Slowly We Trust (Fall and Rise #3)(18)
Author: Chelsea M. Cameron

“Now get your ass out of bed before I drag you. Go!” He pointed to the door as he yelled, his face dark as a storm.

Wow. I must be really bad if Simon was putting his mean face on. I ran my fingers through my hair. Or at least I tried to. It was so tangled that the task was impossible. I could also smell the shirt I was wearing, and it wasn’t a good thing.

Okay, so I was beyond disgusting. I’d crossed over to Funkville, USA, population: Me.

“I’ll go shower.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” Simon said, collapsing on his bed. “I don’t like being the bad cop. But seriously, you were getting disgusting. I was one day away from carrying you to the shower and shoving you in. Thanks for not making me do that.”

“You’re welcome.” I gathered up some fresh clothes and my shower stuff and headed for the bathroom.

I stood for a long time under the running water, just thinking.

I hadn’t seen or talked to Audrey in a week. Not once. She’d asked me to leave her alone, so I was going to respect that. No starting over, no being just friends. Quitting, period.

I couldn’t remember the last time my life had sucked this much, and it wasn’t just the absence of Audrey that made it that way. Lottie was also having a hard time, and that made it so much worse.

Not just a hard time, an impossible time. She tried to split her time between me and Audrey, giving us both equal visitation, but it was wearing on her. The other problem was that she didn’t feel like she could talk about Audrey in my presence, or comment on her existence in any way. I was sure she did the same thing when she saw Audrey. I’d asked her to stop, but she wouldn’t. My stubborn sister. She loved both of us and she was determined to stay bonded with each of us. Well, she didn’t really have a choice where I was concerned, but she also refused to abandon her friend. Not that I blamed her.

I asked Simon about it when Lottie wasn’t around. Our group had fractured a little bit now that Lottie, Katie and Trish sometimes spent nights with Audrey, leaving “the boys” to fend for ourselves. It was the most time I’d spent apart from Lottie at college, and it felt unnatural. I was always looking for her, or waiting for her to arrive, or turning to tell her something, assuming she was still beside me.

It was like missing half of my body.

I shook my head and remembered that I needed to wash my hair. I still couldn’t get my hands through it.

I should just cut it. I finished my shower and went back to my room and called Lottie.

“Hey, you free this afternoon? I really need that haircut.”

“Yeah, I can absolutely do that for you.” I could hear her walking and then a door closing. That probably meant she was somewhere with Audrey. Thinking her name still made a jolt of pain go through me. I wondered how long it would take for that to subside. If I’d ever be able to see her again and not feel the way I currently felt.

“So I’ll see you in a few hours?” I said, finally remembering that I was on the phone with Lottie.

“I’ll come to you.”

I hung up and Simon threw my tennis racket at me. Good thing I had decent reflexes and I caught it before it hit me in the face.

“Tennis, anyone?” Simon said, holding up my spare racket and made a few practice swings.

“Tennis? Really?”

“Well, if you get sassy with me, I can beat you with the racket, so it’s a win-win.” I gave him a look, but got up and went to change into more athletic clothing.

“I completely forgot that the word love is in this game. My bad. But still, it never hurts to hit a few balls, if you know what I mean,” Simon said with a wink as we took our places across from each other on the court.

“No, actually, I don’t know a whole lot about hitting balls, Simon.”

“Well, you don’t know what you’re missing. Your serve.” He threw a ball at me and I caught it, pointing at him with my racket.

“Enough. Let’s play.” I served first and Simon volleyed back and then I smashed the ball into the court right on the line.

“That was in,” I said.

“Normally, I would argue with you, but I’m afraid you’ll decapitate me in my sleep with that thing, so I’ll let it slide. Fifteen-Love.”

We kept playing, scoring pretty evenly. Simon was no tennis slouch.

“My parents made me take lessons when I was younger. It was one of the approved Wasp activities.” Simon’s parents were hardcore country clubbers, and also jerks who couldn’t seem to accept that their son was, in fact, g*y and not just “rebelling” or “going through a phase.” They’d even sent him to one of those creepy camps where they try to un-gay you, but all that had happened was he’d hooked up a lot, so it hadn’t been a completely horrible experience for him.

I won three out of five sets and by the time we were done my shirt was soaked with sweat and my hair was dripping in my eyes. Yeah, I definitely needed that haircut. I was also starving.

“If I don’t eat something, I’m going to pass out,” Simon said as we both wiped our faces with the scratchy towels in the locker room.

“Agreed,” I said as we walked toward the little café located next to the tennis courts on the first level of the fitness center.

Two girls were waiting for smoothies in front of us, and I could feel them checking both of us out.

“Nice day for a workout, isn’t it?” Simon said with a huge smile. If anyone else would have said the same phrase, it would have been corny, but Simon made it work.

He started chatting with them and tried to bring me into the conversation, but I wasn’t in the mood. I was sure these two were perfectly nice and sweet (or maybe not, I didn’t know them), but they weren’t Audrey. If I couldn’t talk to her, I didn’t really see the point in talking to someone else.

I’d apparently abandoned Funkville for Emoville. I could feel Simon trying to draw me out, but I just wasn’t into it. And then there was a voice behind me that made me freeze.

“Hi, Will.” I would have heard her voice across a room full of people shouting.

I could see Simon staring at me, waiting for my reaction.

For a second, I considered ignoring her and pretending she wasn’t there. But I couldn’t ignore her if I tried.

“Hi, Aud.” The sight of her after not seeing her in a week hit me like a punch in the gut.

She had her hair pulled back in a long ponytail and her tank top and shorts hugged her body in a way that made me remember what it was like to feel that body pressed against mine.