Paper Airplanes (11 page)

I turned back to Scott. “I don’t really play video games.”

“Told you so,” Jared mumbled, so I shot him a look before turning back to Scott who was telling me that it didn’t matter, he could show me how to play.

I looked back at Jared and
smiled. “Well in that case, I’d love to join you guys.”

Across the station, I heard Brooke make a huffing sound before turning on her heel and walking away.

“Psycho-bitch is pissed at you,” Scott sang to Jared.

Jared narrowed his eyes at him. “Don’t call her that.”

Scott rolled his eyes. “Sorry, my bad,” he said, not sounding the least bit sorry.

Jared slugged him in the shoulder, so Scott elbowed him back as they started to walk out of the rest
aurant. I followed them. When we got outside and they quit play fighting, Scott turned to me.

“Come over in an hour. We’ll have snacks and stuff. Cool?”

I smiled, as out of the corner of my eye I could feel Jared watching me. I wondered if he expected me to back out. I wasn’t going to do that. I liked Scott. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but in truth, I also genuinely wanted to hang out with them. I wasn’t sure I’d be any good at video games, but I also didn’t care. I just hoped Scott didn’t think this was a date, but that would be hard to assume since Jared would be with us. I figured I was safe.

“I’ll get changed and come over,” I told Scott before I turned and started walking to
ward my car. Halfway there, I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Jared was watching me. “See you soon, Jared.”

In the waning light outside, I thought I saw him blush, but I couldn’t be sure.

Chapter
Eight

Jared

This was weird.
Cassie was sitting on the floor next to Scott in his game room as he showed her how to use the Playstation controller, and she was listening with rapt attention as if she was actually interested. It was the same way she’d looked at me all day as I’d walked her through the serving process at work – how to use the register, how to take orders, how to strategically check on multiple tables in various states of dining, etcetera. But those had been things she needed to know to effectively do her job. This was not.

If anyone had told me at sixteen that in four years Cassie Witter would be sitting on Scott’s pillows, drinking a Coke Zero and gearing up to play
Gods of War
with us, I would have laughed in their face, it was that surreal. But she seemed genuinely happy to be there, laughing with Scott and playfully nudging him with her elbow. And he was having the time of his life.

“And then if you want swing y
our sword to decapitate someone,” I heard Scott telling her excitedly, “you use this button, but if you want to gut them, it’s this button and that button at the same time.”

I rolled my eyes
behind their heads. “Dude, stick to the basics. You’re confusing her.”

Cassie
and Scott looked back at me in question, and then Cassie screwed up her face in annoyance, her nose crinkling in a slightly adorable way. She’d been doing it all day at work whenever she was frustrated with something she was trying to learn that took her a few tries. I equally hated and loved when she did that because it was really cute, but it made me think things I shouldn’t when I knew my best friend liked her.

But I couldn’t help it.
I’d been enjoying surreptitiously glancing at her while she tried to learn to play a game that wasn’t easy. It was ridiculously cute how tenacious she was, and I couldn’t seem to stop staring at her – her soft blond curls tumbling down her back, the tan skin on her bare shoulders and the little freckles that dusted her nose.

Dammit!

I had to be careful or
she’d realize what I was doing, and I didn’t want her to have a clue about the ridiculous thoughts that were filtering through my head. I knew it was one thing to be friends with guys like us, but I knew there was no way in hell she’d ever date someone like Scott or me. She’d made that abundantly clear earlier in the day. Besides, Scott liked her, so even if I thought I had a chance in hell, I’d never make a move on her – bro code and all. He’d kill me if he knew what I was thinking in that moment as my eyes drifted to her long tanned legs that stretched out in front of her on the floor.

“He’s not confusing me,” she insisted,
and my eyes snapped back to her brown ones that were looking at me insistently even though I knew she was lying. She was completely lost.

I sighed. “Whatever. Just let me know
when you guys are ready to play,” I said, aiming for detached boredom in an effort to not bring to light the fact that I was enjoying the scene in front of me a little too much.

