Dare You to Hate Me by B. Celeste (classic fiction .txt) 📕

wanted to see me?” When did Aiden suggest it? “But you never replied to my message.”

“Your account was gone before I could,” he explains quickly. Porter starts taking a step toward me but second guesses and ends up taking one backward instead. “I did try, Ivy. It took me a couple days to see it, and I’ll be honest I wasn’t sure if I was going to respond. But then Aiden showed up at one of my practices at school.”

“He what?” Heart thudding in my chest, I shake my head at the statement I wasn’t expecting.

My brother winces. “Shit. Listen, that doesn’t matter. He thought it’d be good if we had a chance to talk, so he got me a ticket. Plus, er, well I’m being scouted by the Raiders, so I want to see what they’ve got going for them before I make up my mind. But I did try to respond, honest.”

Eye twitching, I wrap my arms around myself and swallow my opinion on the school matter. It isn’t me who has anything against the well-known university, but I can’t help but feel bitter in Aiden’s defense. I wouldn’t want Porter to go through what Aiden did.

“I deleted my Facebook account the other day,” I say sheepishly. I’d checked to see if he’d seen my message and when I saw he hadn’t, anxiety got the better of me. Instead of obsessing or waiting for the moment his message was marked as “seen” without so much as a reply, I deactivated my account and told myself I did all I could.

Porter shifts on his feet when a couple doors open down the hall and deep voices echo. “I think the team is getting ready to leave. Mrs. Griffith told me to come get you. She wanted to come with me, but her husband said to give us some space since it’s been a while.”

Been a while. I refrain from commenting on that understatement when DJ and Matt stop by my door and eye Porter.

Matt asks, “Is this kid giving you trouble? We don’t mind helping out if he is. Aiden would want us to or we’d get our asses handed to us.”

Porter’s eyes round at the way the two men crowd his space. “I’m, er— She’s—”

DJ chuckles and smacks Porter. “Nice to see you again, kid. Glad you decided to come after all.”

What the hell? “How do you know—” I stop when DJ shoots me an apologetic smile.

“I promised I wouldn’t say anything,” he tells me, and that’s when I realize where their trip was to. Haven Falls. Aiden, Caleb, and DJ went to my hometown. Our hometown.

I sigh. “This is my brother, Matt. Stop scaring him. Aiden, and apparently DJ and Caleb, thought it’d be good to surprise me.”

Matt snickers. “You don’t seem like the type to like surprises.”

Porter scratches his jaw. “She never did.”

Squeezing my torso, I murmur, “That’s because the surprises I had growing up were never good ones.”

They’re all quiet, making me feel bad for making things awkward. I focus solely on my brother when I say, “Let me grab my stuff and then we can go.”

“Are you coming with us?” DJ inquires.

“Aiden’s parents are taking us,” is all I offer for explanation before disappearing into the room and grabbing my phone and my bag from the bed. The small crossbody purse is nothing special, but it holds what little money I have, Chapstick I’m bound to lose by the end of the trip, and my I.D. cards that are heavily outdated.

When I’m back, it’s just Porter and DJ left. “Where’d Matt go?”

I get a shrug from the blond. “Told him I’d make sure you got down there okay. I haven’t seen Aiden’s ‘rents in a while.”

My brows rise as I close the door behind us and follow him and my brother down the long hallway toward the elevators at the end. “You mean since your not-so-mysterious boys trip like a week ago?”

He presses the button and snorts as the doors open for us. “You didn’t need to know, Ives.”

I grumble my disagreement.

“They come to a lot of our games. Big supporters of Griff’s. His mom gets into it, and his dad—” He stops himself. “Well, he’s a good guy but he’s intense. Wants the best for Aiden and sometimes shows it in a tough love kind of way.”

That grabs my attention. His father has always been a big fan of Aiden, helping him train and learn the playbooks when he played in high school. But he always meant well. “Do they not get along?”

“Nah, that’s not it.” DJ hits the GROUND FLOOR button and turns to Porter and I who are leaning against the opposite wall. “They get along fine. His dad definitely bothers him sometimes with how hard he pushes him, but it keeps Aiden on track.”

“Mr. Griffith seems cool,” my brother intervenes, giving me a one-shoulder shrug. “We talked football the whole way here.”

DJ looks to him. “You play, right?”

Porter clears his throat, looking almost shy over the question. “Quarterback.”

“Ah, big shot. You a leader then?”

Something about his questions makes me snap. “Can you stop with the inquiry, DJ?”

Porter instantly drops his eyes to the floor as we descend to the ground level. DJ presses his lips together and nods, not looking surprised over my reaction.

Shoulders tensing, I glance between the two boys trapped in the little box with me and realize I’m not being fair. I don’t know Porter— his likes, who he’s become, and have nothing to contribute. Having someone else get to know him better before me makes the itch come back under my skin, the pressure that I want to ignore. “I’m sorry,” I say to both of them.

It’s Porter who bumps my arm with his, offering me a small smile when I shift my eyes upward. “I get it. This isn’t easy for me either.”

DJ remains uncharacteristically quiet across from us, letting us have a moment. I’m not sure how many we’ll get before I mess everything