Page 35 of You Belong With Me

I was already in my pajamas, so I pulled on the first clothes I could find, followed up by his black zip-up that he’d left me with again last night, promising myself that I’d give it back to him tonight. But even as I made the promise to myself, I breathed in the scent of the hoodie, loving the way it smelled, knowing that I didn’t want to give it back. Maybe if he didn’t expressly ask for it, I could keep it—it would be like a trophy, a reminder of all this time I’d spent with Sebastian Novak.

I tried to sneak silently down the stairs, but as it turned out, it wasn’t the quiet that I needed to worry about—it was the fact that my whole family was sitting in the living room watching some TV show.

“Oh, Eleanor,” Mom said. She immediately stood up and walked over to me, leaving me trapped on the bottom step of the staircase. I eyed the front door, which was only a few steps away but might as well have been on the opposite side of the house. “We were wondering where you were. You’ve been so silent up there.”

I guess I hadn’t needed to worry about them hearing me yelling to Sebastian through the window. Good to know for next time.

“Oh, I’ve just been working on homework,” I lied quickly, grinning at her. “But Ainsley just called and asked if I could come over to look at some research she did for our public speaking class, so?—”

“Can’t she talk about school tomorrow, honey? You know, it is late.”

“But I have to do well in this public speaking class.” Sure, maybe it was manipulative of me to use it against her,but she had also put me in this class, so I might as well put it to good use. “I know how important it is to you guys that I do well, so I thought it would be better if I just did it now.”

“Oh, let her go, Angela,” Dad said. “What’s the point of them waiting ’til tomorrow? Besides, it’s Friday tomorrow, nobody will be focusing at school.”

Mom put a hand on her hip and turned towards him. “I don’t need you to make my parenting decisions for me,” she said coolly. “If I want to let my daughter go out, then I can make that decision on my own.”

She started walking towards him, ranting about it, and I took the chance that I saw, and quickly pulled on my shoes. Dean watched me curiously from his spot on the couch, his eyes narrowed like he knew that I was telling a lie. I just hoped that he figured it was a lie that I was doing stuff for homework, and not about going to see Ainsley. Because if he suspected that I was going to see his best friend instead, I wasn’t sure whether he would go back on his promise on our deal to never rat out each other to our parents.

I stuck close to the wall, inching my way toward the front door. Mom’s back was to me as she ranted to Dad about how he always tried to undermine her parenting decisions, so I was probably in the clear, but I knew overconfidence was what always ended up being the killer. She started to turn just as my hand landed on the doorknob and I froze, certain that she was going to see me and say that I couldn’t go out just because my dad said it was okay. But then she turned to Dad again and I took the window ofopportunity to open the door and step out, shutting it as silently as I could.

I didn’t wait around to see if she noticed. I moved quickly, almost running to the end of the Novak’s driveway. But I pulled up short when I realized Sebastian wasn’t just standing out of view, like I’d assumed—he wasn’t here at all. Had I somehow misunderstood what he was saying when he asked me to come down? Had he gone back inside?

I looked at the front window of the Novak’s house. All the other windows were dark, except for this one, which looked into their dining room and I could see silhouettes moving around inside. From this distance, I couldn’t see who was who but maybe if I moved closer…

It was the most stalker move I could ever make, but I started up the Novak’s driveway, keeping close to their cars so I would hopefully blend in with the shadows and not be too noticeable if one of them looked out. If they did, I would just walk up to the door as if that was what I was planning to do the whole time, but I would definitely rather avoid that if possible. The figures in the room became more clear as I got closer. They were all moving around and chatting, looking like they were clearing the table from dinner, but even after I watched for a full minute, I only saw four figures—Ainsley, Imogen, Lavender, and Mrs. Novak. No Mr. Novak, of course, and no Sebastian. It was still possible he was inside somewhere, but being with the rest of his family seemed like the most logical spot to find him if he was.

I turned back down the driveway and lookedeach way down the street. Finally, I spotted him, way down at the end of the lane. And when I got closer, I realized he was leaning against a streetlamp, an unlit cigarette in one hand and a soccer ball in the other.

“About time,” he said as I walked up. He tucked the cigarette behind his ear and kicked off from the lamppost, standing up straight. I didn’t get the chance to ask him what he was doing because he walked off without another word. I stared after him in bewilderment until he spun around, one hand still holding that soccer ball and the other shoved in his denim jacket pocket, and said, “Aren’t you coming?”

I glanced back at my house nervously, half-expecting my mom to appear in the doorway and demand I come home right now. Had she noticed I left yet? Or was she still too busy arguing with Dad to be aware of what I was up to? She was bound to notice eventually. And if she realized I was gone and got upset that I didn’t wait for her permission as well as Dad’s, she was going to be upset no matter what—but if I walked in now, I would just be guaranteeing that she noticed. If I left with Sebastian, it might take her a while. Either way, she would be angry. The only difference would be what I did with this small freedom.

I turned back to Sebastian, who was still facing me but moving backward. It was like he was taunting me, telling me that he was going whether I came with him or not. I was sure this was his usual nightly routine—just like how I’d seen him on the field the day I went there to do my homework. And maybe a week ago, I would have let him walk away. Heck, a week ago, I never would have been out here with him. But I was here now and all I could think ofwas the overwhelming feeling that I didn’t want him to go anywhere without me.

“Wait up!” I called. And then, despite the thousands of reasons I shouldn’t be going anywhere at night with Sebastian Novak, I ran after him.

eighteen

The field feltdifferent at this time of night when there wasn’t a full game going on. Last night, the place had been lit up with huge lights and you could barely hear yourself think of the crowd yelling, the cheerleaders chanting, and everything happening on the field. Tonight, it was quiet and dark. I thought that it should have felt creepy or lonely, but strangely, I liked it.

“I would just like it on the record,” I told Sebastian as he placed the soccer ball in front of me to practice kicking, “that I do not play soccer.”

“Your stance has been noted,” he said. He backed away from the ball, giving me the space to kick the ball. “It’s no big deal if you don’t get it in the net.”

Yeah, there was about zero percent chance of me getting the ball into the net, even without a goalie there to stop it. Apparently, he thought I should do this before we started playing a game of soccer so I could get used to the feel of it again. I thought we should just do something else—such as me sitting on the sidelines and watching himdribble by himself, but apparently, that didn’t sound as appealing to him as it did to me.

I took a deep breath and stared at the black and white ball on the ground in front of me. This was no big deal. All I had to do was kick the ball. Not even kick it well, just kick it. I could do that. I could…

I landed on my back.

Don’t ask me how. One second I was pulling my foot back and the next I was toppling onto the turf, the soccer ball untouched. And Sebastian, the caring boy that he was, doubled over laughing.

“You could at least help me up,” I snapped, glaring at him from the ground.

“Sorry,” he managed between laughs. “I’ve just never seen someone fall that fast.”

I pushed myself up and brushed off the little black turf pellets that had stuck to my palms and pants. At least I hadn’t skinned my knees—thank you, leggings—but my pride wasn’t so lucky.

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