Page 28 of Off Pitch

Knox

“You did not. Nofucking way, Pierce.”

“Swear on my life,” Harlow says, hands in the air.

“You wore colored contacts for six months in college to convince the guy you were seeing that you actually had purple eyes?”

“I scrubbed all the evidence from my phone, but I can guarantee my parents still have some pictures somewhere.” She laughs as she pops a bite of an onion ring into her mouth. Her excitement over finding those on the room service menu seems to have distracted her from what people are saying.

“What made you stop then? How did you have purple eyes for six months and then suddenly have bright blue eyes?”

“I got an eye infection and couldn’t wear my contacts. The guy thought I was an idiot and broke it off with me.” She covers her mouth as she laughs, hiding the food from view. “I was a dumbass at eighteen.”

“Sounds like it,” I reply, taking a bite of one of the onion rings.

She shoves my shoulder. “Is my pain amusing you, Spencer?”

“Very much so.”

She rolls her eyes and huffs out a laugh. “Okay, your turn then. I need an embarrassing story from you, sir.”

“Sir?” I raise an eyebrow at her.

“Don’t get hung up on that,” she says as she waves me off. “Tell me a story about you.”

I groan. “I was hoping I could steer you away from that.”

“Not a chance, Fort. Talk.”

“Fine,” I say in exasperation. “I’ve got one from my freshman year of college, too. I met a girl at one of the parties off-campus. She lived in one of the coed dorms. Flirting led to both of us going back to her room. And, well, I’m sure you can guess what was happening. What she hadn’t told me, though, is that she had a boyfriend, and when he came knocking on her door, I had to jump out of the fucking window. Thankfully, she lived on the first floor, but I had to hide in the bushes buck naked until my friends brought me some clothes.”

Harlow has to bring her hand up to cover her mouth and prevent spitting her food everywhere. “Oh my God, that’s fucking hysterical!” She wipes the tears from her ears, happy ones this time. “The blue balls must’ve been so painful for you afterward.”

I snort in reaction to her unexpected concern. “Fucking hell, Harlow. If you really must know, there were no blue balls. The fear of being caught naked outside of a girl’s dorm was enough to tame me.” She smiles as she softly chuckles. “Now come on. Tell me something random. I need to know more about my fake girlfriend.”

“Hmm… random,” she says, a look of concentration on her face. “Oh! Here’s something random. I don’t like flowers.”

“What?” I respond in surprise. “Who doesn’t like flowers?”

Harlow shrugs. “Me. Flowers die. I always get fake flowers if I want any.”

“Yeah, you’re definitely something. I’ve learned today that you don’t have purple eyes, you hate flowers, and you have freckles.”

Her hands shoot up to her face. “You can see them?!” She looks uncomfortable now.

“You must’ve removed your makeup when you rubbed the tears from your eyes earlier.”

“Oh,” is all she says in response.

“Why do you hide them? Today is the first time I even realized you had freckles.”

“I just don’t like them,” she replies quickly, looking away from me. There’s more to this, but I won’t press her. But I will make sure she gets comfortable with the fact that she has them.

“You shouldn’t hide them,” I say, taking another bite of an onion ring. “You look good with freckles. They suit you.”

She glances at me in disbelief. Before she can ask me more about it, the hotel room door opens, and Rory and Lucia walk into view. “Oh, sorry,” Rory says. “We didn’t realize you’d still be here.”

“Oh, uh… yeah. But she’s much happier now.” I stand from the bed, brushing a few crumbs from my shirt. “I should get going, though. The game’s at four tomorrow, so we have an early practice.” I turn to wave at Harlow. “I’ll catch you tomorrow, Freckles.”

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