Breaking All the Rules novel Chapter 46

"No, I just....." I sigh. "It's not that I don't trust you, Owen, you're a great guy and I really like you."

He looks up at that and grins. "I really like you too. A lot."

I give him a smile before continuing. "It's just Taylor is Tim's brother and they already

think you and I have been hooking up all this time and I don't want to do anything that makes them think even worse of me than they already do." I wince at how that sounds. "I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't care what they think but I do, I really thought of them all as friends. You know?"

"No, I get it. I really do I just...." He lets out a long breath. "If you don't feel comfortable at my place we can find somewhere else to hang out."

"No, it's not that." I tell him. "I love hanging out with you I just don't want anyone getting the wrong idea."

He reaches out and tucks a stray hair behind my ear, his knuckles lightly grazing my cheek. "I know you want to take this slow and I get it, I just hope that one day...." He shrugs. "Maybe one day we can try being more than friends."

He gives me a smile, exposing his perfectly straight white teeth, he is so good looking and he's such a great guy, I'd like to see if we could be more but just looking at him makes me miss Ian that much more and that makes me feel even more guilty. Here I am standing here with this amazing guy and all I can think about is Ian.

"I'm sorry, Owen, I really like you, I'm just not ready for that right now."

"I know. I'm just throwing it out there, letting you know that I'm ready when you are. No rush." He gives me a lopsided smile before pulling me into a hug. "Good night."

"Good night, Owen."

Jess French braided my hair in pigtails and I wore a shirt with our school's mascot on it to show my support. I haven't been to a game in a couple of weeks and it felt weird sitting up in those stands. Jess willingly came along for once, I usually had to beg her to come with me but I think it's because she's just as curious as I am how Ian McAllister, the best player on the team, isn't able to strike anyone out.

"I wonder if it's even true." Jess says. "We're probably wasting our time.

"I don't know, it's just what Taylor said."

We didn't have to wait long for Ian to come onto the field, his eyes lock with mine and my heart instantly started to race. How did he even know I was here? He so easily picked me out of the crowd and my heart skips a beat just from the sight of him. I give him a little smile and he turns away from me and looks down at the ball in his hand. I watch as he takes a deep breath, readying himself before he throws the ball, he winds back and releases the ball and the guy hits it the first time.

"What was that?" Jess asks laughing.

Ian glances up at me again, as if to see if I saw it. I give him an encouraging smile, which he just glares at before focusing on the next batter.

He looked sad and mad at the same time. I felt so bad for him. He can't possibly be pitching this bad because of me even though I know that's what Taylor was implying, it's not my fault the star pitcher suddenly sucks, but still my heart broke for him.

We watched as he pitched and he just got worse and worse as the game went on. What was happening to Ian? How can you go from being the team's best to the team's worse?

After doing homework in my room for over an hour I decided to go down stairs to grab something to drink, my mouth was so dry. It was hard to focus on what I was doing, with the game that happened earlier replaying over and over in my head. I knew there was no way it was my fault, but I couldn't help but feel responsible for it.

I was walking down the stairs when I heard voices. I instantly recognized one as Nick's.

"You can't be pissed at him she's the one who's been seeing Owen behind his back the entire time." Nick sounded furious which was crazy, Nick is never mad about anything.

"No, she wasn't!" Jess screamed back. "How many times do I have to tell you idiots? They are just friends!"

Nick just nods. "Right." Nick turns and starts for the door.

"Nick, wait, she doesn't mean that." I look at Jess.

"Yes, I do. How dare you blame my friend for something she didn't even do? She would never cheat on Ian but he was sucking face with some blonde right in front of her!"

Nick sighs. "I told you, she kissed him."

"Yeah, and he seemed really torn up about it." She challenges him.

"Jess, it's fine." I tell her. "Ian and I....we were never actually together, maybe he wanted to be, I don't know, but the fact is we weren't. It's okay if he kissed her-"

"He didn't." Nick interrupts.

"The point is it's okay if he did. He knows I have feelings for him and he doesn't want to

do anything about it so there is no point in the two of you arguing about it. What's done is done." I tell them.

"Not like you care anyway, he's already been replaced." Nick says.

"No, he hasn't you big idiot!" Jess yells.