What You Don't Know, Can't Hurt You

I spent the rest of the day catching up on homework. The next morning Chelsea picked me up for an early cheer practice.

“Hey!” she said, grinning like an idiot. “So…? How was the other night?!”

“Girl, I don’t even know,” I replied, laughing. “One weekend stand? Whatever. He’s gone on a road trip now. We’ll see if he texts, I guess.”

The week went by pretty quickly and I honestly forgot about Brayden. I had hooked up with quite a few guys in my university years (hey, I was young and having fun) and it honestly didn’t faze me when I never saw them again – that was the whole point. So, I was shocked when I got a text a week and a half after I had seen him.

“I know it’s Wednesday and you have school tomorrow but I got back in town yesterday and I wanna see you.”

I called Chelsea right away and told her about the message. “Oh my God! Text him and tell him it’s okay! I’ll excuse you from early practice tomorrow girl. Come on!”

“Chels, I’ve never seen them again. How does it work?”

“Not to be crude, but pretty much the same way as the first time…” she replied, laughing. “Don’t even think about it. It’s BRAYDEN SCHENN! Now, hang up and text him. Tell him to come over NOW.”

I hung up and sighed. “I’m home now. Code is 4531, come on up.” I typed.

I quickly went in my room and tidied up a bit – it wasn’t like he was going to be looking around a whole lot but I could at least make the place presentable. About a half hour later I heard a knock on the door. “Come in!” I shouted. I emerged from my room as I heard the door close. “Hey, stranger,” I said in a flirty tone.

“Hey, birthday girl,” he said smiling.

“You can’t call me that anymore,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “I’ve been 21 for like, two weeks now.”

“I don’t care. I’ll call you what I want,” he said with a smirk. “Come here.”

I walked over to him and he leaned down and gently kissed me. “Well, that’s a little different.” I looked up at him and raised my eyebrows. “Calmer tonight, are we?”

“We won all of our games, my – uh – roommate is finally off my back a little bit, and I’m here to see you again,” he said, smiling. “Why would I be anything but happy.”

I shrugged. “Whatever,” I said. “Let’s do this.” I leaned up and started kissing him. We slowly made our way to the couch and just made out there for quite a while. Taking it a little slower was actually kinda nice. As he was kissing his way down my neck I whispered in his ear, “Bedroom. Now.” He picked me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist. As he laid me down on the bed I pulled away and held out my hand. “Phone.”

He took it out of his pocket and handed it to me. As I was turning it off, he pulled his shirt over his head. “Holy fuck you’re hot,” I said in awe, checking him out. “Come here.”

A little while later we were laying down next to each other catching our breaths. “I missed you,” he said, turning to look at me.

“You missed getting laid,” I said with a scoff. “You don’t even know me.” I climbed out of bed and started getting dressed. “I’m hungry. I’m gonna make supper. Want anything?”

“Yeah, sure. I’ll be out in a minute,” he replied. A few minutes later I heard him coming up behind my while I looked in the fridge. “What do you like?” I asked, turning around. “I don’t really have much here…”

He looked in over my shoulder. “Jory, there’s beer, milk, water and yogurt in there. Let’s order take-out.”

“Oh, thank God,” I said, relieved. “I can’t cook anything other than breakfast, anyway.” We called for some Chinese and then settled down on the couch.

“So, you say I don’t know you. Tell me something,” Brayden said, looking at me from across the couch.

“Well, I’m from here. I’m a cheerleader at U of Pennsylvania. Two older brothers – who would kick your ass if they knew about this – and one younger sister. I like to party. Other than that, pretty normal – normal meaning boring, I guess.”

“Normal sounds good,” he said laughing. “I need normal. My life is always surrounded by crazy these days. I’ve got siblings too! Love my family. I also love to party,” he said with a smile.

I laughed. “Brayden, I could Google you and figure out anything I wanted to know. You don’t need to act like we’re on a date right now.”

“Well, I don’t want you to have to Google me. I wanna tell you myself. And if you’re lucky, I’ll count this as a date. All depends on how good the food is.”

“Oh? If I’m lucky? Cocky are we?” I said as there was a knock on the door. I stood up and headed in that direction. I swung it open and grabbed the food. “I’ll be right back,” I said, turning to go grab my wallet.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got it,” said Brayden, handing the delivery guy his credit card. “I’m sure you’ll pay me back later,” he continued, straight faced.

“If you’re lucky,” I replied with a wink. I threw in a movie and we settled down on the couch to eat. Halfway through Brayden looked at me. “I’ve got some news,” he said.

“Um, okay? What?”

