Page 31 of Honeysuckle
I could see Todd’s resentment toward me. It was clear from his face that he was pissed off that I’d defended Josh over him, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t there to just protect them; I needed to be unbiased and captain the team without picking favorites, and that meant sometimes Todd was in the wrong. Which happened more often than not, but never with someone who he’d deemed our enemy.
It had been a week of keeping them apart, only for this to happen the moment I wasn’t watching them like a hawk. Arlo stood at the back of the huddle with Ella and his brother, arms crossed, watching and waiting for me to make a move. It was nearly impossible to fill his shoes, and I knew deep down that it wasn’t the thing I should be worried about, but the inkling of doubt still pooled in the back of my mind.
Cael stuck his fingers between his lips and blew out a harsh whistle, silencing the separate conversations happening amongst the team.
“We’re doing the ropes course today,” I explained. “In years past we always did them as a team, but this year I’m separating you into smaller groups. You’ll have to work together. The group that finishes the course the fastest, with as few slip ups as possible, doesn’t have to practice in the morning.”
“Seriously?” Van perked up and I nodded at him. “Hell yeah!” He nudged Baker beside him with an excited smile.
“I’m making the teams though,” I said, as Josh wandered gingerly up to the group. “Line up.” I pointed, and they scattered into a clumsy line.
I went down it, separating them into five teams by giving them each a number, until I got to the very end and stared at Josh. “Five.”
He looked over to where the five were huddled and back at me. “You’re an asshole, Tuck,” he muttered, backing away and wandering over to where Todd, Baker, Taylor, and Matthenson stood.
“Consider it a teaching moment, tough guy.” I smiled at him and looked over the rest of the teams. “Be safe, and listen to the instructors. It’s a speed contest, but I don’t need any of you hurt. Coach’ll kill us all if we come home short of men for the season.” I tapped my fingers to my chest and watched them all do it in unison–except Josh. He just stared at me like I had three heads.
“What’s with the weird cult tapping anyways?” He asked, as we all made our way down into the wooded area of camp where the ropes course was strung up.
“I don’t actually know.” I shrugged, and he turned to look at me, confused. “We’ve always done it as long as I’ve been a Hornet. I think it was something Coach used to do and it just stuck with Arlo. Now we all do it.”
“So itisweird cult shit.” Josh rolled those sable brown eyes and his lips curled into that infuriating, cocky smile.
“No, it’s our handshake, I guess… a way to promise each other, keep each other in check, stuff like that. Sorry it’s not an aggressive chant where we smack each other's asses and holler weird shit over and over,” I joked.
“Lorette never did anything,” he said, and the confession took me aback.
“What?” I said.
“Yeah, nothing. No chants, no sayings, no support…” Josh explained, but he seemed completely unbothered by it all.
“If you think that’s bad, wait until you find out that we sacrifice a goat before the season opener for good luck.” I smiled over at him, but was met with a nasty glare. “Oh, come on! That was funny!” I laughed.
“You’re not funny.” Josh shook his head.
“I’m hilarious, you just can’t take a joke.”
The trees rustled in the wind above our heads; the newly formed bright green leaves catching in the sun and tinting everything with a soft hue.
“Make a funny joke and I’ll take it,” Josh huffed, looking over at me.
The sun bathed his cold features with warmth and highlighted the undertones of gold in his eyes. The itching feeling returned and I hated that he could bring it the same way Cael used to. That searing heat that licked at my muscles and turned my ears an embarrassing shade of red.
He was infuriatingly handsome in that ‘you drive me insane’kind of way. The bridge of his nose was shorter and his heavy eyebrows were always curled in angrily, even with a smile on his face. My heart was pounding in my chest because, suddenly, I wanted to know how his beard would feel against my skin. I wanted to know if he tasted as warm as he looked and smelled; that woodsy cinnamon cologne he always wore mixed with the lingering smell of pine tar that tickled at my nose.
Every noise around us seemed to mute for a moment, losing its importance as I stared down what felt like the barrel of a loaded gun.
“Tuck?” Josh said, snapping me from the walking wet dream I was having. His hand snapped out and tangled into the fabric of my shirt, tugging me against his shoulder.
“What the hell?” I shoved away from him and he pointed to my left. Not two inches from me was a massive tree. “Oh…”
“We would have matched.” He pointed to his nose with a smug look on his face.
“I guess I’m a little out of it,” I said, rubbing my hands over my face in a feeble attempt to refocus myself.
“That’ll happen when you miss three meals. You’re probably starving,” Josh said, off the cuff. “How many calories do you take in a day to stay that big, anyways?”
I opened my mouth to tell him I hadn’t missed three meals, but then I counted and he was right, which only seemed to bother me more. The number was in the two thousands, but sometimes, when I got side tracked and focused on a task, I just forgot to eat all together. It wasn’t good for me, or smart, but my body functioned alright on the rare occasion that it did happen. It wasn’t a lack of nutrition causing me to run into trees though—it was the freckle pattern on Josh’s face.
