DAKOTA

I'm a liar. I've lied to everyone around me and I hate myself so much for it.

Nashville, New York, and Detroit. Those are the first three cities where I've already been offered an apprenticeship, and I'm meeting with a bakery in Tampa when I go home for Thanksgiving break. I'm also still waiting to hear back from about ten more places around the country.

I hate that I'm lying to everyone, but I don't want to make any decisions about my future until I'm one hundred percent certain about where I want to live. Every time Connor or Ellie asks about it I get clammy and have to hope they can't see through my words.

It's also been one of the only things on my mind for the past few weeks, so to say I'm happy that Ellie and I are heading to her parent's house for the weekend would be an understatement. Her parents are out of town for work and need a dog sitter, so she offered us up so that she'd be in a comfortable place when she heard back about her vet school applications this weekend as well.

It's really a win-win.

Plus, Ellie and I have always been great road-trip partners, so the three-hour drive has been fun.

"Do you care if Nate comes up for the night? He wants to be here if there's something to celebrate," she looks at me from the passenger seat.

"Only if he brings us lunch," I counter.

Nate, Ellie's twenty-five-year-old brother, is practically mine as well. He's a medical student in Cleveland, living only ten minutes away from their parent's lake house there. Every summer, we all meet up for a week and hang out, wakeboarding and jetskiing until we're so burnt we have to spend a month inside.

"Good idea," she smirks, typing away on her phone. "Did you hear about the scouts coming to see the guys this weekend?"

"Yeah," I can't stop the proud smile from spreading over my entire face. "Let's just hope they don't mess it up, could you imagine if Connor and Parker are drafted for the same team?" I speak a little louder over the gravel road leading up to their driveway.

"At least they'd beg you to follow them to the same place next year," she shrugs.

"Parker and I haven't talked about it at all," I tell her.

"You're insane if you think he isn't going to want to you come with him, wherever he may end up."

"I don't know, El, it's still really early for us. Anyways, we have a dog to play with," I park the car quickly and jump out, wanting to avoid any more conversation about the situation.

Ellie and I have been taking turns playing fetch with her dog, Ryke, for an hour now. He's a German Shepherd with more energy than both of us combined.

Right as I go to throw the ball again, two arms fly around my shoulders, and a body slams into my back.

"Kota bear!" I hear a familiar voice yell into my ear.

I turn around, hugging Nate back with as much strength as my arms have, "I missed you."

Nate has always been a phone call away for me even though we're not related. He's always been a shoulder to lean on if I have a problem that I don't want to worry Connor or Ellie with, he was actually the first person I told about Lincon last year. I was embarrassed and needed advice on how to tell them about what had happened.

He hugs me tightly for another moment before pulling back, a smile falling off of his face the second his eyes meet mine. "What the fuck?" His hands fly to my face, turning my head in a million directions so he can study the growing bruise. "Dakota, why does it look like someone rocked your shit?"

I awkwardly laugh, "you see, my boyfr-"

"Your fucking boyfriend hit you?" He cuts me off, anger washing over his features.

Ellie comes through the back door, "let her finish, dipshit!"

"We were all playing around at the rink yesterday, and he accidentally hit me in the face with a puck," I can't help but laugh as I remember the event.

Nate eyes me before turning to his sister, "is she telling the truth?"

She rolls her eyes, calling Ryke back to us as she approaches. "Yes, I was there. She's fine, leave it alone."

I clutch my chest while dramatically wiping under my eyes, feigning tears, "nobody trusts me."

Nate gives me an annoyed look, "shut up."

I smile brightly at him, the movement causing me to flinch a little in pain. "He feels bad, he even bought all of us flowers after. You'd like him."

"El already told me about him. I liked him up until two minutes ago," he grumbles like a big baby.

The three of us spend the rest of the afternoon studying in front of the firepit, only taking a break when Nate grills hot dogs and corn for dinner.

This was after he spent ten minutes feeling around my face for fractures because he didn't trust the team doctor enough to take his word.

"Ten minutes," Ellie's voice trembles as she bites her nails.

Nate rubs her back soothingly, "if you get an interview, I'll take you two out and be DD for the night. If you don't get one, I'll take you two out and be DD for the night."

She smiles at her brother, leaning into him for comfort. Those two may not see eachother much anymore, but they text every minute of the day, they are each other's best friend.

We sit in silence for the next ten minutes, them together on the outside sofa, and Ryke and I on the loveseat a few feet away. He may be their dog, but he loves me the most.

Ellie takes a shaky breath as she clicks around on her laptop, "I got four!" She tackles her brother in a hug as I jump up and join the dogpile, all of us screaming in excitement.

"Where?" Nate pushes us off of him, reaching for her laptop that was pushed aside. "Florida, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Michigan."

I perk up at his mention of Tennesse, knowing Knoxville is only a few hours away from Nashville. "I'm so proud of you, El," I wrap her up in another hug.

She smiles at me, looking much calmer than a few minutes ago. "Now that I can breathe, can we please go out? I need de-stress for a while."

