“Yeah, unless I fall to pieces the rest of the season, I can get drafted. Getting drafted was a foregone conclusion when I was eighteen. That’s not the point.”
“Then what is?”
He holds my hand tighter as we step onto the dock that stretches out into the water, the old boards lit only by small pagoda lights atop the wooden posts. “I’m a top quarterback looking at the second half of my senior season. I need to be perfect and I need to make it look easy. Anything less is a total disappointment.”
“To you? Or to the rest of the world?”
“What’s the difference, really?”
To me, of course, the difference is everything;Reeveis everything. The rest of the world means nothing. I turn to him as we reach the end of the dock. “No one can take your talent away from you. The world knows what you are. And if they ever forget, I promise I won’t.”
“Aww, shucks,” he jokes. “I’m sorry to be a downer tonight.”
“Will you stop? You’re allowed to have feelings. Besides, I love being the one you talk to.”
“Really? You don’t wish I’d get a therapist already?” He curls his hands around my waist.
“Really.”
“You’re a sweetheart, you know that?”
“A sweetheart?” I scoff. “After all the nice things I just said to you, you go and call me a sweetheart? I’ve never been so insulted in my life!”
I throw a playful slap at his chest, and he catches my wrist, cackling. “I apologize. You’re right, you’re a total badass bitch, Jade Kelly.” He takes my other wrist and draws me against his chest. “Now let me make it up to you in the way only Reeve Dalton can.”
He wraps me up in his arms and does exactly what he promises, kissing me in the way only he can, making the October chill and the water lapping at the shoreline fade into nothingness as he becomes everything.
“Hey, none of that!” a voice cuts through the air, and we turn to find Cash crunching over a bed of fall leaves toward the dock, the rest of our friends straggling behind him. “I don’t need to be reminded I’m the only dude not getting laid tonight.”
Reeve sighs irritably at the interruption. “You’re used to that by now, aren’t you?”
“For five fucking minutes can we not talk about sex?” Maisy appears behind her brother and holds up a bottle in each hand, vodka and bourbon. “We’re about to get into something way better.”
“Nothing is better than sex,” I say, earning a quiet “Fuck yeah” from Lorenzo. “And yes, let’s tip back those bottles.”
We head back toward the yard and gather around the bonfire.
“Full moon, guys,” Ruby says as Maisy and Lenni pour shots into plastic cups and pass them around. “The crazies always come out during a full moon.”
Lorenzo smirks and points a tattooed finger at his girlfriend and Cash in turn. “The crazies are already here.”
Someone turns on music. The boys insist on boring us all to death talking about the football team’s records throughout the years they’ve been at Shafer until Lenni politely interrupts and suggests that if they don’t change the subject, the girls will have to find a topic of discussion that’s equally unrelatable, and it’ll probably be periods.
Somewhere along the way, the cups are abandoned and the bottles get passed around instead. Reeve has come back to life, telling stories, making everyone laugh, competing with Cash to be the biggest and most obnoxious loudmouth possible. If all he needed was to unload his worries on me, what has he been doing all these years? It hurts to think of him all alone with his problems up until now. Or in the years to come.
It’s just after the first cold wind whips up a wall of crisp red and brown leaves that Lorenzo stands, his smile a little looser than usual, and declares, “It’s about that time.”
Everyone stomps and cheers except for me, because I’m clueless. “What time?”
“Cold plunge, baby!” Lorenzo says.
“Time for the boys to get buck-ass naked and risk hypothermia for the sake of trying to impress girls who couldn’t care less,” Maisy explains cheerfully.
“I don’t take you for a prude, Jade, but just in case, nudity is not required,” Lorenzo says.
Cash stands up and pulls his sweatshirt over his head. “But it is encouraged.”
“Ugh.” Maisy groans. “Give me a second to grab the eyeball bleach, would you?” She shields her eyes. “Now hurry up and get the fuck in the water so I can get on with my night.”
