Stone Creek by Davis, Lainey (reading diary .TXT) 📕

book and try to focus on this weekend. Before I know it, Neal is texting me pictures of himself naked in bed, a plate of pumpkin pie covering his crotch. Hungry?

I grab my bag and rush to his suite, where I lick every bit of pie from his lap and even tease him with the whipped cream, rubbing it on his stiff rod before lapping that up, too. We don't get much sleep that night.

~~~

Neal's roommates are all having "family breakfast," but Neal insists that it's fine for me to be there. Tyler and Smith make French toast while Neal works the griddle, cooking truly staggering quantities of bacon that I know the guys will wolf down with no problem. I watch them all stare at him as he pulls me onto his lap and kisses my cheek.

I see Smith glowering and flush, sliding off Neal's lap onto another seat. Neal follows my gaze and glares at Smith. "Dude," he says. "What the fuck?"

Smith frowns into his breakfast and then looks Neal in the eye. "I just think you need to be careful, Sweeney."

Tyler pats Smith on the back. "Relax, man."

I can tell something is going on, and start to feel angry that none of them will tell me what. "Tyler," I say, "what are you guys talking about." Neal squeezes my leg under the counter, but I don't look away and Tyler points at me with his fork.

"Coach Thomas has a rule about girlfriends."

"A rule?" I look to Neal for confirmation, but he's staring into his bacon.

Tyler nods and keeps talking with his mouth full. "He doesn't care if we screw around and blow off steam, which obviously a lot of us do that. But have you ever seen Rocky?"

"The movie? Of course I have." I tuck my hair behind my ears and wait for Tyler to keep talking.

"You know the grumpy dude who hates Rocky's girlfriend? He says, 'women weaken legs.' Well, coach pretty much thinks that way." He swallows his food and walks over to the sink with his plate. "Smithy here just broke things off with his professor because coach caught wind it was getting serious."

At this, Smith storms out of the kitchen with a muttered, "Fuck you, man."

Tyler walks back to the counter and refills my juice glass. He looks from me to Neal and says, "But you guys are just study partners with benefits right?"

Neal doesn't say anything to Tyler, but it seems pretty clear from Smith's reaction that they all have noticed what I have been afraid to admit: Neal and I are a couple.

We just can't let anyone else find out or it sounds like we're both in deep shit.

CHAPTER TEN

 

 

"Tell me where we're going," I say as Neal yanks a knit hat on my head. He told me to wear jeans and snow boots, and is rummaging around his closet for gloves and a scarf.

Wrapped warmly in his own SCU hockey parka, he emerges from the closet with a green scarf and laughs as he ties it over my face. "It'll be a bonding experience." He tosses me a water bottle and he heads down the hallway. Neal raps on one of the doors, shouting. "Smith, I'm taking your truck." We hear a grunt from inside and before I know it, we are both singing along to classic rock as Neal drives us outside of campus.

He takes the turn for Otter Mountain. I'd never hiked up here, although it's supposed to be a quintessential SCU experience. Neal takes my hand and we head up the steep path. I listen to the sound of our boots crunching the frosty dirt. As we make our way higher, there is light snow on the path and I'm finding it harder to keep up with Neal. Noticing me lagging a bit, he steps behind me and says, "You set the pace. Small steps, Dahlia. It's not too much farther."

I glare back at him as the path becomes nearly vertical and I have to use my hands to pull myself up the frozen rocks. About an hour after we set out, I see the summit. Exhausted, I don't notice the view at first, just the wooden bench facing campus. I collapse into it and start chugging the cold water. When I look over at Neal, he is beaming, looking around like he's seeing the world for the first time.

"We do a lot of runs up this mountain at sunrise," he tells me. "When we get up here, all sweaty, racing to see who can be first…we somehow manage to all be here when the sun comes up and it's really special."

He puts an arm around me and points out the arena, then points down to my apartment building. "I can see everything that matters to me right now," he says.

The campus looks beautiful from this angle. The sun is shining through the crisp November air. He's right. It's magical up here. Swept up in the moment, I kiss Neal, closing my eyes and leaning into him on the bench. I want to preserve this moment, when he told me I was important to him. I love that he took me somewhere that's special to him, showing me another piece of his life. We kiss for a long time, but I start to shiver in the cold. "Come on," he says. "We gotta make our way back down!"

Neal takes me to lunch then at the diner right off campus. It feels surreal to be on a real date with him, in public where people might see. Even if everyone who might see us is gone for the holiday. I let myself relax, savoring every second where we don't have to hide in our apartments. I keep my on his leg under the booth, realizing it'll be harder than ever