“She’s right. You’ve worked your ass off to get here, man.”
“To get where? Good enough to enter the draft? Yeah, okay. But I’m not going to end up some glittery top pick like you.”
“Bullshit. There are no guarantees for either of us.” This fact has been hanging over my head like a black cloud ever since this season got underway. Hence why I went crawling back to Maisy last night. I might actually need my degree. “And you have no worries because you’re golden either way. If I had your brains, I wouldn’t be sweating this season so hard.”
“You had one game where you didn’t look like a total stud.”
I shake my head. “I looked way better last season.”
“So what? It’s early. I guarantee you ninety-nine percent of college quarterbacks would kill for the season you’ve had.”
It’s true. But somehow that only adds to the pressure, knowing everyone’s watching, knowing how far I could fall. “Yeah. But promise me you and Lenni will save me a spot in the back of your broom closet just in case.”
TWELVE
jade
“I hatewhen there are guys in class,” my friend Madison says as she, Lenni, and I walk out of our yoga class at the university gym. She releases her blond hair from the clip atop her head and casts a disdainful look at the dude walking a few yards ahead of us. “I can’t concentrate because I’m thinking about how he’s judging the sweat marks on my yoga pants.”
“Female crotch sweat is exactly what that creep shows up for,” I inform her.
Lenni laughs as a horrified look crosses Madison’s face. “He’s not even cute. Who cares what he thinks?”
“You don’t think anyone’s cute since Cam came along,” Madison says.
“True,” Lenni admits with a little smile.
We’re halfway across the gym floor when Madison grabs my arm. “Oh, shit, there’s Frenchy,” she hisses, nodding toward the row of treadmills on our left.
It’s only curiosity that makes me look. Sam always said I was his dream girl, but from what I understand, his new girlfriend is my opposite in every way. I guess that should hurt, but it doesn’t. Not anymore.
“Damn, did you see her treadmill?” I say when we’re safely out of earshot. “Nine miles and she was barely sweating.” I glance back. “Nice ass too.”
“Have you ever experienced jealousy in your life?” Madison asks.
“Of course.”
“Name one time.”
Without warning, my mind flashes to the girl Reeve was flirting with at the Phantom last week. Not because she had better hair than me or better style, because she had him. His attention, his hands on her. Instantly, the prickly warmth of jealousy heats my skin. What is wrong with me?
“I have no reason to hate Sam’s new girlfriend,” I say, nudging my mind back where it belongs. “Or Sam.”
“But can I do it for you?” Madison asks.
“Don’t waste your energy. Maybe he was brutally honest when we broke up, but at least he was honest.”
There’s a fraught silence in which my friends seem to look everywhere but at me. I look to Lenni and then to Madison. “What?”
They exchange a glance before Madison says, “Sam sucks.”
“What did he do?”
She sighs. “I was looking at Frenchy’s socials a couple weeks ago and went back to some old pictures from last winter. Jade, she and Sam were definitely seeing each other when you and he were trying to work things out.”
My cheeks feel hot. There’s nothing worse than being the last to know. “Are you sure?”
“I can show you if you want.”
