Blindsided

17

A/N: Right after I asked how you guys liked the longer chapters, I've decided to give you a Valentine's Day week surprise! An update every day, all week. The chapters will be shorter, but full of drama nonetheless. Next update out Monday (11).

...

"I was going to take you out tonight, remember?" Simon grinned from the doorway of the dressing room. I threw him a smirk over my shoulder as I bent over to pick up my hockey bag.

"How about we hang out tomorrow before we fly out," I suggest, leading him back the way we had come in. "Our flight isn't until six o'clock I think."

He smiled sheepishly and shook his head at the ground. "I have some stuff I have to do tomorrow. I was going to make it up to you tonight, so that you didn't think I was abandoning you on our trip."

I leaned into him with my hockey bag and gave him a questioning look. "Stuff to do in Boston?" I had intended for him to take the hint to go into further detail, but his mouth remained in his signature grin. "Don't worry about it. I can find something to do in the meantime."

"Are you sure?" he asked, his eyes furrowed together in guilt.

"Of course. We can hangout a bit before the party—and about that. You gotta promise you won't leave without telling me. I'm already nervous about the girls trying some sort of hazing ritual," I joked. Simon laughed, and his smile reached his eyes. I loved the fact that he could still be happy despite all the other stuff going on in his life. But the voice in my head was right there, quick to point out, he doesn't know everything; you still haven't been completely honest.

But I snuffed that voice out just as quick. I made a whole new promise to myself to tell him everything on the car ride home; I had considered telling him on the plane, but if he was suddenly not in the mood to be around me, the cramped environment wouldn't really accommodate that.

But was it my place to tell him that his girlfriend slept with his best friend? I didn't have a single doubt in Alex, so I knew that what he had told me was the truth. Telling Simon everything right now, when I was feeling, different, to say the least, seemed like a conflict of interest. And not to mention the fact that telling him would include explaining everything that had happened at the party, including what Kristina threatened Alex with. I had no idea how Simon would react to learning his father is in a serious relationship with his best friend's mom.

"I promise I won't leave you. But you promise me that if Aiden is there, you come find me. I don't want you hanging out with him alone," he tells me, and I can't help but roll my eyes. I push the doors open and step outside into the cold, crisp air. I can spot the car waiting at the curb where Elijah had dropped us off. Simon quickly fell into step beside me, his pace quickening to get out of the cold weather.

"I don't get what's so bad about him. He's a nice guy, if you'd just give him—"

"I gave him a chance. He ruined it. Promise me?" he begged, his legs stopping and forcing me to stop beside him.

I let out a breath of defeat and nod softly. The worried look disappears from his face and all of a sudden not only could I see his breath coming out in white clouds from his mouth, but I could feel it warm against my cheek. He had inched closer in a matter of moments, presumably absentmindedly. Even I could admit that standing here in the cold was biting at my skin, and being close to him gave me some kind of warm comfort.

Not some kind of warm comfort. I knew exactly what that warm feeling was buzzing in the pit of my stomach. And I needed to stuff it down into a locked box before it got out of control. Without even glancing at him a second more, I started towards the waiting car and watched as Elijah hopped onto the curb to open the trunk for my hockey bag.