I smirk at Nate, "don't forget your credit card."

~

It's been a long time since Ellie and I have been out without the guys. Normally, we'd use this as our chance to flirt with random guys since they're not glaring at anyone who looks our way, but my mind is locked on one boy at the moment.

The more I drink, the more I miss the way he acts around me when we go out. Liquid courage is a real thing for me, and once it hits I can't stop dancing and rambling. He'll dance with me, laughing as I flail my body about, or listen intently, eyes almost sparkling as I tell him the random things that come to my mind.

The other week, I spent twenty minutes explaining the history of One Direction, and he looked at me as if I was telling him the secrets of the universe. And that was when we were both stone-cold sober, lying together in my bed before we had to get up for class.

"Whatcha thinking about, Kota bear?" Nate nudges my shoulder as Ellie goes to grab us both a third margarita.

I think about lying, but he'd see right through it. "Parker," I mumble, messing around with my straw.

"You say that like he's upsetting you," he says carefully.

"Oh no, he's been perfect," my response comes quick. "I just feel like something is bound to go wrong. It seems impossible to meet someone and be so happy with them after so little time" I admit. "He's almost been too good to me."

Nate slings an arm around my shoulders, "if he's a good guy, Dakota, he's a good guy. There's not a secret motive behind anyone who's good to you." He looks at me seriously, "he's not Lincoln, don't accidentally start pushing him away as if he is."

I close my eyes, letting his words sink in.

"Plus, Connor wouldn't be supporting you being together if he was doubting Parker at all," he reminds me.

"You're right," I nod. "I'm gonna call him later, I haven't seen him in a whole twelve hours," I laugh just as Ellie returns.

"El, shots? Really?" Nate winces, knowing his job is about to get a whole lot more difficult.

"Shots," she says seriously, handing me two.

"Bottoms up, I guess." I quickly throw them both back, using my new margarita as a chaser.

It only takes another twenty minutes before Ellie and I are absolutely blasted, and I can't remember the last time we've drank this much. Normally, we don't cross the line of being tipsy, wanting to avoid a hangover the next day.

When we do go all the way, though, we always do it together.

Nate watches over us carefully from the booth as the two of us dance together. We have no self-control when Britney comes on.

Two guys come up behind us, putting their hands on our hips and pressing their bodies against ours. I flip around quickly, pushing the random guy off of me. "No," my words come out slurred, "I have a boyfriend, and he's not you."

"-talking to someone," I only catch the end of Ellie's sentence, watching as she pushes a very attractive guy away from her.

The guy in front of me slowly backs away as I give him my nastiest glare. Well, as nasty as I can get while not being able to see straight.

I turn to my best friend, who is now alone. "Talking to someone? Good save," I give her a wobbly thumbs up.

She takes a leaning step towards me, "it's actually true," she giggles.

My eyes bug out of my head as I try to put my hands on her shoulders. "Who?"

"Shh," she raises a finger to her lips, missing and placing it on her chin instead. "I can't say."

I glare at her playfully, just as Nate calls out to us. "Kota bear, your phone keeps ringing!"

Ellie and I lean against eachother as we make our way back to the table. I grab my phone from Nate and see four missed facetime calls from Parker.

"Oopsie," I laugh, calling him back.

He picks up on the first ring. "Hey, love. I've been trying to call you for ten minutes, everything okay?"

"Hi, Park!" I practically scream into the phone. "I'm celebrating," I try to show him the table full of drinks, the camera landing on my legs instead.

He just chuckles at me, "I'll let you go then. Be careful and send me a text when you get back."

"No, don't hang up on me." I put my face close to the camera, "how'd your game go?"

"We lost by two," he should be upset, but he's smiling. I think that's thanks to me.

"You know what could cheer you up?" I grin evilly.

"What's that?" He plays along.

"Your face," I pause, adding suspension. "Between my legs" I giggle, pointing downward.

I hear a groan come from the speakers as he looks up, eyes widening at someone off-camera. "My ears," I hear Connor shout.

Nate grabs the phone from my hands, "I think that's enough for today. Say goodnight, Kota bear."

"Night Kota bear," I smile, swaying back and forth, hand splayed on the table for stability.

"Sorry, she's been going hard with El," Nate apologizes quickly, bidding them a quick goodbye before hanging up.

"I'd say it's time we head home," he grabs Ellie and me, ushering us out the doors and into the car.

~

My mouth feels like the Sahara Desert when I wake up the next morning.

Luckily, Nate left me water and Advil next to my phone on the nightstand. I take the pills quickly, chugging the entire glass of water before checking my phone and seeing a few texts.

you dirty, dirty girl Kota

I flush, leaving him on open and moving to the next one.

wait until I'm out of the room next time. my ears are still burning

Nope, nope, nope. Next.

morning, baby

loved our talk last night, can't stop thinking about it

That's it. I can never speak to any of them ever again.

I turn my phone off, rolling over to try and fall back into a never-ending sleep out of embarrassment.