“I don’t even know where to start. Let’s start with the sex.” Her eyes twinkled with possibilities. “Yes, let’s definitely start there, although you owe me so much for the fact you had sex in my bed. I mean, really? I had to sleep in there.” Her nose wrinkled.
“Flick, focus.” I groaned, burying my face into my hands, partly from embarrassment and partly from frustration that we were even talking about this. “Did you hear anything I just said? Cameron basically treated me like crap all these years because—”
“He was protecting you, obviously,” she said the words without hesitation, her eyes rolling the way they did whenever she thought I was being dumb, as I peeked over at her.
“Protecting me, right.”
“Come on, Hails.” She leaned over, tugging my hands away from my face. “You can’t deny it has a certain romantic poetry.”
“Romantic poetry,” I muttered under my breath, shouldering the door and climbing out of her car. “Well romantic or not, I’m not sure how I feel about it all.”
“So, you’re not going to have a Romeo and Juliet style reunion in the cafeteria?” Her brows waggled and I pursed my lips.
“You do know they both ended up dead?” My brow shot up and she smothered a laugh. “That won’t be happening, Flick. Besides, you seem to have forgotten one very minor detail, I have to survive that first.” I pointed at the gathered crowd, all staring in my direction.
“Shit,” she whistled between her teeth. “Maybe we should cut class today. I’m not sure—”
“Nope.” I hitched my bag up my shoulder and started forward, ignoring the chorus of insults.
Slut.
Whore.
Eagles skank.
I bit the inside of my cheek, forcing down the tears building. “I will not let Lewis Thatcher, or anyone else for that matter, run me out of school,” I said with wavering conviction.
So they had all seen the video of me passed out and naked? Shame on them for watching it in the first place. I had bigger things to worry about now. Like my homewrecking mother and my conflicting thoughts for a step-brother I’d spent the best part of six years hating.
Not to mention the guy who consumed my every waking thought but gave me whiplash at every turn.
Flick plastered herself to my side, slipping her arm through mine. “You’re either very brave, Hails,” she whispered, her hard gaze sending warning signs to a few girls nearby who were blatantly pointing and snickering. “Or very stupid.”
“Yeah,” I breathed out, feeling my classmates judgy stares brush up against me as we filed into school. “I’ll let you know which when I figure it out.”
What I really wanted was to turn and run, to get far far away from them. But I would not cower. Not today. Not over the video or my classmates. I was better than that.
Better than them.
And it’d take more than this to break me.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Cameron
“Get it together, ladies,” Coach boomed across the field as I fumbled the ball for the third time that morning. “Fourteen,” he yelled. “Do we have a problem, Son?”
“No, Sir,” I replied, cussing under my breath.
“And what about you, QB? Something you want to tell me?”
“No, Sir,” Jase echoed my words, glaring at me across the field.
I hadn’t seen him since he stormed off yesterday. But it was fine by me; I had bigger things to deal with.
“Okay, run it again.” Coach Hasson sounded pissed, and I didn’t blame him. We were unfocused, the tension between me and Jase rippling around the field like a storm on the horizon.
“How about you try to catch it this time?” Someone chuckled but I let it roll off my shoulders, moving into position for the play.
“Hut,” Jase’s voice echoed around us as Grady snapped him the ball, and I took off, looping behind him and down the right-hand side of the field. He let the ball fly and I tracked its projection, but something caught my eye.
Hailee.
She was sat in the bleachers, glasses framing her face, sketch pad balanced on her knees.
“Mother of God,” Coach yelled, as my fingers grazed the leather and the ball rolled out of my reach. “Bring it in offense. Now.”
I let out a heavy sigh as I jogged over to the sideline, but Jase stepped in front of me. “What the fuck is wrong with you today?” he said through gritted teeth and I shot him a hard glare. “You really want to go there?” I snapped.
“Maybe we should. Maybe if we aired all this crap between us, you’d actually manage to catch a fucking pass or two.” He was toe-to-toe with me now, our shoulders squared, eyes locked on one another.
The entire field was quiet, tension crackling in the air as everyone waited to see what would happen.
“Walk away, Chase,” he said coolly.
“You walk the fuck away.”
“If the two of you don’t get over here in the next two seconds,” Coach boomed. “I’m going to knock your goddamn heads together.”
Jase expelled a heavy sigh and shook his head as if he couldn’t believe what had just gone down between us and then he did something I never expected.
He walked away.
Forcing myself to take a breath and calm down, I trailed after him, joining the huddle.
“Did I wake up in some alternate universe where my wide receiver can’t catch the damn ball and my quarterback is growling at his teammates instead of talking to them with the goddamn respect they deserve?” His eyes drilled into me and Jase as we stood shoulder to shoulder, despite the vast fucking ocean between us.
“Sorry, Coach,” Jase grumbled. “It’s been a rough couple of days.” His eyes slid to mine.
“I’m sorry, what did you say?” Coach Hasson cupped his ear. “Because it sounded like you grew a pussy overnight, Ford. It’s week five. We’re at the halfway mark, ladies. You think we can afford to drop the ball now, no pun intended, Chase? The play-offs are almost within our reach, but we need to keep our heads. Do you hear me?”
“Yes, Sir,” a few of us mumbled.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you.”
“Yes, Sir.” Our voices melded into one.
“Good, now get out there and play like the team I know you can. Chase, Son, a word.”
Jase’s eyes followed me as I stayed behind while everyone else moved into position. “Do I need to be worried?” Coach didn’t beat around the bush. “You’re fumbling the ball, messing up plays, and I know you were late to conditioning this morning. Something you want to tell me, Son?” His eyes softened as he waited for answers.
Answers I didn’t have.
Because while everything was falling to shit around me, I couldn’t tell him.
I couldn’t say the words even if I wanted to.
“I’m fine, Coach,” I choked out, feeling the weight of the lie heavy on my chest. “I’ll be fine.”
His eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Let’s go then. We’ve got a game to win Friday.” Coach clapped me on the back, and I jerked forward, my eyes skirting over to where Hailee sat all alone. I wanted to go over there. To apologize for yesterday and explain everything, but what was the point? She’d barely looked at me all morning, her walls higher than ever.