77

Adam

The Hug

Piper hugged me.

I couldn't move an inch while she buried her face against my chest, holding me tight. She was hugging me, and I felt like a complete fucking moron because I didn't know what to do. I'd hugged plenty of people before. More people hugged me after games than I even hugged them. But this was different. This was Piper. This was my ice princess.

Do something, dude.

I reached down and wrapped my arms around her, engulfing her in an embrace. Part of me still couldn't believe it. Piper, in her G-rated way of speaking, said my parents could go fuck themselves. And here she was, hugging me tight. Like I was the one who needed to be looked after, not her.

I held her and, too soon, it was over. She pulled away, with a hand on my chest, gazing up with those gray eyes sparkling in the lights of the city.

My heartbeat slowed down. I could feel it throughout my body. It'd be so easy to grab her chin and tilt her head up, catching her lips for another kiss. But that wasn't why I told her the story.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean what I said," I said, my voice low.

Her fingertips drew along my chest. "What you said?"

"Ice princess, I said you weren't my friend. And that's not true." I moved away from her. If I could get some distance between us, I'd avoid doing something stupid. Something to ruin everything. "Piper, you're my—my—" Nothing really captured how I felt about her. "Friend. A good friend."

"Friends," Piper echoed.

"Yeah. Yep. Good…buddies."

Fuck me. This is painful .

But what was even more painful was the idea of pushing Piper away again. It'd been horrible without her. I didn't want to do anything to jeopardize her being in my life. Nothing would shove her out. Not even how badly I wanted to kiss her and touch her.

I wanted to keep her in my life even more. Even if it meant I was going to die from blue ball syndrome.

The elevator doors opened and I bit back a curse. Our friends had such great timing. Damn them. I sighed and pushed myself up to a standing position, careful to hold on to the railing. But Piper hesitated.

"Ready to go?" I held out my hand.

"Um…" Piper stared at my hand and slowly nodded, taking mine. "Okay."

She was so warm to the touch. Sparks flew through my body, but I couldn't focus on that, not with us precariously stepping off the ledge. I kept a hand on her back the whole time, easing her back to the rooftop before anyone noticed.

"You didn't forget the guac, right?" Zariah's voice echoed on the rooftop.

"June's bringing it," Kassie replied.

I gestured for Piper to walk out first, and she watched me for a moment before heading off to the others. Then I adjusted my hoodie, following after her. Zariah almost dropped an aluminum plate of brownies off the table before I grabbed them out of the air.

"Oh my god, where has your big ass been?" Zariah demanded. "I have to carry things by myself? What year is it?"

"Is there more stuff downstairs?"

Zariah shook her head. "Of course not. We're all going to be cool with a plate of brownies, some chips, and soda." She grinned at me. "Yeah, there's stuff downstairs."

I threw her a grin too, trying to avoid how my stomach wouldn't unclench. "Good, I'll grab it."

"I'm coming too," Piper hurried to say.

"No," burst out of me, and all three girls looked up.

Piper and I couldn't be alone in an elevator together right now. The more distance we had between each other, the better. If I had her in the elevator alone, I didn't know what I was going to do. Probably something fucking stupid.

"No—uh—" I cleared my throat. "You stay and help out. I'll be right back."

"Okay…?" Piper said, but I was already halfway to the elevator, pushing the button as hard as I could.

With the movie night, I'd be on my best behavior. We were surrounded by all our friends that we saw twenty-four hours a day. I wouldn't do anything stupid. I'd be the perfect gentleman I never bothered to be before.

The elevator doors opened, revealing King, carrying as much as he could in his arms.

"Where's the rest of it?" I asked. "Is your truck parked outside?"

His eyebrows lifted as soon as he saw me. "We can carry the speakers."

We headed out to his truck, where there was a line of football players taking junk food and crap out of the bed, but he passed off everything he had to someone and the two of us went to the speakers. They were from Kassie's collection and heavy as shit.

"What the hell is in these? Dumbbells?" I snorted, shuffling them to the elevator with him.

King didn't say anything and when I looked at him, his eyebrows were raised even higher.

I frowned. "What?"

His eyebrows pushed another inch up.

"No, she's fine," I answered his unspoken question.

We heaved the speakers into the elevator and took our place inside, King remaining silent.

"I said she's fine," I said, irritable.

He made a noise at the back of his throat.

"No, there's nothing between Piper and I," I retorted, annoyed that I even had to say it out loud. It hurt enough to think about. Why was he being a dick about it? "Goddamn, you love shoving into other people's business."

King shrugged.

"You should interview for one of those grocery store magazines," I muttered. "You'd make a killing."

The elevator doors opened to a handful of people in front of them. Piper was chatting with Zairah and Kassie and once she spotted me, a small smile lifted on her lips. She waved a little at me.

King stumbled with the speaker when I dropped my part of the load.

"Oh, shit, sorry—" I apologized under my breath, hauling it out with him.

He threw me an obvious look behind his shoulder.

"Shut up," I muttered and King chuckled.

The rest of it was easy to set up. Through everything, I tried to keep busy and not focus on Piper giggling in the corner or Piper sweeping her blonde hair over her shoulder or Piper posing when the girls took pictures together. More and more people showed up for the night and in the end, I realized I forgot to even grab a seat.

"Adam!" Piper waved me over to the last row, the only row that wasn't totally occupied.

How weird would it look if I purposely took a seat a couple of chairs away?

"Alright, Adam," I muttered. "You can do this."

Be cool .

I smiled back at her and took the seat to her left. No matter what, I could be relaxed about this. Piper was my friend. Piper wanted to be my friend. Nothing else mattered. I stretched back and rested on the armrests, chilling out before the show.

"Because the rodeo is coming up, we're going full cowboy!" Kassie announced in front of the screen, with Ryan right next to her, adjusting the projector. She leaned against his side. "If you don't like my movie, I don't give a shit! It's a spaghetti western. It's a classic! "

I mulled over the movie choice, stealing a look at Piper. She liked cowboy stuff. That's what Kassie said. I wondered how much she was going to commit for the rodeo. Was that why she was so excited for it?

"How old is the movie?" someone teased from the audience.

"Pretend to like it." Kassie laughed.

Ryan glanced back with a serious expression. "Pretend to like it."

"He's talking to you, Adam," Piper whispered to me.

That brought a chuckle out of me. "Don't hurt me like that, ice princess."

Kassie disappeared to the side while the movie started. Overhead, the outdoor lights dimmed, and all the chatter stopped. It was quiet. It was dark. And Piper sat inches away.

Without everything else to occupy me, it was hard to ignore the fact that Piper was right there. Resting on the chair next to me. I glanced down at her out of the corner of my eyes and found the gray eyes doing the same.

Shit .

I shifted up and kept my eyes on the screen, not watching anything. There was a buzz under my skin having her so close. I had to squeeze my hand into a fist to bring some focus back. But whenever she leaned to the side, her perfume washed over me, and I had to struggle to keep my breathing even.

Fuck me .

This was going to be the longest movie in the world.