AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He smiled, agreeing that if it made me more comfortable, we could talk to Oli and Noah. We did. They were overjoyed with it, to say the least. They were happy to get some of the pressure off their own backs, happy that someone they trusted would be crafting their public image. I was just glad I’d get to keep hanging around and watching them create.
I was excited for it.
Chapter 19
Kai
Aaron and I stood behind a line of benches watching our gym partners. Thalia spotted Briggs, who sat on a red bench and held a dumbbell in each hand, pressing them up in shaky movements. She followed beneath his elbows with her palms. If Briggs was the second strongest of the group, Thalia was a very close third. Her beautiful muscles shined under the harsh gym lighting, and I envied how sure and solid she looked. She was cool, and I wanted to be cool like her too.
After a handful of reps, the weights finally dropped to the floor. While Briggs took a breath, Thalia picked them up and brought them back to the rack, returning with the next set, five pounds heavier.
“She likes him,” I said, turning my head to Aaron who stood just behind my right shoulder.
“No way.” I watched in the mirror in front of us as he put his hands on his hips, shaking his head and catching my eye. “There’s no way. It’s been a year. If they both liked each other, something would’ve happened by now.”
I grinned. “You really are terrible at reading women, aren’t you?”
“Excuse me?” His eyebrows lifted, the movement accompanied by a popped hip.
I hardly knew Thalia, but I could tell. While I was only just getting to know this muscly bunch, I was truly rooting for her and Briggs. Something about their dynamic just worked. She was so strong-willed and focused, and he was so sweet and kind, and their personalities mixed in such a perfect way. The only issue is, Thalia clearly held all the power, and she didn’t seem like one to get all caught up with romance and such. She wore a shell made of ambition, and she was the type to scoff at mushy feelings. Add that to the fact that Briggs was as nervous as a first-time skydiver around her, and you had yourself two people who would just never cross the finish line.
“Look at them,” I said quietly, holding Aaron’s gaze in the mirror. “She’s replacing his weights so he can rest. Not in a bro way, in a caring way. Look at how she looks down at him over his shoulder. She’s thinking about it. It’s crossed her mind. But she needs a little push. She needs him to make the first move. As confident as she is, I don’t think romance is her strong suit.”
“She is surprisingly soft on the inside.” Aaron placed his wrist on my shoulder and lifted his fingers to scratch his chin. I flinched as his hot skin rolled too close to my sweaty neck. Ugh, that was not a spot I wanted just anyone touching. He looked down at me and scrunched his eyebrows, lifting his wrist and thumping it back down on the bone of my shoulder, closer to the edge. He shook his head as if he were shaking off my reaction and continued to speak. “You’d think she’d make a move. She’s bigger than him. More aggressive, too. She obviously wears the pants.”
“Sometimes the more outgoing ones have a harder time getting close.” It was a thought I pondered often. “Sometimes all the glamor is covering something else. Don’t you think?”
He scoffed. “I’m outgoing and I don’t have issues with getting close. Chicks love me.”
“I’m talking about Thalia, asshole. Besides, you do.”
I’d only known Aaron for two weeks, and I already felt like I knew him. I felt like I knew him because he was me. I knew what it was like to party, to talk to multiple people at once, to fuck and spit and lick in place of having an actual conversation. To only offer people the shallowest version of myself to avoid greater pain than that which I already suffered. I burned out fast, hiding away in my apartment for two years before I felt ready to make a change in my life. Aaron, it seemed, had lasted surprisingly long. Or so he claimed.
He sighed. “Blame my ex.”
I folded my arms over my chest and watched Briggs tremble with the final rep of his current set. “What’s Briggs’ deal?”
“Are you asking if B is totally traumatized like us?”
I nodded.
“No. Nothing. He had a nice girlfriend in high school. It fizzled out and they wished each other the best. She moved to South Carolina, and he’s been mostly single since, working at his dad’s surf shop by the beach.”
“So, he’s been going to the gym this whole time because he actually likes it?” I looked back at Aaron in the mirror to see if he would understand what I meant by that, but I knew he would. Aaron and I worked out because we were angry. Briggs worked out because he was happy. It was a dynamic I wasn’t sure I’d ever understand. Aaron just smiled. “Do you think Thalia ever feels like she’s not good enough for him since he’s so sweet and she’s kind of a hot head? Like she might hurt him?”
“I think we’re allowed to talk about ourselves now,” Aaron said, “without covering it up like we’re talking about them.” He gestured to me to sit back down on our respective bench. I picked up the two dumbbells from the floor and began pressing as Briggs was. “So, who is it? The skinny kid who picks you up sometimes?”
“Aaron!” I paused my motion at the top and gave him a reprimanding look in the mirror.
“All right, so it is.”
“It’s not,” I said truthfully, pushing up a few more reps before continuing my thought. I dropped the weights to the ground and swapped places with Aaron. “It’s not him, but he does set a standard. He’s my best friend. Very loyal, very thoughtful.”
“Are you not those things?” he said with a grunt, lifting a heavier set.
“He thinks I am. I try to be. But I did a lot of stupid things in the past. Sometimes I look at my friends and I just wish I could be like them. It’s hard to feel…worthy of such nice people. Don’t you think?”
“You’re asking the wrong person, KK.” Aaron finished his set and dropped the weights. “I’ve fucked up so many times, I’ve damned myself to be like this forever. No nice person would ever want to be around this.” He held his hands out to the side and gestured to himself as he often did.
