Dammit.
She can’t keep up with this pace for very long. Soon, her little legs with slow her down. She’s not nearly as fit as I am.
My chest heaves. Air blows in and out of my mouth and I feel that slow burn building in my chest, the one that tells you to slow down before you hurt yourself.
I glance over at Eliza. She’s barely broken a damn sweat.
I tap the speed up a little higher and grit my teeth as she does the same.
“What’s wrong, Junior?” She chuckles. Luckily, her words are labored, just barely making it out of her mouth between her thick breaths. “Having trouble?”
“Nau-gh.”
“Maybe you should slow down. Take it easy. It’s not a race.”
She reaches over and pats my shoulder.
Fuck this.
I push the stop button and hop off the treadmill. My legs turn to jelly beneath me, but I keep myself upright, sending all of my strength to my knees. The last thing I want is to humiliate myself in front of her. Again.
I glance back at her, unable to stop myself from staring at her perfect fucking body. Blood that should be fueling my pounding heart fires downward. Images of her lying spread eagle in my van flash in my brain. Her taste emerges on my tongue; a flavor that no amount of rinsing with saltwater was able to get rid of last night.
I’ve never wanted to hate-fuck a girl so badly in my entire life.
Eliza fucking Pierce.
I lean over the water fountain by the locker rooms and shoot the water on my face in a sincere attempt to drown myself. It’s ice-cold and it hurts but I don’t care. I let it trail through my hair and bleed into my eyes.
When I stand up, there she is.
“Hey,” she says, leaning against the wall beside the water fountain.
“Nope.” I twist away, headed straight for the men’s locker room.
She latches onto my arm and she tugs me with her instead. My weak, jelly-filled legs follow her as she shoves the door to the ladies’ locker room open and forces me inside.
“What are you doing?” I snap.
She closes the door behind us and blocks me from leaving. “I wanted to talk to you and it’s safer in here where no one will see it.”
“Oh, god forbid someone sees us talking,” I mock. “You didn’t seem to have an issue with anyone seeing you stealing my clothes last night.”
“You had it coming.”
“I had it coming?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Junior, you openly admitted that the only reason why you asked me out in the first place was to sleep with me and get back at my father for telling you to stay away from me.”
“Right, I was honest with you from the start,” I point out. “Some girls might consider that a good thing.”
She pauses for a second and nods. “Okay…”
“You know…” I shift on my feet. “For a second there, I thought you were having a good time.”
“For a second, I was.” She takes a breath. “Junior, I grew up with a dad that collected women like trading cards. Obviously, I don’t appreciate being treated that way and I don’t put up with it. But to each their own. If you want to keep doing what you’re doing, I’m not here to stop you or judge you. I just ask that you pivot your intentions elsewhere from now on.”
No problem, lady.
“I can do that,” I say, keeping my calm. “Honestly, I think you might be more trouble than you’re worth anyway. I’ve lost interest.”
She twitches. “Is that so?”
“Yeah. Girls like you are too high strung to really let loose the way I like.”
It’s ballsy, and stupid, but I really enjoy the subtle anger boiling the oceans in her eyes right now.
“Fine…” she says, clearing her little throat. “I guess we’re cool, then.”
“Totally cool.” I step around her and grip the door handle. “Excuse me.”
She slides over a little but not far enough for me to open the door to leave. I jerk it open, smacking her ass with it and forcing her forward before stepping back out into the gym.
“Hey, Junior!”
I freeze in my tracks and turn to see Eliza’s dad heading toward me. “Hey, Coach,” I greet.
“Hitting the gym early — I like that,” he notes.
“Yeah, I—”
“Grab a towel and dry off,” he interrupts. “Meet me in my office. I have to talk to you about something.”
Oh, shit.
“Sure, no problem,” I say. “I’ll be right there.”
He nods and passes me by, heading down the hall toward the offices.
My first instinct is to go back into the ladies’ room and tell Eliza but there’s no way I can do that now. Maybe someone saw us last night and reported it to the coach. I thought the arcade would be far enough outside of town that prying eyes wouldn’t be a problem. Was I wrong? Or someone noticed us in the quad before we even left after I had the brilliant idea of shouting out her name.
Fuck.
A chill eases down my spine as I wipe the sweat off and make my way out into the hallway. Is this it? Am I done? Coach only had three rules and I broke the most important one.
Stay away from my daughter.
It was the easiest one and I couldn’t even do that because my dick often runs the entire Junior Morgan show.
Her taste touches my tongue again and I feel even worse than before.
“Come on in, Junior,” he tells me from the doorway. “Close the door behind you.”
I obey and push the door closed. “What’s up, Coach?” I ask. He points to the seat across from him and I fall into it.
“Junior, we need to talk about your future here.”
“My future?”
“I don’t need to ask you where you see yourself in five or ten years because I already know the answer to that,” he says. “You want to go pro, right?”
“Absolutely,” I say without hesitation.
“Then, you need to start planning now,” he continues. “You don’t want something completely avoidable to get in the way of that. I took the liberty of speaking to your academic advisor and she had a few concerns about your grades.”
“Yeah…” I wince but breathe a little easier. I don’t think Eliza moaning in my van is about to come up in this conversation. “Studying hasn’t always been my strongest area.”
“Mine neither — but if they get any worse, you’ll get put on academic probation and you don’t want that during your senior year. That’s when you really need to focus on the game. Senior year means scouts and drafts and honestly, of every player on this team, you have the best shot of any of them.”
Whoa.
Cary Pierce thinks I can go pro. He said it to my face.
“That’s… thank you.”
He smiles. “You and I came from the same world — dirt poor, no opportunity — but that doesn’t define who you are. I saw how wide your eyes got the other night at my house. I’m guessing you’ve never been in a place that big before, right?”
I nod.
“Take it from me, Junior — you don’t want unnecessary complications weighing you down. When I was a bit younger than you, I screwed up big. I got horrible grades, I wasn’t taking care of myself, and I…” he shakes his head, “I knocked up a girl I barely knew. I got Eliza from that — and she’s great — but her existence made achieving my dreams a whole lot harder.”