Touchdown Boy

Chapter Twenty-six

                 

"Come on! Give us the details, Ads!" Adrienne begged. The four girls were spread out on the floor of Noelle's living room. They had arranged their sleeping bags into a circle with a bowl of popcorn placed in the center. The perfect setup for an interrogation it appeared.

            "I've already told you guys about what's been going on," Addison protested, which was true.

            "You've only told us the basics," Noelle countered. "I mean, this is the first time all of us have hung out in forever. There hasn't been time for the proper gossiping that this matter requires."

            "Yeah," Skye agreed. "You've been hanging out with Tom and Gerard a lot more, recently." It was true that Addison had been spending more time with Tom during school. He was by her side practically all the time. And she had been going over to Gerard's house after school occasionally. But that was mainly because Alice had been going over there to spend time with Mikey, and the girls' mom didn't want her to go alone. Addison and Gerard would mainly just do homework or watch movies together. So she supposed there had been less girl-time lately.

            "Okay fine," Addison gave in. She crossed her legs underneath her, getting into a more comfortable position. "What do you guys want to know?"

            "Start with homecoming," Skye ordered, taking a handful of popcorn.

            "That was two weeks ago! I already told you guys: nothing happened." Addison shook her head in disbelief. But as her three friends glared at her she sighed. "Fine. I don't know. We danced. Then at Billie's house we started kissing. Things progressed-"

            "How far did things progress?" Adrienne wiggled her eyebrows at Addison.

            "Not that far," Addison rolled her eyes. "The plan is to not sleep with him, remember?"

            "Did he try to get that far though?" Noelle questioned.

            Addison nodded. "Yeah, but I told him I wasn't ready and he stopped."

            "That must have killed him," Adrienne giggled.

            "He was really nice about it actually," Addison shrugged.

            "Trust me. He was probably dying on the inside. This plan is so going to work," Adrienne reassured. But Addison wasn't so confident. Maybe Tom had a lot more willpower than the girls gave him credit for. Either that or Addison just had a lot less.

            "And then you spent this last weekend with him," Skye prompted.

            "I still don't understand why you didn't just come to me," Noelle muttered.

            "I'm sorry, Noelle," Addison sighed. "At the moment I just needed to be with someone that understood what I was going through, and the first person I thought of was Tom."

            Noelle nodded as a sign of forgiveness, but Addison could tell that she was still hurt by it.

            "So I spent Thursday night at Tom's and then Friday we spent the day at the fair," Addison continued. "We didn't do anything. Well, Friday morning we kissed but other than that it was just like before the bet, just friends hanging out."

            "Hmm," Adrienne hummed. Her eyebrows were furrowed. Clearly she was thinking about something. "I can't believe he didn't try anything when you slept over at his house. I mean, you were vulnerable and it would have been the perfect setting."