Page 6 of Catch Me

Before she can say anything else, try to convince me that it was her fault or worse, tempt me in again with her slender figure and delicious honey smell. I duck around her, careful not to even brush my skin against her’s and skate up the stairs as fast as my legs will let me.

“Nick!” I hear Lois hiss after me as I bolt away from her. Her feet pad behind me up the stairs, but I don’t stop. I push open my bedroom door, ducking inside and sliding the lock across.

Fuck me, what the hell have I started?

A soft fist against the wood, jolts me back to reality again and I suck in a deep breath before opening my bedroom door a crack. I don’t know why I'm running from her like this isn’t totally my fault in the first place. I played with fire knowingly, actually I pretty much lit the fire myself and then danced in the flames, wondering why I came out looking like a burnt piece of toast. This isn’t Lois’ fault and it’s not fair of me to just run from her. So I poke my head out to see her standing, still barefoot on the landing carpet looking sheepish.

Her gaze doesn’t lift to mine when she speaks. “I just wanted to say sorry, I didn’t mean for that to happen and Sean absolutelycannotknow about it.”

I nod. “Agreed, let’s just pretend it didn’t happen and go back to how everything was before tonight.”

“Like when you didn’t even know I existed.” She whispers so quietly I can barely decipher the words, but by the time they crash into me at full force she's already turning to leave.

“Wait, what did you say?”

“Nothing,” She huffs and steps into Sean's bedroom, pulling the door closed firmly behind her.

Chapter 4

Nick

I don’t even feel a little hungover when I wake up. I was fucking praying I would feel like shit today, just so it would give me something to focus on that wasn’t what happened last night. Lois’ mouth on mine is all I’ve been able to think about, the way her lips moved so effortlessly against mine, her hot tongue brushing over my bottom lip. Fuck me, I need to get out of my own head. It was just a stupid mistake, yeah, that’s all it was, a drunken kiss with some girl. Except she's not just some girl, she's my friend’s little sister and that kiss was anything but a mistake, on my part anyway. I want to do it again, Ineedto kiss her again but I know I shouldn’t. That’s never stopped me before though, I’ve never been particularly good at following the rules and I’ve never shied away from a dose of healthy confrontation.Ending up in a brawl with the captain of my hockey team wasn’t on my bingo card for this year though. I’d actually planned to keep my head down as much as possible and stay out of girl related trouble. The last girl I was involved with on a more serious level was Harriet Fielding. To tell the truth I was pretty desperate to fall in love with her, to experience that feeling people talk about. I wanted to be obsessed with her, yearning to be around her all the time and for her to be the puzzle piece that fit into the hole in my chest. But she wasn’t and it took me about five months to realise that I couldn’t force love with someone who just wasn’t supposed to be for me. I was in some other girl’s bed the next day, earning a name for myself as the most cold hearted, arrogant fuck boy on campus. At least that’s the name Harriet picked for me, before telling every single soul at Redwood what I did. Apparently it's not acceptable to fuck someone else the day after you end a relationship. But it wasn’t right for either of us and I won’t pretend it was anything other than a half arsed attempt at love between two people who had no idea what that was supposed to feel like.

I drag my achey body out of bed, eternally grateful for a day off the ice. I’m definitely a hockey addict, I could spend every second of every day on the ice. But today something has shifted in my mind, my focus is on the sexy brunette that let me stick my tongue in her mouth last night. I’ve never been good at keeping secrets, my friends know that better than anyone, that’s why I was the last to know about Callie’s pregnancy. That fucking stung I can’t lie, but I can’t say I blame them for keeping it from me. It’s highly likely 90% of campus would have known by midday if I’d have been told first. That’s why my goal this morning is to find someone, anyone who will listen to me talk about what happened between Lois and I last night. She specifically told me that Sean can’t know about our kiss, but she never mentioned Kyle or Lewis.

As I plod down the stairs, eyes a little hazy and hair a mess, I spot Lewis flopped on the couch. His headphones are covering his ears and he’s shirtless like me, except his skin isn’t littered with random ink. I guess you could call Lewis the good boy of the group, he’s the sensible one, the one that keeps the rest of us in line when we have stupid fucking ideas that are likely to get us all in a steaming pile of shit. Which is another reason he’s the perfect person to spill all of my troubles onto. I can’t say he won’t judge me because he most definitely will, but it’s all in love and I know that deep down. I click the button on the coffee machine first though. Some hot vanilla flavoured lava sliding down my dry throat is necessary before I start rambling about the curly haired bombshell that spun my head last night. The aroma of sweet coffee fills the air and makes Lewis turn his head towards the kitchen, where I stand mixing my molten gold.

His face twists in confusion and he yanks his headset off. “Jeez, you’re up early. I thought I wouldn’t see you until at least 4pm after last night.”

I shrug, making my way over to the couch. “I didn’t even drink that much and I went to bed at like midnight.”

“Huh, doesn’t sound like you.”

“I know, but…” I pause, glancing at Lew over the rim of my coffee mug as I tip it to my lips and gulp hard. “Something happened.”

“Oh god,” Lewis groans dramatically, placing his controller and headset onto the coffee table and twisting his body to face me. “What did you do and who did you do it with?”

“Lois.”

Lewis’ eyebrows scrunch with confusion, but then I watch the horror wash over him and his usually bright eyes turn grey.

His jaw drops open and he croaks, “Lois TAYLOR?”

I nod. “Uh huh.”

That only makes Lewis’ eyes bulge wider. “UH HUH? Are you fucking kidding me Andersen?” Both palms land on his face andhe shakes his head. “No, no, no why? Why her? Out of all the girls you could fuck around with?”

“Dunno,” I shrug, “it was kind of an accident to be honest. We just ended up kissing after she helped clear all the shit that was left after the party last night.”

“Oh yeah, I mean that happens to me all the time, I just trip and my tongue ends up in some random girl’s mouth.”

I snicker, unable to hide the fact I'm finding all of this pretty fucking hilarious.

“Seriously though man,” Lewis shakes his head again, expression wrinkled with exasperation. “What were you thinking? You know Sean can’t know about this right? He will legitimately murder you in your sleep, or get you kicked off the team and to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure which one is worse.”

“Definitely getting kicked off the team.”

Lewis responds to that with a slow, extra dramatic eye roll. “I have to say though, I'm not that surprised that Lois made a move on you, she’s liked you for ages.”

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