God damnit, Lainey. Why can’t you be normal? Archer seemed like a nice, decent man. He could have been a great thing for me. Why’d I have to go and ruin a chance I had to be possibly be happy?
“Oh my god, who was that? He’s seriously hot,” Ellie squeals as she grabs my arm. I shake my head and chuckle in half amusement at her reaction and the fact that I’m such a mess.
“I uh, almost hooked up with him the night… the night of the incident with Danny,” I explain, seeing Ellie stiffen a bit when she hears Danny’s name.
“What do you meanalmost?” she questions, her brows furrowing. I’m not going to tell her it’s because I went to check on her, she doesn’t need to know that. She’ll feel guilty as hell.
“I stopped it. I wasn’t feeling well,” I lie. Ellie looks like she wants to question me more, but thankfully she doesn’t.
“Oh. Well, you should’ve said yes to that date. He seemed sweet.”
Nodding, I grab the box of popcorn from her, popping a piece into my mouth.
“Yeah, that’s the problem. I’d ruin him,” I tell her matter-of-factly. “Come on, let’s get back to our seats.”
Ellie shrugs, following me through the crowd which has started to cheer louder as the teams start to head onto the pitch. I watch the Ellington guys set up and get in their positions.
And when we’re back at our seats, and I’m sitting back down on the cold bench, I notice that my eyes aren’t focused on the whole team. They’re focused on one person. Holland Monroe.
Fuck.
Chapter 10
Holland
Tensions run high as we take the pitch and Ridgewood’s team follows suit. Some of the guys shoot death glares at each other, and I can already tell this is going to be a rough game.
My blood is already boiling since I saw Lainey talking to some guy at the concession stand. I don’t know who the fucker was, but they sure looked pretty friendly.
Not that you fucking care, Holland. You do not care if she’s talking to a hundred guys.
She can do whatever she wants. She is not your girlfriend, she’s notyours.
So why do I have the urge to go find that prick and punch his lights out for even touching her?
“Holland, dude. What are you doing?” I hear my fly half, Ryan, ask as he pats me on the back. We’re not close, and I don’t know if I’d even consider us friends, but we’re on the same team and he’s a good enough guy.Shaking my head, I try to get rid of every thought that doesn’t involve this game. “Nothing, I’m good.”
“Okay, man,” Ryan says, running toward the rest of the team. “Let’s fucking do this!” he shouts.
I shake my head and chuckle softly before heading over to join him.
The crowd is going crazy, a sea of green and red as students and faculty show support for both teams. My eyes scan the people, and then they catch on a familiar head of dark, wavy hair, the top of her head covered in an Ellington U hat. She’s snuggled up next to my sister and Ryker’s girl, Gwen. Ryker stands by Gwen’s side, and their other roommate is jumping up and down with excitement.
“Go number 2!” Ellie screams as she waves to me. I chuckle lowly and wave back. My sister has always been one of my biggest supporters, even though we get on each other’s nerves more than ninety percent of the time.
My eyes wander back to a pair of greyish blue eyes, and I swear my dick twitches just from the bit of eye contact. Lainey starts to jump up and down with Ellie, cupping her hands around her mouth and screaming, “Go Ellington!”
With that, she looked back to me and without any hesitation and huge grin on her face, she flips me off. It’s so unexpected and so her that I can’t help the laugh that bubbles out of me. I’d flip her off right back, but there are a lot of eyes on me right now, and I don’t want them thinking I’m the asshole.
Instead, I hold up my hands in the shape of a heart in her direction and wink, laughing when she acts like she’s gagging.
“Yo, Monroe. Come on,” Mason calls for me. Tearing my gaze away from Lainey, I turn around and get into position.
The floodlights burn down on the pitch, casting long shadows across the muddied grass. The air is thick with tension, a mix of sweat, earth, and the unmistakable scent of competition. My eyes lock with Ridgewood’s hooker, Tommy Crawford.He gives me a devilish grin and I reciprocate.
“You sure you’re ready for this, Monroe?” he asks, his voice cocky as ever.
“I asked your mom the same thing when I fucked her brains out last night, Crawford,” I say, giving him a wink. The grin falls from his face and he growls.