Cassie looked confused by my statement that might have bordered on harsh. I might have put more emotion behind it than I’d intended, but before I
could say anything else, she shook her head and turned back around while I resumed my flipping through an
Us Weekly
that someone had left on the couch. It was probably Scott’s little sister, Saylor. She was a celebrity gossip junkie, even at sixteen.

“I need a refill,” Scott said, after downing the rest of his Coke. “Anybody want anything?
Cassie?”

She shook her head as she practiced killing guys on the screen. She was going to get knocked out in about five minutes if she kept up what she was doing. Scott had given her too much information, and she was trying to do too many things which basically resulted in her spinning in circles and swinging her sword randomly every now and then.

I was just glad Scott hadn’t tried to get her to play the modern warfare aspects of the game that he loved so much. He probably knew I’d never play with him if he did that, and I was truthfully afraid it might scare Cassie, knowing she’d been through the same thing as me. Ever since the shooting, I couldn’t play any video games that were too realistic or that took place in modern times or with modern weaponry. It freaked me out and brought me to the dark place I’d been in when I’d been lying on the floor watching the blood run out of my side and onto the dirty tile. I hated that place. In that place I’d been terrified and afraid I was going to die. It was literally hell for me.

Scott respected that, so we were
playing the medieval version of the game that night.
Gods of War
was a game that had a ridiculous amount of eras to choose from. I liked to play in ancient Japan where the warriors used samurai swords, but Scott preferred the variation of weaponry allowed when fighting in medieval times. And because of that I’d become a master with the throwing spear and the crossbow, my go-to weapons, since I could use them from afar. Scott always chose the broadsword, because he liked to be in the thick of the action. It was why we made a good team.

I noticed
Cassie’s player continue to struggle with her broadsword, so I slid down off the couch onto the pillow next to her. She looked over in surprise but also with a little bit of amusement in her eyes when I shot her a coy smile – my way of making amends for what I’d said a few minutes earlier. It was the same way she’d looked at me when she’d turned around halfway to her car earlier in the night and caught me watching her. Thankfully she didn’t tell me what she was thinking. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

“Help,” she said playfully
instead. “I suck.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. She was cute
when she said things like that.

“Here,” I said, reaching for her controller. “There are just a few things that you need to know to survive.”

I showed her on the controller I’d taken from her before letting her try, and after a few minutes, she was actually advancing in the practice round and killing enemies.

“I’m doing it,” she said excitedly, looking over at me, her
brown eyes alight and crinkling on the sides.

“You’re doing it,” I said, returning her smile
as I nudged her shoulder.

Then she laughed, and it was a really great sound. I hadn’t heard her laugh genuinely before, and I wondered when the last time she’d done it was.

“Oh, hell yeah,” she said, stabbing at the controller with vigor as she took out two knights who were swinging morning stars.

“Nice job,” I said, elbowing her,
and she looked over at me and smiled.

When she tried to do an advanced move and failed, I reached over to show her how to push the buttons at the right time, moving my fi
ngers over hers. She froze, so I pulled away quickly. Neither of us said anything for a few seconds.

“I’m sorry,” I finally said, and she shook her head.

“It’s okay,” she said, but I noticed her swallow hard, and I wondered if I’d crossed a line. I vowed to keep my hands to myself for the rest of the night.

“What did I miss?” Scott asked cheerfully, coming back into the room and plopping down on the other side of
Cassie.

“Nothing
much,” she said quickly, keeping her eyes on the TV. Then she turned to Scott. “Look what I can do.”

She showed him a few
of the basic moves she’d mastered, and he cheered her on. I decided I’d let them have their moment and slid back up to the couch, putting distance between Cassie and me once again.

Scott
turned back to look at me then. “See, Jared. I told you I wasn’t confusing her.”

I watched Cassie’s mouth curve into a smirk as he said that, but she kept her eyes on the TV. Watching her made my
own mouth twist into a small smile.

“Yeah, you were right,” I said to Scott, not looking at him. He wasn’t watching me anyway. He’d turned away from me to join Cassie in the practice round.

My phone chose that moment to ding, and I looked down to see Brooke’s name flash on the screen with a text. I sighed softly as I picked it up and read it.

