Page 64 of Catch Me
Nothing could top this.
Chapter 21
Roman
Travis was in a really good mood today, which wasn’t at all surprising considering how the LIVE went yesterday. I was beyond shocked by the whole thing.
He’d announced that he was dropping three hundred thousand dollars, and I questioned whether he was real. When I looked at him, I didn’t see someone with that kind of money. He’d finished three seasons and had been a Super Two player this year, so he’d obviously raked in a lot of money, and aside from his nice house, he didn’t seem to get extravagant things. Then, he suddenly dropped that giant amount like it was nothing because he cared that much.
I’d also found out what he felt guilty about. I wanted to tell him that none of it was his fault, but he knew that. It also had nothing to do with me, so I didn’t want to insert myself.
We weren’t friends. Not friends, not friends, not friends...
“Jesus,” Travis exclaimed when I ran into him around the corner into the kitchen.
On instinct, I grabbed his biceps to keep him from falling. Now, I was stuck in a raging internal battle because I should let him go, but something about touching him felt good. That seemed to be his whole thing.
I wasn’t sure how long it’d been when I released him, but he didn’t act weird about it, so hopefully it had been a normal amount of time. He stepped back, taking the intense feeling with him.
“Sorry,” I said. “Didn’t know you were back.”
“It was just a quick trip to the store.”
“What’d you get?”
“Nosey, nosey.” He moved past me and continued into his room.
I frowned as I rounded the island. We’d only been around each other consistently for a week, but the close proximity made it feel like longer. Some parts—the trips to the sub shop, swimming, and smoking on the porch—seemed like bigger moments than they actually were. And I wanted more of them.
I lifted myself onto the counter and pulled my tablet out of my hoodie pocket. It opened to the picture I’d been working on yesterday while he was gone. He was slumped in a seat at the stadium with his legs up. At the time, he’d been singing softly. Since he’d been unaware of my presence, I’d given myself a minute to watch him. He’d looked so at peace that once we got back to the house, I had to get to my room and try to recreate it.
Something about Travis made it difficult to truly capture him. I thought about what he said the other day. Art was missing life. I’d never really had an issue with that, though. He was so full of life and energy that maybe the absence of it was too much. Without those things, he wasn’thim. He didn’t belong on a page, but I kept putting him there, over and over again.
“Is that me?”
God damnit. I was an idiot.
After switching the screen off, I dropped my feet to the floor. I tried to brush past him, but he stepped into my path. Before I could turn around and go the other way, he grabbed onto my biceps like I’d done to him earlier.
“You’re ready to lash out,” he noted. “Don’t.”
I scoffed and shook him off. Without touching me, he started walking forward, forcing me to back up unless I resorted to violence, which I wasn’t going to do. When I was pinned against the counter, I reconsidered my stance on that.
“You reasoning through it?”
Rolling my eyes, I tried to focus on anything but the tight grey t-shirt that hugged his chest. Or the way his scent was so strong after his shower.
He shifted, and I put my hand on his chest to keep him back.
“You don’t have to get weird or angry about every little thing,” he said, seemingly unaffected by the way I was touching him.
I was affected. “I’m not angry.”
“Good. Whatever’s going on in your head that made you try to dip, you don’t have to let it lead. You’re drawing me. So what? I like when you do.”
My eyes widened. I was aware of my fingers tightening on his chest, but he didn’t move, so neither did I.
“Why do you like it?”
