Chelsea Hubbard was far from living the dream. In public, she was the girl everyone wanted. To everyone, she was the girl who had everything, fame, a successful career, her own business, stunning looks with unmistakable wit and charm; Cincinnati's f...
By the time I returned home I had already received 17 apology texts from Sam and surprisingly 1 from an unknown number. I decided to just ignore them for now after how exhausting the day has already been.
I settled down onto my couch, opening up the container full of pancakes while switching on the t.v changing the channel to SportsCenter to view my brother's game. Taking a quick bite of my food, I watched the screen as the cameras zoomed in on Joe sitting on the bench. I rolled my eyes at the action, "he's just Mr. Perfect to them isn't he," I grumbled. A commercial break transitioned in allowing me to look back at the messages on my phone. Ignoring Sam's texts, I clicked on the ones from the unknown number. My eyes widened as I noticed they were from Joe. 'Speak of the devil,' I thought. I read the texts and felt my annoyance grow even more. Why is he trying to pretend he's like some Prince Charming? I quickly sent him a reply, shutting him down already wanting to be done with today and a certain quarterback.
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Placing my phone down once again, I continued to finish up my food and soon laid down, slowly falling asleep into a food coma.
It was already night time when I woke up to the sound of loud laughter and booming voices. I groaned rubbing my eyes, my brother must have invited the guys over again. And guessing from the noise they were all in the kitchen, stopping me from going upstairs without being caught. I sighed, deciding to just get it over with I walked towards the kitchen. At first glance the only players I recognized were Higgins, Hendrickson and the two recent annoyances in my life. To my dismay Joe and Ja'Marr were the first to notice me, creating a tsunami of "hey's" and "how are you's" being thrown my way. I plastered on my best fake smile I could to greet everyone before making an excuse of needing to go upstairs and shower.
Don't get me wrong I'm extremely extroverted, however when it comes to being surrounded by gigantic built figures and a ton of male testosterone it gets a little uncomfortable to want to engage in conversation with them. As if my luck wasn't bad enough today, I heard Joe's voice calling my name as soon as my foot touched the bottom step of the stairs.
I turned around to face him, my lips thinning into a straight line in annoyance. "Do you need something, Joe?" I questioned him with a slight glare, if he noticed I wouldn't even know as he showed no reaction to my hard tone.
He pushed his hair back using his hand, his frosty blue eyes looking back at me, calculating, as if he was trying to see through me. Hating how his stare is making goosebumps rise against my skin and the effect it has on me. "I was just wondering if you wanted to hangout with us tomorrow? We're planning on going golfing and grabbing a bite somewhere," He finally answered. Just like in the locker room his invite sounded genuine, but I still felt that feeling of doubt. 'Joe is too good to be true,' I tried to convince myself.
"I wish I could Burrow, but I'm fully booked tomorrow 'cause of work. I'll try to join you guys next time I swear!" I feigned disappointment. I don't care how many lies I have to tell, I am not making the same mistakes as the past. Yet, the look on his face after I answered, almost made me want to change my mind. His shoulders drooped down and his lips formed into a small pout, making me feel slightly guilty for lying. He ended up nodding his head as a response and turned on his heel, walking back to the kitchen.
Joe might be the most confusing person I have ever met. I don't understand what it is about quarterbacks and how hard it is to read them, they all love to play mind games. On and off the field, they all love to pretend they're sincere and play fair, but next thing you know they throw up a couple tricks up their sleeves. Like am I really supposed to believe that Joe wants to hangout with me simply because he's interested in me? Who does he think he is waltzing into my life as if I didn't give him chances to get to know me back in college. Thousands of these thoughts went through my mind as I continued my journey to my room. Deciding to distract myself for a bit, I took out my phone and dialed the number that I have remembered by heart.
The call was immediately answered within the first ring, as always. "Helloooo?" the person sang. "Heyy Nicky!" I laughed into the speaker, "how's it going?" I questioned, falling onto my bed trying to get comfortable.
"Nothing much. I had training today and just finished cooking dinner, how about you Angel?" He replied, his voice sounding tired.
"Did I get you at a bad time, Nick? I can always call you later, you sound tired," I asked, concerned.
"No, no I wanna talk to you, I'd rather listen to your voice than stress myself out watching game tape," He replied. "Now tell me how your day was," he demanded. "Okay okay fine if you insist," I smiled, "But, today's been kind of exhausting to be honest. Sam made me go to the stadium today to drop off his cleats and you and him both know how badly I hate stepping foot near anything related to football. He wasn't even answering his phone when I was there, so embarrassingly enough I had to go into the locker room to hand it to him," I began to rant, my hands fidgeting up to my hair in frustration. "Then I ended up meeting Joe and ever since I left he's been trying to talk to me and finding ways for us to hangout. I seriously can't tell if he's trying to make a move on me or not and it's making me uncomfortable. He's even over at the house now too and I'm too annoyed to socialize so I'm up in my room." I was out of breath by the time I finished talking. Still frustrated and outraged by the man named Joe Burrow.
"I'm surprised I was even able to understand any of that by how fast you were talking," he joked. "But Chelsea, take some deep breaths first, you're only stressing yourself out with this. Joe probably feels bad that he's never had an actual conversation before even though you're his best friend's sister. If it makes you feel better I can talk to Sam about it," He offered trying to calm me down.
"Thank you Nick, but you don't have to. I know that Joe's a close friend of yours too and I don't want to put you in the middle. If he still tries to get closer with me, you know I'll be able to shut him down quickly. I'm just being guarded as usual, you understand how hard it is for me to trust people. I can't handle being betrayed like that again," I explained.
"He is a friend of mine, sure. But, I care about you more Angel. After what happened between him and Olivia, there's no way I would trust him around you either. The last thing I'd want is him pining after you," Nick persisted. Ever since Nick and I met in college, he's always made it his job to look after me. Not in an older brother type of way, but more like in a boyfriend way I guess I could say.
"Always the overprotective Nick, aren't ya," I teased, laughing into the phone. "For real though, Nicky thank you. I always feel better after talking to you," I thanked with gratitude. I was met with silence for a few seconds, hearing a door opening and closing in the background along with heels clicking.
"Ah, I'm sorry Chelsea, I have to go Jenna just got back from work. I'll talk to you later okay? Goodnight Angel," He rushed out.
"It's okay! Goodnight Nick, I love-," I tried to say bye, but before I got to finish my sentence, the dial tone sounded aloud. Being pulled back into reality, along with loud cheers coming from downstairs. My mind went to mush as my body went numb. No longer wanting to hear the guys I put in my AirPods and turned on Spotify, trying to find an escape once again.
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A/N:
hiii everyone i hope you're enjoying the story so far! i'll try my best to update at least twice a week! things will start to heat up SOON
