Achieving Unbroken
Chapter Thirty Two

—

"You plus me, that's enough
Put it all down on a good thing
Don't you want to know what you're missing?"
123 | Jess Glynne

—

Lilla
[Monday, July 11th, 2018]

"I'm bored," Piper announces, throwing a tube of hand lotion up in the air from her position laying on my bed. From the floor, I look up from my phone. I turn down the song playing from the portable speaker; God Is A Woman by Ariana Grande.

"Me too. I just don't know what we could do! Nothing is on TV in the middle of the day, we already have done so much Netflix binging, we've already gone to the theater to see Incredibles 2 three separate times and that drained our wallets so we can't go to the mall. We could just... Get dolled up, make the short drive downtown and walk around?"

The song changes; Fuck A Silver Lining by Panic! At The Disco.

Piper groans, rolling over onto her stomach.

"It's so hot. 10 minutes walking around and we would melt onto the pavement."

I tilt my head back until I feel it gently hit my dresser that I am leaning against. Looking up at the ceiling of my room, I try to think of something that wouldn't make Piper and I turn into a puddle of sweat.

"What's Jason doing?" Her voice breaks through my thoughts.

"Football practice," I exhale. I run my right hand through my hair, changing its part line so that it is flipped over, and prop my head on my knees that are curled to my chest.

Jason has been at football practice since around nine... And he gets out a little before two. Bringing my phone in front of my face, I click it on and see that it is 1:17 PM. He will be done soon, so I can text him now and he will read it later...?

"If we hang out with him after practice, do you want him to bring a friend?" Piper props her head in her hand, sitting up.

"You say that like you two will be making out right in front of me and I'll be third wheeling like a maniac."

"You won't, but still."

She waves a hand in a careless gesture, plopping herself back onto my bed.

"'Kay. I'll tell him to bring someone. Where should we go to eat?"

"I literally don't care. Couldn't care if I tried."

With a silent chuckle and an eye roll, I pull up Jason's contact and shoot him a quick message:

Me: Heyyyyyy Ik ik ur at practice and I hope it's going well! Piper thinks we should hang so go shower, grab a teammate and meet us @ the Barn? Or the Honey Bear, we haven't decided what we want so plz help us

"What'd you say?" Piper asks after seeing me tap away on my phone screen. I hand over the device so she can read the text. "God, Lil, desperate much?"

"Bitch much?"

"You need to work on your comebacks."

"You need to work on your attitude."

With one look at each other, we burst into laughter. Piper starts laughing so hard she almost cries, holding her stomach as the giggles escape her mouth.

"'Work on your attitude,'" she imitates between laughs.

Being the petty bitch that I am, I bring up a forbidden and buried topic.

"Fine. Just for that, I'm telling Jace to bring Patrick."

Piper jumps up so fast that she falls off of the bed.

"Fuck!" She curses when she hits the ground, rubbing her hip. "You and I agreed to never talk about that dream again. Patrick White is an annoying little shit-"

"Who you almost had a sex dream about."

"It wasn't a sex dream! He took his shirt off and I woke up."

"His abs were just too much."

"Shut up!"

"Wait, when you first told me about the dream you said you woke up after he took your shirt off-"

"Shut up!"

If I wasn't already laughing my ass off, I am now; fully collapsed onto the floor and gasping for air. It only worsens when Pipe takes the pillow off of my bed and starts brutally beating me with it.

"It-" hit, "wasn't-" hit, "A SEX DREAM!"

Hit.

Trying to avoid getting beat up more, I leave the "but it could have been" on the tip of my tongue. Eventually, when I don't fight back, she tires of the violence and places the pillow back on my bed.

"But seriously, if he brings Patrick, I'm leaving."

—

When Piper and I walk into The Barn and see a ginger sitting with a tanned brunette, she turns around and walks right back out the door. With the knowledge that she will come back in when she realizes that I didn't follow her, I continue to the table and greet the guys.

"Hey!" I exclaim, bending down to give them hugs. They are seated on opposite sides of the booth, and to spite Piper I sit next to Jason. I mean, I wanted to sit next to him, but Piper's face when she comes back in will add another 10 years onto my life.

"Hi," Jason smiles at me when I slide into the seat next to him.

"Hi," I grin back, my voice suddenly getting quieter. Our eyes stay locked together until Patrick breaks us up.

"Jesus, I was told I wouldn't be third wheeling? Where's Piper?"

The little bell above the entrance to the restaurant chimes, signaling Piper's re-entry. I crane my head to see her, and just as I expected; she's pouting.

But, that pout turns into a scowl when she finally notices that I'm sitting next to Jason and the only available spot is next to Patrick.

"Can I just-" She mumbles, actually trying to squeeze herself on the end of the booth that was already seating Jason and I. I scoot myself towards the edge, pushing her away, and she grunts as she goes to sit next to Patrick. His eyes seem to linger on her as she sits down next to him, but he quickly averts them.

Hmm, maybe that (almost) sex dream isn't unrequited.

"So, boys, how was practice?" I try to distract them both from Piper trying to scoot as far away from Patrick as she can. He instantly tilts his head back and squeezes his eyes shut, remembering the practice.

"Oh my God," he moans, and Piper flares bright red. It takes everything in me not to let any hysterical laughing escape. "Cannon is a shark. Relentless. Scary. He worked us to no end."

I look to Jason to confirm Patrick's recounting of today's events. He nods.

"Davis was intense. We worked hard, but it was a great practice."

"Good. Now, what are we gonna eat?"

"A fat ass burger and a separate plate of fries only," Patrick notes as he scans through the menu, even though we come here all of the time. Jason nods his head toward his teammate.

"What he's having, except just the usual side of fries. Also a milkshake." He turns his head. "You?"

"My usual; Caesar salad and the turkey sandwich with avocado." Then, I turn towards Piper, Jason and Patrick following suit. "Pip?"

"Spinach and pesto salad," she grumbles. The corners of my mouth tilt up the slightest, smug smile, and she notices; glaring at me.

The four of us place our menus on the edge of the table and not long afterwards, a waitress comes and takes our order. When we finish, she takes the menus and leaves us with our waters and a kind of awkward silence.

"So," Jason breaks the silence, leaning against the window and fitting himself in the corner of the booth so that he can look at all of us. His arm rests on the back of the booth, and it almost reaches behind me. He looks as me as he continues; "you guys have any good dreams lately?"

I smile, thinking about the conversation that him and I had almost two months ago. Dreams. Our thing.

But then I remember Piper, who has already laid her head in a makeshift pillow created by her arms, face down on the table. This is her "mental preparation" position.

"Oh my God, I have!" Patrick exclaims. "Piper, you were actually in it." He nudges her on the shoulder, hand remaining there for a few extra seconds, waiting until she lifted her head. "It was the weirdest fucking thing. I was in my living room, and boom, a wind-up radio is suddenly next to me, and a robotic voice is announcing that the fifth annual purge is about to begin..."