At O’Brien’s. Want to meet up for a drink?

Brooke was a year older than me, and she’d turned twenty-one in March. But even before then she’d had a killer fake ID. O’Brien’s had been a go-to place for her the summer before, and we’d gone there for drinks after work all the time. In truth it was the last place I wanted to go, especially if she was going to be there.

I texted back,
No thanks.

My phone beeped almost immediately after with a response.

Please? I miss you, and I want to talk.

I can’t. I’m hanging out with Scott tonight.

It wasn’t exactly the truth behind why I was turning down her invitation, but for some reason, no matter how shitty she made me feel, I couldn’t be an asshole to her.

Scott turned around to look at me when my phone beeped again. “Who’s texting you?”

“It’s just Brooke. She wants me to meet up with her at O’Brien’s.”

“Are you going to go?” he asked, as Cassie turned around to look at me.

I shifted my gaze to her for a few seconds before looking back at Scott. “Of course not. I’m hanging out with you tonight. I told you that.”

He grinned. “
Cool.” Then he turned back to the game.

Af
ter ten minutes of practice, Cassie said she was ready, so we started to play for real. I noticed right away that Scott was pushing forward in the game, trying to beat each level while Cassie’s character struggled to stay alive. He was so damn competitive that he lost sight of a golden opportunity to be her protector. So instead of pushing forward with him, I hung back and killed the guys she couldn’t get to. If she noticed, she didn’t say anything.

After a solid hour, we called a bathroom break and decided to order a pizza. I stepped out into the hall to make the call since Scott was talking animatedly to
Cassie at an elevated volume, and I was afraid the pizza place wouldn’t be able to hear me. She was laughing at what he was saying and leaning toward him, which made me wonder if she’d been too hasty earlier when she said she wasn’t interested in him.

Maybe he’d change her mind in his own quirky, semi-charming way.
They’d been goofing off with each other all day, using nicknames, playing around, teasing each other and laughing at inside jokes that they’d apparently made up in the seven hours they’d been friends. She seemed to genuinely like him.

Stranger things had happened, and if they ended up getting together, I’d just have to be happy for my friend and pretend it didn’t bother me.
Because I knew it would. I finally saw what Scott had seen in her all these years. There was something about her that drew me in, even though I hated to admit it since just twelve hours ago I sort of couldn’t stand her – and that had been before she’d told me I was an ugly loser in high school. But I couldn’t deny that everything she’d done since that moment had gotten under my skin in a way that was as confusing as it was appealing.

She was different with me than
she was with Scott. She didn’t play around as much, but she’d been nice to me, and she’d smiled a lot. In truth she’d probably acted like that just to prove to me that she wasn’t a bitch, and because she wanted to be friends with my best friend. I guess she figured she needed to win me over too. Of course my stupid brain took her kindness the wrong way. I wasn’t really sure what to do with the newfound revelation that I liked her. Nothing, I supposed, since two facts still remained – one, she didn’t like me, and two, Scott would kill me with his broadsword if I so much as asked her out.

I sighed and shook my head as I left the game room, closing the door
behind me. Then I stopped short.

“
Austin? What are you doing?”

“Shit,” I heard my brother curse, just as he was following Saylor into her room across the hall and closing the door.

Scott, Saylor and Austin had most of the second floor of the house to themselves. They each had their own room and bathroom, and they shared the game room and the theater next door to it. It was a pretty sweet set-up, so we usually hung out up there. Besides, Diana had an awesome habit of making us cookies or Rise Krispy Treats when we were hanging out, which made it that much better.

There was a
fourth room that had been mine when I’d lived in the main house, but after graduating from high school, I’d moved out to the pool house since Diana thought I needed my own space to write. I was eternally grateful to her for suggesting that since I loved the quiet little sanctuary I’d created. Of course I still spent a lot of time in the main house, but I could always go back to my little house when I wanted to be alone. It was nice.

My brother
popped his head back out into the hallway. “Oh, hey Jared. What’s up?”

He’d said it so casually that I knew he was playing
off whatever it was they were doing.