Page 95 of Fair Catch

My head rolls back and forth on the pillow as I shake it, unsure of how to describe whatever it was that I just felt.

“It was like…I don’t know. Something just clicked inside me. Kinda like a puzzle piece or a lock snapping into place.”

Hayes pulls back, just barely enough to lock gazes with me. It’s guarded, of that, I’m certain, but there’s something else in it I can’t quite put my finger on.

Something softer. More intimate, almost.

“Is that not normal?” I whisper, vulnerability hitting me square in the chest. The kind I haven’t felt since the night we decided to really give this thing a go.

He slowly shakes his head, eyes never once leaving mine. “No, baby. That’s not normal.”

My heart sinks ever so slightly, but I swallow down my disappointment and force out my next questions.

“So you didn’t feel it?”

There’s a beat before he clears his throat.

“No, I felt it, too.”

Twenty-Four

Hayes

December

I’m lounging on my bed, staring at my ceiling while I wait for Kason to get back from his last final for the semester, my mind on the way my last two finals went earlier today.

A good portion of the tests were fine, but there was a chunk during each where I felt myself stumbling through, thinking about a billion other things than the paper in front of me, and that never happens. Or it didn’t, until today.

What’s worse is, as soon as I walked out of that building, I couldn’t help but wonder if my parents hit the nail on the head about Kason being a distraction in more than just the literal sense.

Physically, yeah, he’s been taking up a lot of my free time, making a huge dent in the amount I’d normally spend studying, but I’d made sure to compensate for that.

But I haven’t been prepared for all the space he’d take up mentally.

Because the moments where my mind refused to focus, it was thinking about the two of us in bed this morning, curled into each other while he slept. Or the way I stripped him bare again last night and watched him ride me for the first time.

He’s consuming my time, my thoughts, my life.

And the strangest part is, I don’t care the way I know I should, and definitely not the way my parents want me to.

The sound of my phone dinging pulls my mind out of daydreaming, and I check it to find a text from Q.

Q: I know you’ve got finals, but are you alive over there? I haven’t heard from you in almost two weeks.

Guilt slams into me immediately.

I hadn’t been ignoring his texts or gaming requests, I’ve just been busy with school and class work and consumed by Kason.

Fuck, I haven’t even told himanythingabout Kason and me.

Me: Alive? Yes, but barely. You got a minute to talk?

It doesn’t take more than ten seconds before a FaceTime notification from Quinton pops up on my screen. Accepting the call, I find my best friend lounging on a couch, ice pack wrapped around his left shoulder.

“Hey, man. What’s up?” he asks while adjusting the black rims on his face.

First things first: I need to rip the bandaid off about Kason, but I don’t exactly want an audience for it, which is why I hesitate before questioning, “Are you alone right now?”

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