who picks me up and engulfs me in a huge hug.
“C-dog! I’ve been trying to find you all night!” Austin tells me before putting me down and allowing Chris to do the same thing.
“Missed you, sis! Well, I miss your cookies!” he teases me and I smack his arm, making him laugh. I stand between my two big brothers as my dad makes his speech with my mom by his side. They’re always together. They can’t spend more than a couple of days apart. They go insane and are a nightmare if that happens.
Looking into the crowd, I catch Nick’s eyes again and see he’s already staring at me blankly. I can’t read him. He’s so hard to read.
My mouth instantly feels dry, with my tongue sticking to the walls of it. Zoning out of my fathers speech, we just stare at each other until I see TJ lean over to him to whisper something. Something he obviously didn’t like because he punched his arm, glaring at him before he returned to look at me, but I break the contact first. I look at the back of my dad’s head and I feel Austin step closer to me. Then, sealing the end of his speech with a kiss from my mom, we hear a round of applause from the audience.
Allowing the lights to go up, Austin picks me back up and squeezes the life out of me. “C-dog! I’ve missed you so much! When are you visiting me in LA? I need to come down here to see you more often too!” I giggle at my brother. He’s such a softy, he always has been one.
“I’m in college now, I can’t up and leave whenever I feel like it, dipshit! I’ve been trying to call you both but you never answer me! I thought you were both annoyed at me.” I pout at them and Chris pats my head playfully.
“We’ve been busy, sis, we’re not purposely ignoring you. Don’t worry. We would never do that to you! At least we’re not as bad as dad, he never calls anymore, his schedule is crazy busy now that the season is starting to pick back up again. But I can see the real reason why he’s been busy.” Chris nudges his thumb playfully at my parents, who are still kissing. We all fake vomit at the sight of them. Hearing my mom squeal with laughter as my dad squeezes her ass, we all decide to leave.
“Nope!” we all say simultaneously and walk off the stage with the help of my brothers. My shoes aren’t as bad as I thought they’d be. We walk over to the food table and I feel a presence behind me. Turning my head over my shoulder, I see Nick standing there in his black suit and tie. God, he looks so good. He clears his throat and my two brother swiftly turn around to meet the culprit.Oh God, please help him.
“Hey, I was wondering if I could talk to you real quick?” His voice is so soft, almost like he’s scared of something. If anything, it should be me who should be scared.
“And you are?” Austin eyes him up with a territorial look on his face.
“Um, Austin, this is Nick . . . He’s my—”
“You better not be her boyfriend! I swear to God, you’ve got to ask permission from all three of us to even look at her! Got it?” Austin sternly warns Nick, who just stands there in shock.
“Austin! No, he’s my roommate’s brother!” I hiss. My brother softens his look to me. “He plays football for the college—”
“Oh yeah? What position?” Austin asks while Chris is stuffing his face listening to every detail.
“Quarterback,” Nick finally speaks.
“Quarterback, huh? You know who is the best quarterback this college has ever seen?” Austin steps closer to Nick, who starts to smile at my brother, finally gaining some courage.
“Me?” Nick bravely answers while Chris laughs between bites of food. Austin smirks at him too.
“Hah, no. Actually, it was me.” His smirk is still on his face as he eyes Nick up. I’m pretty sure my own brother has checked Nick out more than I have. I snort at the thought, only to see Nick looking over at me.
“Not for long . . .” Nick says as he averts his eyes back to Austin, who finds what he says hilarious. “So, can I talk to you Carter?” he asks. Before Austin speaks up, Nick continues, “In private?” He places his hands in his pockets while he nudges his head to a small balcony outside.
I nod and take a small sandwich in my hand, biting into it as I walk outside with him. I feel my hands shake out of nervousness for what is about to be said between us.Maybe it won’t be as bad as I think?I think as I watch his frame close the door behind us. We’re alone on the balcony but I can see my two brothers staring noticeably out the window at both of us. I try hold back a laugh at how intimidating they’re trying to be for me.
“So, you’re a Steel, huh?” He starts looking out into the dark horizon where we can see the shadows of the trees surrounding the campus.
“Yeah . . .” I mumble down at my feet. Seeing his head drop to my eyes he steps closer to me.
“You didn’t tell me because . . .” He winds his finger around nothing, signalling me to finish his sentence.
“I didn’t want you to know,” I tell him truthfully.
“Why?”
