The Introvert and the Football Player

Chapter Thirty Seven

Nova's POV
"Bo, kiss me. Nova will never find out!" I hear her say. Who is in there with him? "We can't. I love her." Bo says. My heart warms at what he says. Bo Smith loves me despite me missing his graduation. "She missed your graduation. She obviously doesn't love you." I hear the female voice say, seductively.

I'm getting closer to Bo's room now, and I still can't place the voice. "Danni please." Bo moans. I jolt back from the door immediately. Danni is trying to get with Bo? "You want me I know you do. Forget about her." Danni says. "Fine." Bo tells her. I'm standing close enough to the door to see him push her against the wall and kiss her like he's never kissed me. They begin to take things to the next level, and I cannot look away for the life of me. "I'm going to make you forget all about her." Danni purrs seductively.

I awake with a jolt. I had been having the same nightmare since Bo left two weeks ago; it didn't seem to change, but every time it hit me as if I was just now seeing it for the first time. I look over at my clock, and it reads 2:30 a.m.

I didn't see myself going back to sleep any time soon, so I pull out my phone and scroll through my Instagram feed. Out of instinct, I go to Bo's page. The last thing he posted was when he got to Stanford. I miss him so much it hurts. Valerie was even more of a mess about it all than I was, and Ashton just left last week.

I haven't spoke to Bo since the night of his graduation party. When I told him I loved him, I knew I was taking a risk with him. He is the first guy I've loved since Jerome. I know now that I loved Harry in a different way than I love Bo and Jerome. My mother was angry I skipped out on my junior marshal duties, but when she learned it finally laid Jerome's ghost to rest, she was okay.

*******
"You still haven't texted him?" Valerie asks. I shake my head, refusing to actually look at her. If I look at her, I know I will cry because he hasn't texted me. "He hasn't texted you?" She tries. "No." I whisper. Valerie looks over at me as if she wants to say something, but thankfully she doesn't.

"Well maybe he's just settling in." She offers as she's grabbing her things to leave. I nod at her because I don't know what else to say. It has been nearly two weeks since I told Bo Tyler Smith I loved him, and he hasn't said anything since. A small part of me wants to believe that he wants Danni, but a larger part is sure he doesn't. The enteral battle waging within me is exhausting. It's a daily battle to decide whether or not I should text him. Looking back now, I wish I texted him like I told him I would've. Not talking to Bo is worse than anything in the world.

Bo's POV:
Two weeks. Nothing has come from Nova. She told me she loved me, and now she wasn't speaking to me. The thought of her is enough to make me angry and sad all at once. I miss her so much it's almost hard to catch my breath sometimes. I barely dated the girl and she has had such an immense impact on my life.

My roommate's name is Dawson Tuck; he doesn't speak much, and he's from Nebraska. The blonde shade of his hair reminds me of Nova's when the sun would be shining on it. I sigh as I lay back on the creaky mattress. Days like these make me miss home more than anything. Suddenly an idea hit me; I would write Nova letters. I can tell that my idea is probably out of sheer boredom, but I begin to write my girl:

Dear Nova,

I miss you so much it hurts. I miss being close to you and Valerie and Ashton. So far California is nice, but I'm convinced if you were here it would be nicer. You bring life into the smallest things and life, and one of those things was me. It's been hard not being able to text you and invite you to lunch, but I'll hopefully be back soon..."

I trash what I had been writing. Nova would honestly hate that. She'd probably even laugh with Valerie about it. I know I hurt her badly when she saw me with Danni, but Danni doesn't have the same affect on me that Nova does. Getting over my pride, I finally text Nova:

Hey. Sorry I waited so long to text you; college is hard without anyone I'm close to here. I miss you so much.

I sit there and stare at the message for a good ten minutes before deleting it. It doesn't cover everything I want to say to her. Dawson comes into the room before I could think of a new message to send her. "Are you still losing sleep over that girl?" He asks. "I'm not losing sleep. I'm just losing inspiration." I tell him. He looks at me as if I'm some whipped boyfriend and shakes his head. "Try saying hello before you jump to anything serious." He says as he walks out of the room. I sit on my bed, thinking about what he's just told me.

Dawson walks back into our dorm room with an intense look on his face. "There's a party tonight at one of the frat houses off campus. You should come." He says as he grabs his coat and walks out again. A party is exactly what I need to get over her. I quickly put an end to my pity party; tonight was going to be about me. Not some girl across the country from me.

The Next Day
Nova's POV

"I hate him!" I exclaim. Valerie looks up from her magazine and glares at me. "Bo went to a party last night!" I tell her. She continues looking at me without saying anything. "Instead of texting me, he's too busy getting drunk." I say. "You were supposed to text him." She says, flipping the page. I glare at her as if staring at her is going to put me in the right instead of the wrong. Every time I went to text him, all I could see was him kissing Danni. Since I caught them, she's flooded my messages with apologies and pleas for me to forgive her. I want to text Bo and pretend everything's okay, but I know it isn't and I don't want to forgive him too quickly.

I look at the pictures from the party he attended in disgust. There were numerous girls in the picture, each with their boobs popping out of their shirts; I couldn't help but compare it to when I was dating Jerome. "Just text him or ignore him. But don't sit there and complain if you aren't going to do anything." Valerie snaps as she gets up and leaves.  I roll my eyes at her and go back to looking at the pictures.

After wallowing in my bed for hours, I decided to go down to the pool. I am not about to sit there and let someone across the country determine how my summer will be spent. I dive into the cool blue water, and immediately I feel a release of tension I didn't know I had. I swam back and forth until my shoulders were burning. A couple of times I heard Tommy or Radly come out and tell me what time it was, but I continued to swim.

I stayed in the pool until about midnight, and then I slip into a warm shower. I take my time since I'm the only one awake, and when I get out I go straight to the kitchen for food. By the time I get upstairs it's after one in the morning. And I have a missed call and a new voicemail from Bo.

Bo's POV:
It's 10:30 here in California. Last night's party exhausted me to no end. I spent most of my day sleeping and dreaming of Nova. I wonder what she's doing, how she's been, and if she misses me. I suddenly grab my phone and quickly dial her number.

Ring
Ring
Ring
Ring
Ring
Ring
Your call has been sent to an automatic voicemail--
Hey this is Nova please leave your name and number and call me back! Bye!

"Hey Nova its me Bo. I just want to say I miss you. Like I miss you a lot. California would be more fun if you were here. I'm sorry I took so long to call you. It's been crazy. Anyways call me back if you want. I know it's late over there but I had to call you. I miss you and I love you. Bye."