3
Rush
My chest heaved, breathing in and out as I tried to push up the barbell, my muscles straining.
"C'mon, you got this," Slate said, standing behind my head to spot me. "Almost there and you'll have a new max."
Digging deep, I used the rest of my energy to push the bar to the top, my arms shaking under the weight. Slate helped me rack the barbel, and I sat up, grabbing a towel to wipe my face.
"Thanks for staying to help me," I said to Slate while he took the weight plates off the barbell and put them back on the weight rack. Wilder had already taken off to meet up with Olivia once our workout was over, and Slate had been willing to stay behind to help me max out.
"No problem," he said. "I figured you wanted to work out some pent-up tension, knowing your interview with Scarlet is coming up."
This year the school's newspaper had decided to do interviews on each of the starting lineup of football players on the team. Since Scarlet and I had danced at the Wolf's Den, she'd spent the last two weeks interviewing the players about their day-to-day lives, conveniently leaving me for last. My plan to come on strong as the cocky football player had done exactly what I had hoped. I'd hardly seen her these past two weeks, and I was both grateful and disappointed. But it was safer that way.
I raised an eyebrow at him. "Pent-up tension?"
"I get it." He sat down on the bench across from me. "She's forbidden fruit, the one food you can't have at the all-you-can-eat buffet. I can't blame you for wanting her, she's hot, but I'm telling you as your friend to be careful. Coach has made it clear his thoughts on his stepdaughter dating a football player. And as great as Scarlet is, I wouldn't want you to risk your future football career."
It shouldn't bug me that he knew Scarlet so well, but it did. For some reason, I wasn't capable of just being friends with her. I understood everything he was saying, and I also agreed with it. But that didn't mean it would make it easier to spend time with her.
It was easier to play his words off than to actually deal with them, so I scratched my head, pretending to be in deep thought. "I think I've heard that speech somewhere."
"Ha, ha," he said but without any humor. "And I'm going to keep saying it until I can get it through that thick skull of yours. You two spending one-on-one time together is dangerous. I'm half considering being your chaperone."
I laughed at the thought of him being a chaperone.
"You can laugh all you want, but you know you need some supervision," he said. "I left you alone for two seconds at the bonfire, and we both know what happened there."
The single best night of my life was what happened. The image of her sitting next to me as the flames from the fire flickered a golden light across her face filled my mind.
We'd talked, we'd laughed, and then spent an unknown amount of time hidden in the woods making out. At least I thought we had been hidden, but we hadn't been the only ones doing something under the cloak of the dark and the dense cover of trees. A few of my teammates, including Slate, had seen us.
That night I'd crossed a major line. Really, two lines. One with football and one with Scarlet. I should have never let myself spend alone time with her. Guilt still gnawed at me for hurting her. I'd been selfish. Only thinking of myself and what I'd wanted, what need of mine I was fulfilling. I couldn't let that happen again, for either of our sakes.
Wiping my palms on my shorts, I stood up. "Nothing is going to happen," I assured him. "She'll ask me a few questions, and then it will be over." I shrugged, acting like it was no big deal. It wasn’t like I hadn't thought about how this interview would go. If I was being honest, I was worried too.
Slate stood as well. "If you need me to run interference, just text me."
As much as I wanted to tell him I wouldn't need to, I couldn't. Instead I gave him a nod before we headed into the locker room.
* * *
The music was so loud that the bass thumped throughout the house, the sound reverberating up the floor and through my shoes. Sipping from the cup in my hand, I gazed out across the room. Tonight, the party was at the Sigma Chi Fraternity, and it looked like most of the school was here with how packed we were. Each couch and chair was occupied, bodies lined the walls, the stairs, every corner, and any space between. People kept coming up to me, slapping me on the back, squeezing my arm, to congratulate me on another great game tonight.
So many hands had touched me since I'd been here, I barely noticed when a petite blonde wrapped her arms around my waist, her head tilting back to look up at me. "Hi, sexy."
I put on my lazy half-smile that I gave the girls who were more than forward with me. "Hello."
She bit her lip in a way I assumed she intended to look seductive. She was attractive, for sure, but the little I'd been with Scarlet the other night had recently put a damper on my dating life. It had taken me months after the bonfire to get back to my old habit of girl-hopping. I'd tried to fill my time with other girls in hopes they would take my mind off Scarlet, and after some time, it had slowly started to work.
Then one night of dancing with her at the Wolf's Den and I was a goner again. No one felt like her, no one looked like her, no one seemed to be able to compete with her.
The girl, who was still hugging me, looked up at me through her lashes. "You looked so hot on the football field tonight," she purred. "Watching how well you handled the football made me wonder how these hands," she said, interlocking her fingers with mine, "could handle me."
My cocky persona replaced my indifference. "I guarantee they can handle you."
She giggled, and I tried not to cringe at the sound.
