Curvy Girls Can't Date Quarterbacks - Kelsie Stelting Page 0,89
trust and prove to him that I cared about more than his status, but about his heart.
Resolve washed over me just as surely as my coconut shower gel. After rinsing off the soap, I stepped out of the shower. I wrapped a towel around me and bent to grab my clothes and put them in the hamper.
And I saw...My eyes widened. “MOM!” I screamed.
“What?” she yelled back from somewhere upstairs. What was she doing up here? Her room was downstairs.
Never mind that. “I GOT MY PERIOD!” I lifted my underwear for proof and followed the sound of her voice.
“That’s amazing!” she shouted back. It was coming from the direction of my studio. Maybe she was getting ready to vacuum? They kept the vacuum in one of my studio closets... Either way, who cared! This was awesome!
“I KNOW!” I cried, walking toward my studio. I pushed into the room, holding my towel up with one hand and my underwear with the other. “Either that or I’m hemorrhaging, but—”
I froze, standing absolutely still as I took in the room...and who was in it. Why was Beckett standing with my mom, an amused smile on his face? What was he doing here?
“Honey.” Mom broke the silence with a too-big grin. “I thought you’d be dressed.”
My underwear-clad hand slowly lowered to my side like a deflating balloon. “Um...”
There was that word again.
Humor and horror lit Beckett’s eyes, and I melted a little. And then promptly short-circuited from embarrassment. Beckett was in my house, and I... I looked down at the towel and the revealing slit up my leg. Oh god.
I hid the underwear behind my back and crossed my legs. “What are you doing here?”
Mom smiled between us. “Why don’t you get dressed, honey? And then you can talk.”
I glanced to Beckett. Was this real life? Was he really here?
As if hearing my internal questions, Beckett nodded.
My chin jerked in a robotic replica of the gesture. “Be right back.”
I spun and left the room, pure adrenaline moving me now. Mom closed the door and hurried behind me, whispering. “You got your period!”
“Oh my god, Mom!” I whisper-yelled back. “That is so not the biggest news of the moment! What is Beckett doing here?!”
Her eyes widened, and she shrugged. “He wants to talk to you.”
I realized I was hunched over, sneaking around in my own house. That was stupid. He knew I lived here. I straightened up outside my bedroom door. “What did he say to you?”
She reached up and pretended to zip her lips shut.
“Mom!”
“Nope.” She took my shoulders and practically pushed me through my bedroom door. “You talk to him.”
As I went to my dresser and hurriedly put clothes on, I panicked about what he had to say. Mom wouldn’t send me to the emotional wolves, would she? Unless he hadn’t really told her anything and she just wanted an excuse to make her escape?
I let out a quiet groan just as the door cracked open and Mom’s slender fingers holding a tampon crept through the crack. “Need one of these?”
The joy in her voice was enough to make an exasperated smile spread across my face. I snatched it, then finished getting dressed. There wasn’t enough time to obsess about the outfit, so I settled on a pair of buttery soft leggings and an extra-long T-shirt. I threw my hair into a knot at the top of my head and looked in the mirror.
Makeup free, round cheeks, circles under my eyes evidencing the stress of the last week and the all-nighter with my friends. This was me. Beckett wanted me to be real. This was real. So was what I felt for him. I hoped he could see that.
And that it would be enough.
Fifty-Three
I walked toward my studio knowing Beckett would be inside. That his words would determine how I spent the rest of my senior year. Heartbroken or in love. Recovering or reveling.
With the bolster of my speeding heart rate, I stepped into the studio.
“Rory,” he breathed.
It wasn’t my nickname, but he said it with so much feeling. I just didn’t know what the feeling was. Had he come to tell me that I should give up? Or that he hadn’t?
“Thanks for coming,” I said, even though I didn’t know if I should be thanking him. It was just good to see him again. To have him in this space felt like magic to me.
“Of course.” His lips turned up. “I heard some really good news.”