Saving Us by Wendy Million

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The bar was packed. Annika had disappeared into a corner with Johnny as soon as we arrived. Whatever lines he was feeding her, she was gobbling them up. Sebastian was working hard to keep me distracted. When he left to get more drinks, Kristy came out of nowhere and bumped my hip.

“Sebastian’s so whipped.” She sipped her drink and grinned at me. “Are Johnny and Annika back together?” She motioned to where they were deep in conversation against a wall.

“No idea on that one.” I scanned the bar for Sebastian. “You were at the game?”

I spotted Sebastian heading toward us with two beers. A girl appeared out of nowhere and tried to hug him. He sidestepped her and shook his head. He grinned to soften the blow and leaned in her direction, yelling something. She turned and stared at me.

Ah, the girlfriend card. Didn’t take long to brandish it.

Kristy took another drink. “Yeah, a bunch of us were there. You should have said you and Annika were going. I thought she was avoiding Johnny or I would have texted you guys.” She followed my gaze. “I didn’t know about you and Sebastian.”

“It’s new.” He passed me a beer and kissed my temple. “Sebastian, do you remember Kristy?” I asked. “We lived on the same floor last year.”

“We met at Nattie’s one time, right?” He kept his palm pressed to my lower back.

“Yeah.” The word was dragged out as she looked between us, grinning. “Okay, I have to say this development is sort of shocking. Nat hated football last year and football players. But seeing you two together—it makes so much sense to me.”

I gave her a lopsided grin. “Thanks, Kristy.”

I wanted to ask Sebastian about the girl who’d approached him, but I couldn’t become obsessed with whatever happened before we became official. Dwelling on the past wouldn’t help us build a relationship.

“I’m working on winning her over.”

Kristy’s smile was sly. “She looks pretty won to me.”

Heat raced up my neck, and a self-conscious laugh escaped before I passed Sebastian my drink. “And on that note,” I said. “I’m going to the bathroom.”

Sebastian’s expression morphed from relaxed to panicked. Until people understood his new hands-off approach, these first few nights would require a lot of explanation to everyone who was used to getting a piece of him.

“Kristy will keep you company.” I nudged her with my shoulder. “If anyone tries to touch him, knock them out with a death stare or just punch them. I’m okay with either.”

“Death stare, death stare,” Sebastian said, taking a drink of his beer. “Though girls fighting over me has always seemed kinda hot…” He trailed off, smugness oozing out of him.

I laughed and punched him in the arm.

“Fighting over me, Nattie. Not beating me up.” He gave me a quick kiss before I left. “Hurry back.”

“I’ll protect him,” Kristy called as I walked away.

When I approached the bathrooms, I was still grinning. Coming out of the men’s door was Johnny. He slowed to a stop when he saw me.

“Natalie,” he drawled.

“Johnny,” I said, mimicking his tone.

“Annika’s coming home with me tonight, so you don’t need to wait.” He made it sound as though he was doing me a favor.

“Is that so?” I raised my eyebrows. “I’ll double-check with her.”

“She needed time to miss me, to understand we’ve got a good thing.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “I knew she’d come around.”

Looking at him made my blood boil. I made a noncommittal noise and tried to decide if I could squeeze past him in the hall without touching him. We’d met in a crowded spot, and I was trapped. People eased around us in the tight hallway. The publicness of the encounter was good; the closeness was not. I should have gone to the other bathroom. More crowded, but also more open.

“You don’t believe me, but I love her.”

I glanced at him. “People don’t leave bruises on those they love.”

He shrugged. “Sometimes I don’t realize my own strength.” He searched my face, and I hated the calculation I saw. “You’ve made it so clear you don’t like me, Natalie. No one is ever going to believe anything you say about me.” He shook his head in mock regret. “Here’s the real kicker. Your interference is often what sets me off—the phone password, planting seeds of doubt in Annika about me—if you’d just stay out of my relationship, Annika and I would be fine.”

I met his steady, determined gaze and marveled at his nerve. “I’m the reason you can’t keep your temper in check? I’m the reason you sleep with other girls? Man, Johnny. You must spend a lot of time thinking about me.”

His jaw clenched, and his hands flexed in and out of fists. “I have no idea what Sebastian sees in you.”

“Thank God for that.”

He stepped around me, and as he did, he said to me, just loud enough to hit my ears, “Watch yourself. Seb’s not always nearby.”

