Turning to leave again, his voice stopped me.
"One more thing," he added. "I'll see you at the gym tomorrow morning at six a.m. and not a minute later."
I tried to not let a huge smile spread across my face but failed. "Yes, Coach."
"Now get out of my office," he said in his usual gruff coach voice, his signature sentence when he was done meeting with you.
I almost laughed because I was so happy. Things were finally starting to get back to normal. All I needed now was to go find Scarlet.
I ran across campus to her dorm and up the flight of stairs, knocking loudly on her door as I tried to catch my breath.
The door swung open, and my shoulders slumped at seeing Olivia on the other side, clearly no sign of Scarlet in the small room behind her.
"Rush," she said, surprised. "What are you doing here? Are you okay?"
"I need to find Scarlet. Do you know where she is?" I said urgently.
"Um," she hesitated.
"I really need to talk to her, Olivia. It's important."
She sighed. "Fine, but you'd better not make things worse," she warned, pointing a finger at me.
"I won't. I promise."
"She left to go get something to eat in the dining hall."
I spun and ran down the stairs. "Thanks, Olivia!" I yelled as I ran out of the building.
I ran through the double doors that led into the dining hall and almost took out a guy who was holding a tray full of food. I quickly apologized and scanned the room for my favorite head of curly hair. It was around lunch time, and the place was packed.
Finally, I found her at a small table in the corner sitting by herself with a bowl of soup and a roll as she looked down at her phone.
I stood there debating about how I should go about this. The obvious way would be to walk over there and join her, or...
I cupped my hands around my mouth. "Scarlet Davis!" I yelled into the room. "Is there a Scarlet Davis in here?" I looked around pretending I didn't know where she sat. "Scar-let Da-vis!"
I had everyone's attention now. Letting my eyes finally land on her, I saw she was looking at me like I was crazy.
"There she is everyone. Scarlet Davis," I shouted, holding my arm out to where she sat. "The most gorgeous woman, inside and out." I walked my way through the room to stand next to her table. "The girl I can't stop thinking about, the girl who makes me happier than I've ever been, the only girl I can ever imagine being with, and most importantly, the girl who I am madly and irrevocably in love with."
Her eyes widened and she let out a small gasp.
"Scarlet Davis," I said, kneeling down on one knee and keeping my voice loud. "In front of all these witnesses, no hiding, no secrets, will you be my girlfriend?"
People hollered and whistled around us, but I waited, holding my breath to hear her reply.
"But what about football? What about the rule?" she asked.
I reached out and took her hand in mine. "I realized today that you're more important to me than football, that you make me happier than football. I'm so sorry it took me this long to figure it out. I'm sorry I let the pressure of other people's expectations of me keep us apart. I love you, Scarlet."
"So you're just giving up football?" she asked in disbelief, still not answering my question.
"I was, but after yelling at your stepdad and telling him I was in love with you and that he wasn't going to keep me from being with you, he surprisingly said I could stay on the team."
Her brows rose. "You yelled at my stepdad? Like, you yelled at your coach?"
"Yep."
