Because of that Night (Book 2)

Chapter 52: Everyone ~ Michael

A champagne bottle erupted with a happy pop! from the living room of Marc Rolland's large home, flying into the air where Lila and Michael could see it fall back to the ground again from the second-floor balcony where they stood. Michael's phone buzzed again. It felt like that was all it had been doing for the entire evening thus far. Lila glanced down at where Michael shoved his phone safely back into his shorts pocket.

"The guys from the team again?" Lila asked.

Her brown eyes looked up at Michael like sparkling, mystical orbs. God, she could drive him crazy just by looking at him. Everything in him wanted to just take her into one of the several bedrooms in that monstrous house right then and there. He pulled her in closer to him, and she continued to stare at him expectantly.

"Yeah, a few of the guys graduated tonight," Michael explained, but he didn't read the messages, only stuffing the phone back into his short's pocket.

It wasn't entirely a lie. Many of the text messages were from members of his new baseball team and all the new recruits that would be freshmen with him. But there were some others. People he had met from his summer camps, people he had met from his recruitment weekend back in March. New people. College people. People who Lila knew nothing about, and only knew as a buzz on his phone. He took another sip of his beer, ignoring this realization as best as he could. He didn't want to think about moving on just yet. For now, he wanted to live in the moment they were in right now, with her by his side.

He turned to face Lila, brushing her hair back away from her face. She smiled, a melancholic smile, but a smile, nonetheless. He let his hand rest on her cheek, and she leaned into it so that her head was cradled in his touch. Michael had enjoyed this last semester with Lila by his side. Though the summer before senior year had gotten dicey with Hunter, having him gone the last few months had been good for them. A way to get back on track. A way for her to remember what she had with him was far more important (and better) than any weird connection she did or didn't have with Hunter over those summers Michael wasn't around.

He just had to make her remember. Make her remember why she was with him instead. Michael didn't like to think of himself as a jealous person. But before Lila, there just wasn't ever really anything to be jealous about. Being with Lila meant something to Michael. Before he knew her, he was just an individual. In control of his own actions, focused on baseball, and not necessarily closed off to dating, but not actively looking either. But whenever Lila walked into the cafeteria that first day, something just switched in him. He had to be near her, with her, associated with her. If he wasn't, he didn't know what he would do.

Michael knew that other guys looked at Lila in a certain way. He couldn't help noticing the way guys gawked at her when she would walk through a party. It was why he always liked to have an arm gripped around her waist or her hand locked in his. It marked territory, signaled an ownership of sorts. You can stare all you want, but you certainly can't touch. He just never figured Hunter would be someone he would have to worry about with this.

Michael had known. He had known all along. Ever since Hunter's graduation party when Michael had caught the two of them over on the side of the house, talking alone. He saw the look on Hunter's face. Lila may have been clueless, but Michael was not. He had let his guard down that summer by taking a break from their relationship. Hunter had nearly swooped in during his absence. It was a mistake, and Michael was never going to let that happen again. He wasn't about to lose another woman in his life who meant this much to him. And he would never lose her to his brother of all people.

But Michael had a hard time trusting things, and he didn't like the lack of control he had during summers away when he was at camp and Lila was left in Borne, alone, with Hunter. It was only a matter of time until Hunter eventually cracked and told Lila about his feelings for her. Michael was just surprised by how angry the news made him even if he had suspected it already. Because that line of control Michael had was now lost. It didn't matter how many times Lila said she didn't feel the same way. It didn't matter if she avoided Hunter as best as she could whenever they were around him in the future. It didn't matter that she let Michael watch as she deleted Hunter's number from her phone.