Page 13 of Dared

“Leo! You came.”

The breath whooshed from my lungs at the sound of the warm voice. I looked up to see a slightly out-of-breath Finn cladin his blue LSU football kit, studying me with concern in his eyes, although he had a smile on his face.

“Did you run here?”

“Yeah.” He shrugged. “Saw you sitting over here, and I thought I’d come and say hi.” His eyes were radiating everything he wasn’t saying aloud, and I’d never felt more lucky in that moment to have a friend who instinctively understood me the way he did.

Thank you, I mouthed, and he grinned at me, relaxing.

A delicate cough sounded next to me. “Hi, Finn. I’m Millie, and you probably already know Daisy and Sophie. Leo was just telling us that the two of you playLesath Legends. Me and Daisy play, too. We should arrange a quad campaign.”

Finn’s brows rose as he stared at me before he finally tore his gaze away, turning his attention to Millie and Daisy. From the appreciative look on his face, he liked what he saw. I could see why, although I was sure he was appreciating them in a whole different way to me. Attraction seemed to work differently for me than it did for the other people I knew. As in, I didn’t feel it. I knew what it wassupposedto feel like, but I hadn’t personally experienced it. Or at least not properly. There was a girl at school I’d been friends with for a while, and I started to feel something for her—I wasn’t sure exactly how to describe it, but there was something there that wasn’t there with anyone else. It never went anywhere, though. She got a boyfriend, and we ended up drifting apart.

But back to Finn and the girls. Finn was now giving Daisy a flirty smile, and I knew even before he opened his mouth that Millie’s suggestion was going to happen.

Except he glanced back at me, a question in his eyes. I gave him a tiny nod. I needed to push myself, and this seemed like a good opportunity. It wasLesath Legends, after all.

“Yeah, sounds good. We’ll be online later, if you’re around. Want my number? You can text me your usernames, and we’ll add you when we get back to mine.”

“Yes, please.” Daisy whipped her phone out of her bag, thrusting it into his hand. As he was inputting his number, a whistle blew from the other side of the pitch, and he swung around before spinning back to her.

“Gotta go. Leo and I have plans after practice, but we’ll speak to you online later. Sophie, nice to see you again. I’ll tell Charlie you said hi.” He shot Sophie a smirk as he handed the phone back to Daisy, and she laughed as he jogged away to join his teammates and manager.

I settled back to watch the team while the girls talked among themselves in low voices, gesturing towards the players on the pitch every now and then. Once I’d worked out the identities of everyone from the research Finn had made me do, my focus returned to my friend. He looked completely at home, going through the drills with ease, glancing over at me intermittently and shooting me a quick grin every time I caught his eye.

The team lined up close to us, ready to do cone drills. Millie cleared her throat, leaning into me, the scent of something citrusy hitting my nose. “The guy that’s up first? That’s Nate, Sophie’s brother. He’s in his final year of uni. The guy behind him is Charlie, although I guess you know that already? I think he’s got a bit of a thing for Sophie. They’ve been flirting, anyway. Not sure how her brother’s gonna take it, but?—”

“I can hear you, you know. Stop gossiping about me. My brother doesn’t get to decide who I do and don’t see, either. Not that he’d have a problem,ifI liked Charlie, which I’m neither confirming nor denying.” Sophie shook her head in mock disappointment. “Terrible gossips, these girls. Whatever they say about me, it’s all lies.”

“As if we’d gossip about our queen,” Daisy interjected.

“Guys, please stop with the queen thing. That whole prom king and queen thing was ridiculous.” Sophie tossed her ponytail over her shoulder, huffing. She turned to me. “They’re calling me that because we all went to the same school, and in sixth form, I somehow ended up as prom queen. Probably because these two put my name up for it, and no one else could be bothered to campaign. They still haven’t let me forget it.”

“And we never will.” The girls smirked at each other, and a little of my tension disappeared because it didn’t seem as if they expected me to reply. I studied Sophie’s brother as they began talking among themselves once again. Tall, dark hair, tanned, he was yet another one of those effortlessly cool, confident guys that I longed to be like.

No.Hadlonged to be like. I had to keep reminding myself that one day, I’d be comfortable in my own skin.

One day. I hoped.

“Proud of you,” JJ murmured, too low for the girls to hear.

“Thanks.” I knocked my shoulder against his, and he smiled.

“Crisp?” Finn shoved the bag at me, dropping a handful of salt-and-vinegar Chipsticks into his mouth.

Pulling my own handful of crisps from the bag, I nodded towards my empty glass. “I’m gonna need another drink if you keep feeding me all these salty snacks.”

“Already on it. Look at what’s next to my desk. See? I borrowed my dad’s electric cool box and filled it up. There’s bottled water, soft drinks, beer, and a couple of energy drinks if we wanna stay up late gaming.”

“You thought of everything,” I said, glancing around at our setup. Finn’s console was on and ready to go, with ourcontrollers and headsets fully charged and connected. There was a rotating fan blowing across us,keeping us cool despite the warm breeze coming through the open window, and the bed was piled high with pillows and cushions and blankets.

The only thing left to do was to log in to the game.

Where I’d have to make conversation. Fuck.

Placing the crisp bag down, I rubbed my sweaty palms against my shorts.

“Leoooo.” Finn rolled onto his stomach, looking up at me through his lashes. “Stop worrying. It’s gonna be okay. It’s just talking online. We’ve done this with other people when we’ve played quad campaigns.”

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