A chill raced through me. For a minute, I stood frozen. Sounded an awful lot like a threat. Would Sebastian believe me if I told him? I wasn’t sure he would. As close as we were getting, Johnny was the guy he was closest to on campus. He’d tell me Johnny was being intense again. Or maybe I’d misheard him or misunderstood.

Forgetting about the bathroom, I rotated on my heel and pushed through the crowd. Kristy was still with Sebastian, along with about ten other girls, but none of them were touching him. He was laughing with one of them when I came up behind him.

“Have you seen Annika?” I ran my fingers along his back.

He tugged me into a hug. “Man, girls and their bathroom lines.” He shifted and examined my face. A frown marred his forehead, and he leaned in to whisper in my ear, “You okay?”

When he passed me my beer, I drained it. “I want to leave. Have you seen Annika? I need to talk to her before we go.” My pulse pounded.

Sebastian motioned to a booth off to the side. “She’s sitting with Johnny and a couple of the other guys.”

In the booth, she was smiling and laughing. When Johnny caught me looking, he grinned and had the nerve to nudge Annika and point to me. She waved me over.

I grabbed Sebastian’s hand, mumbled goodbye to Kristy, and headed to their table.

Johnny rubbed Annika’s back and spoke to Sebastian. “I ran into Natalie outside the bathrooms.”

“Oh yeah?” Sebastian turned to me. “Everything okay?” He drew me into his side and nuzzled my ear.

I couldn’t say anything. The words were stuck in my throat.

“We cleared the air,” Johnny said. “Yeah, yeah. I wasn’t treating Annika right before. But I’ll be better this time.”

My stomach churned.

“Annika?” I asked.

She hit Johnny’s leg. “Let me out. I should talk to Nat quickly.”

My heart sank.

She pulled me off to the side and stared at me for a beat. The words might not have left her lips, but I could tell from her helpless, hopeful expression what was coming.

“We’re trying again. It was a misunderstanding.”

I said nothing. Would she believe me if I told her what Johnny said? Would she understand his words were a threat?

“You’re not going to say anything?” Annika asked.

“What do you want me to say? Giving him another chance is a mistake, but it’s your life and you get to make your own choices.” Part of me wanted to tell her not to come running to me the next time he screwed up, but I’d never want her to feel she couldn’t turn to me. Even if it put me in danger too.

She shifted from foot to foot. “He’ll be better this time. He really wants this.” She bit her lip. “He said you two cleared the air?”

“We both said things.” No point in getting into what the words we exchanged were about since it was clear she was determined to believe him. “Are you coming home tonight?”

“Uh.” She shrugged. “I’m not sure. I guess we’ll see how the rest of the night goes.”

With a deep, shaky breath, I hugged her. “If you need anything at all, ever, call me.”

She smiled and her shoulders lowered. “I’m good. Our relationship will be better this time. The first step is admitting you have a problem.”

Did any of us agree on the problem, though?

Instead of asking, I squeezed her tight one more time and went to Sebastian. I laced my fingers with his. He was laughing with Johnny and turned to brush a kiss on my temple.

“We’re outta here. See you at practice tomorrow.” He gave a general wave to the footballers gathered. “Have a good night, Annika.”

She beamed at Sebastian as she slid into the booth beside Johnny.

The last thing I saw before I left them was Johnny’s triumphant smirk.

We’d no sooner exited the bar when Sebastian said, “You two didn’t clear the air, did you?”

I laughed, but it held no humor. “No, we did not.”

“You don’t believe Johnny can be faithful?”

Such a slippery discussion. If I said I didn’t, we might steer into a discussion about him. We were building our trust, and I didn’t want to ruin that. He and Johnny weren’t the same.

The farther we walked from the bar, the more I started to convince myself I couldn’t have heard Johnny correctly. Did he threaten me? Why would he bother? Annika was falling into his arms without any protest.

I shook my head. “We don’t get along. It’s not like it’s a secret.”

“Is there something you’re not telling me?” He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. Confusion and concern mingled on his face. “Something doesn’t feel right to me.”

“No.” I avoided eye contact. “It’s fine. I’m worried. You know me.”

He kissed the top of my head. “I do, Nattie. So, I realize there’s more to the story. But I’m gonna trust you’ll tell me at some point.”

I gave him an extra squeeze as we walked to my house, grateful he wasn’t going to push the issue.