“This food is amazing so, this is officially a date.” I picked up a pillow and threw it at him. “What?” he exclaimed. “That’s good news!”

“Remember that first morning when I told you that you weren’t an ass? Yeah, I lied.” He smirked and turned back to his food. When we were finished I brought all the garbage into the kitchen and grabbed a couple beers. I threw one in his direction as I walked back into the living room and he caught it and smirked at me. “I guess this means I’m staying? I mean… I can’t go driving home under the influence.”

“I think it’s pretty obvious you’re staying,” I said, laughing. “I’ve got nothing to do and you’re good at what you do – and I’m not talking about hockey, but I guess you’re half decent at that too.”

“Let’s be honest. I’m incredible at both of those things,” he said as he opened his beer. I laid back down on the couch with my feet in his lap. “Meh,” I said in return. We finished our beer right when the movie was over. “What now?” I asked him.

“Bed?” he said with a smirk.

“Bed.” I replied.

After a couple rounds I finally looked at him and said, “Bray, I need to go to sleep. I have school in the morning.”

“Fine,” he whined. I curled up next to him and was asleep in seconds. My alarm went off early the next morning and I groaned as I rolled over. “Not yet,” Brayden whispered. “Too early.”

“Sorry, bud. I’ve got places to be. But, I’ve gotta shower first…” That woke him up quickly and he was soon following me into the bathroom.

A couple hours later I was pushing him towards the door. “I’ve gotta leave like, now. I already missed cheer practice,” I said.

“Can I at least drive you?” he asked, pouting.

“As long as you park around a corner somewhere. I don’t want anyone knowing I’m a fucking Flyer’s booty call,” I replied, frustrated. I grabbed my stuff and before I knew it I was sitting in class answering all of Chelsea’s questions.

“Chels, stop. We fucked, we ate, we fucked, we slept. It’s no big deal. I have no answers for your ridiculous questions.”

“Oh, my God. Fine,” she said, haughtily. “I’d tell you everything if I hooked up with someone…”

“I’d tell you everything too – if there was anything to tell,” I said laughing. “Honestly, it was nothing special. I mean he’s good – really good – but it’s just sex.”

“He keeps coming back. It’s definitely more than just sex,” she said, giving me a look before she walked out of the classroom.

The day went by super slow because I was so tired. When I got out of cheer practice I checked my phone and saw a text from Brayden.

“Seeing as we didn’t leave the apartment, I feel like I owe you a date. Tomorrow night. I’ll pick you up at 7.”

“Uh, date…? I thought we were fuck buddies.”

“Come on. I know for a fact you have no food at your apartment and seeing as you’ll be eating take out anyway, I might as well get you something good. You know we’ll end up at your place anyway.”

“Fine,” I typed, giving in. “7.”

I sighed and headed home. If I was going out tomorrow I had a lot of work to finish tonight.

Brayden knocked on my door at 6:45 the next night. “Coming! I’m comi – Ouch! Jesus,” I pulled open the door to see Brayden trying to fight off a laugh.

“What the hell are you doing?” he asked.

“You said 7! I was putting on my shoes and trying to get to the door at the same time and I, uh… Well, I…”

“You what?”

“… I walked into my door.”

Brayden lost it. I pulled him into the apartment – I didn’t want my neighbours coming out to see what the racket was all about. “Shut up,” I whined. “It really hurt!”

“I can tell,” Brayden said, catching his breath. “Your nose is all red.”

“Oh, my God!” I ran into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. Sure enough, my nose was already a little swollen and was really red. “I can’t go out like this!” I yelled.

“Sure you can,” he replied. “Nobody’s going to know you where we’re going anyway. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“Where are we going, anyway?” I asked.

“You’ll see,” he responded with a wink. I grabbed the rest of my stuff – carefully – and we headed down to his truck. We drove for what felt like forever – and really was a little over an hour. “Why are we all the way out here?” I asked, confused.

“It’s a lot less busy here,” Brayden replied without missing a beat. “Nobody bothers me at this place, which I like. In Philly people can get kind of annoying.”

We went into the restaurant and sat down. Everything was going great, surprisingly. The conversation wasn’t awkward at all and the food was great. Halfway through though, his phone rang. He checked the caller ID and sighed. “I’ve gotta take this,” he said. “I’ll be right back.” I watched him walk outside and watched him through the window. I could tell he was getting frustrated and he suddenly hung up the phone. He walked around outside for a few minutes, seemingly trying to cool off and then I saw him take his phone back out and turn it off. I couple seconds later he was back in at the table. He gave me a tight smile. “Sorry. It was G. I swear, sometimes he seems like a REALLY overbearing girlfriend.”