Page 37 of Battling the Enemy
The first warning bell rung, and I said, “Linnie, skip first with me, will ya?”
She looked over at Liam. “If I skip with Deke, can I persuade you to share your notes with me?”
Liam’s grin was positively wolfish. “I’m positive you can,” he replied with a wink.
Emerson laughed while Ramsey just said, “Let’s go before we all fucking skip.”
As the gang headed towards the school’s entrance, I grabbed Linnie’s hand and walked her back to my car. We needed absolute privacy for this conversation, and I didn’t want to wait until this afternoon when we got out of school. I wanted to settle this…discomfort with Delaney the sooner the better.
Before I lost my ever lovin’ mind.
I opened the passenger side door for her, and once she got settled, I closed the door and made my way around the hood to get into the driver’s side. When the door shut behind me, she asked, “What’s up?”
This was harder than I thought it would be. I was asking Roselyn to give up a piece of herself for someone she didn’t even really know. But I had to do it. I was in love with Delaney, and…well, I just had to do it. “Delaney asked me about you Friday night,” I told her.
Linnie’s bottom lip disappeared between her teeth. After a few seconds, she asked, “About the rumors?”
I nodded. “She asked me if the rumors were true,” I admitted.
“What did you say?”
“I told her to never ask me about you again.” Linnie’s eyes widened. “Then, she asked me if…if I’ve ever been bare with another girl before.”
“Withanothergirl?” she stressed. “So, you guys slept together this weekend? It’s official?”
I nodded again. “We went to my place after I dragged her out of the party, and she spent all weekend at my place.”
Linnie’s blue eyes crinkled as she smiled. “Do you love her? Or is it too soon for that?”
I snorted. “Have you met Ramsey and Emerson?” She laughed, but it was time to get serious. “Yes, Linnie,” I answered. “I love her-correction, I’m in love with her.”
Roselyn was quiet for a few seconds before saying, “Let me tell her, Deke.”
“Lin-”
She threw her palm up to stop me. “Just hear me out, Deke,” she said, and I nodded because…well, this was Roselyn. “No girl wants to know half the story. You can tell her what happened and explain how it’s over and all, but she’ll have questions about howIfeel. Hell, she’ll have questions about how Liam feels.” Roselyn reached over and took my right hand in hers and squeezed. “You can tell her you have no feelings for me other than friendship, but she’ll wonder if I have any.”
“But-”
“Deke,” she continued, interrupting me, “trust me. From someone who…knows, and is a girl, she’ll have questions you can’t answer. She’s going to want to know if…threesomes are something you’re into and if she’ll need to…accommodate that.”
“That’s bullshit, Linnie,” I barked. “You were the only one and…you were special.Thatwasn’t...”
She shook her head but smiled. “I know that, Deke. I’ve long…gotten over my issues. But…unless you were there, it’s hard for people to wrap their minds around what we did. Hell, Iwasthere, and I struggled to wrap my mind around it.”
“What about Lee?”
Roselyn shrugged a shoulder. “You know he doesn’t care about that stuff.” She let out a soft laugh. “One thing Liam’s made clear is that he’s not ashamed of me or what we did. The secrecy was to keep me and Emerson from having to fight them catty bitches that would have come out of the woodwork had they known.”
I laughed because she wasn’t wrong. Liam and I had never been ashamed of what we shared with Roselyn, but we weren’t ignorant of our popularity. We knew if our arrangement got out, Roselyn’s life would have been hell. And Emerson’s a fighter. She would have been scrapping left and right to defend us.
Looking over at Roselyn, I knew I needed to trust her. “Are you sure this is the way to go?”
“We’re the emotional ones, Deke,” she answered. “It’s better to hear the explanation from someone of the same mindset.”
I understood what she was saying, but I didn’t necessarily agree with females being the emotional ones, because Delaney made me feel all kinds of emotions. “Okay,” I conceded. “We’ll do this your way.”
“Can I ask you something?’ she asked.
