My Covert Bodyguard

05: Pool Party

After school on a Friday afternoon, Henry drove up in the usual limo just as I saw my brothers and his teammates walking towards us. And then I also saw two other limos pull up right behind Henry. I groaned loudly. I had forgotten about today.

About once a month, my brothers throw a sleepover-ish-party thing where they invite all of their teammates from their soccer, football, baseball, and basketball teams. Yes, my brothers are doing all those sports, and yes, that is a lot of people. And it was peculiar how half way through the day, there were always girls joining in on the party. I had no idea how they could have possibly gotten inside.

But anyhow, that always meant I had to sit next to a whole bunch of sweaty guys in the car. And the guys hated sitting next to me more than I hated to sit with them.

I'm that weird little sister of the Heywood brothers.

I climbed into the limo after saying hi to Henry and sat in the back corner. At least then I only had to sit next to one person. And this was where I would have to sit and wait for ten minutes just so that the guys could arrange their seats. Who sits next to Cassandra, who has to sit on the other two limos, blah, blah, blah.

But today was a bit different.

Zayden climbed in before anyone spoke a word about where to sit and sat himself next to me. I was more than a little surprised. But none of the guys thought it strange and piled in one after the other. Usually, if one of my brothers' friends sat next to an 'anomaly' like me, they would be glared at, shunned, or worse.

Forget a bit, today was completely different.

Once the wheels of the limo started moving though, I forgot about the complexity of popularity at our school. Because, hello, there was a super hot guy squished next to me in a car right now.

And he was totally sweaty.

"Ew," I said, crunching my nose, "you're all sweaty."

Zayden barked out a laugh over the loud talking of everyone else.

"Don't I smell wonderful?"

I rolled my eyes playfully. "You're disgusting."

"Oh, come on, don't say that. I know you like having me pushed up against you."

I could feel my cheeks warm as I tried to stay cool. "You wish."

"You're being so stubborn. I know I like it." Zayden said, winking at me.

I cleared my throat. "Good for you."

I felt like I was going to faint. It was kind of obvious he was flirting with me, but, why? And even though I wasn't used to flirting at all, it felt amazing to be flirted to, especially if the guy was absoloutely gorgeous.

Time ticked slowly, but finally the limo pulled up by my house. I couldn't have gotten out quick enough, and I ran upstairs to my room. I crashed into my bed, my face still red as a tomato. And the faint smell of Zayden's cologne lingered on my clothes, not helping my racing heart slow down.

I quickly changed into shorts and my favorite dark blue tank top, pulling my hair up into a messy bun. The guys would probably be loud the entire time, but they never disrupt me, and I never see them until dinner, so I should get at least three hours to myself.

I grabbed my notebook and scrambled onto my bed. I started writing a sentence when someone knocked on my door.

I groaned. What did my brothers want from me?

"Look, if you think you need something from me-" I stopped talking when I opened the door to see Zayden and not one of my brothers. My mouth fell into a small o shape as I didn't know how to react.