Waiting on the Sidelines (Waiting on the Sidelines #1)(29)

When the song faded into a slow song, I started to turn back to our table, but Reed stopped me, grabbing the tips of my fingers and willing me towards him. His smile was stronger. He was turning on the Johnson charm.

“Sean won’t mind. I bet Tatum will force him to dance, you know, just to show me a lesson,” Reed rolled his eyes.

I laughed, though my gut clenched a little at the thought of Tatum teaching me a lesson.

It was a country song, one that my dad listened to all the time. I knew the words and focused on them to keep my legs from buckling under me as Reed pulled my hand in to his chest and put his warm hand flat against my lower back. This… was intimate.

As we rocked to the music, I felt him looking down at my face, his superior height something I was ever so grateful for now. I forced my eyes to look to the side at other couples and caught a quick glimpse of Sean and Tatum dancing across the room. He was right.

Unable to stand it, I looked up to try to sneak one look at him, but was caught immediately, his smile fast and captivating.

“Noles, you look amazing tonight. Really,” he said, squeezing my hand a little as he held it even tighter to his chest.

“Thanks,” I blushed, looking back up at him through my lashes, a move I learned from Sarah. “You clean up pretty good yourself, champ.” And… there I am.

Reed chuckled a little, then stopped our movement for a moment, lifting my chin with his hand to look him in the eyes. “Stop it; you don’t know how to take a compliment. I mean it and I want you to hear me. You. Are. Beautiful.”

I was done. I knew it the first time I saw him, but tonight solidified every stray emotion rattling in my body. I loved Reed Johnson, and I was pretty sure I always would. He pulled me back in to his chest and we danced in silence for the rest of the song. My eyes locked on the contour of his jaw line and chest, his chin tucked over my head. In my mind he was holding me as if he never wanted to let go.

Reed guided me back to our table and my head was swirling, my mind trying to wrap itself around the words my ears just heard. My eyes were panicked and looking for Sean, and I worried about what I could ever say. And then one look pulled me right out of my fantasy. Tatum was sitting at our table, her long legs folded over one another and her eyes trained on mine like daggers. She was pissed. And I knew I was her target. She stood and came over to Reed, hooking her arm under his and running her nose along his jaw to reclaim what was hers. But while Reed gave her his attention, he still shared it with me for the rest of the evening.

And Tatum was furious.





11. Untruths


“Hey, I was thinking to kick off track season I would have a little sleepover, you know before the big meet? I thought maybe you, me and a few of the other girls could get together. It’d be fun. Let me know, ok?”

I must have played Tatum’s voicemail over a hundred times trying to decipher the tone, get to the root of her plan, understand what she was up to. During the weeks after the winter formal, Tatum had been very short with me. She had also been very possessive of Reed’s time, making it near impossible for us to ever be alone together. I had grown nervous for a while that she was sabotaging my relationship with Sean after I’d seen her talking with him in his truck one morning, but despite my anxiety that he would dump me or cause a scene accusing me of cheating on him with his best friend, which I had not done, it never happened.

Regardless, I knew I couldn’t trust her. But I also knew that I couldn’t alienate myself.

I called Tatum back finally and left her a message confirming my Friday night attendance. It was the night before our first big weekend meet. The meet was at home, so we wouldn’t have to leave campus early for travel.

I drove the trusty Olds to her house with my dad in the passenger seat. He was giving me some extra hours behind the wheel before I took my driving test. I was 16, but I wasn’t quite comfortable behind the wheel.

He slid over in the seat as I got out and grabbed my bag and sleeping bag from the trunk. I knocked on Tatum’s door and she answered, revealing five other girls behind her. I didn’t know any of them very well – they were all juniors and seniors – but they were all nice to me during volleyball season and last year’s track season.

“Hey, Nolan. You can put your stuff in here,” said Becky, the perky blonde who ran the hurdles and high-jumped.

“Thanks!” I said, grabbing my bags and tossing them in a spare bedroom.

I took my spot on the floor where all the girls were sitting, watching the giant T.V. Tatum’s house was very large. It wasn’t posh, like Reed’s, but it was nice. Nicer than mine. But it didn’t really feel like a home. It was more like a show gallery, everything in its place and nothing with a sense of home. At least at our house we owned the stains on our carpet and knew what had led to every knick in the door, scuff on the floor and dent in the walls. My home was real. Lived in.

“Pizza, swimming and then movies!” Tatum squealed. She could delight over just about anything, I swear. It was utterly obnoxious.

“Noles, what kind of pizza do you want? My mom’s ordering. We all wanted veggie,” she stood with a pen and pad of paper dangling at the side of her hip. Truth be told I hated veggie pizza. It was a complete waste of comfort food in my opinion, but I knew I had to be careful tonight. And pizza was not worth making waves.

“Sounds good to me,” I smiled.