But I still had to deal with this crap. I took a deep breath. “Sorry,” I said and hopped to my feet. “I hope you’re okay.” The words were acid on my tongue. I fucking hated playing nice, but this was going to have to be the way things were or I would lose someone I was starting to care a lot about.
I could suck it up and deal.
Alexander climbed to his feet and scowled at me. “What?”
“I said....”
Milo came to a stop near me and stared with wide eyes.
Coach caught sight of us standing around and toyed with his whistle.
I waved at Coach, then turned toward Alexander. “I said I’m sorry.”
Alexander stepped toward me and shoved me, and I gritted my teeth but didn’t do anything back.
“Hey!” Milo rushed toward us, but I held up a hand.
“Are you fucking with me?” Alexander asked, face twisted in confusion.
Cringing, I sighed. “Well, if I was, you probably wouldn’t know. You are pretty slow.” I wanted to slap myself. I just couldn’t fucking quit. I turned away from him so I wouldn’t keep going, and I wasn’t shocked when I was shoved again from behind. Milo pushed Alexander, and I turned around, ready to get into it if the fucker wouldn’t back off, but Coach’s whistle blasted, and everyone stopped what they were doing.
“Out! Carrington. Hinode. Parilla. Get off my fucking court until you can act like teammates!”
There was dead silence as we made it to the bleachers. I grabbed my bag and was happy I’d changed before I got here because I wouldn’t have to go to the locker room.
“I’m telling your dad about this,” Coach shouted.
“Why?” Alexander yelled back, then swung around to scowl at Coach, which was a bad move.
Coach growled and jabbed his whistle in Alexander’s direction. “Because you’ve clearly got some bullshit idea that just because your father teaches here you can do whatever the fuck you want. You can’t. You’re on this team because you have skills, but you won’t be staying because of who you know. Either get it together or someone else will be playing your spot.” Coach pointed at me and Milo, too, but I had a feeling maybe Alexander’s nepo baby status especially pissed Coach off.
Grabbing Milo’s shoulder, I dragged him toward the exit that would spill directly outside rather than going through the rest of the building, and we escaped into the morning sunshine and crisp fall air, leaving Alexander red-faced and blinking as basketball practice resumed.
Someone burst out of the doors behind us, and I sighed.
“Hey!”
“Back off, man,” Milo said, spinning around.
I wanted to bash my head off the nearest hard surface rather than deal with this, but I turned around as Alexander made it to us in a few strides.
“What’s your problem lately?” Alexander demanded, and he almost looked ready to cry. I guess I couldn’t blame him. I would be irritated if my parents were getting dragged into this mess.
“I’ve been ignoring you,” I said, frustrated.
“Exactly,” he hissed, shaking his head. “What are you planning?”
“Believe it or not, you don’t factor into my life plans,” I said, though I was uneasy at the lie, and maybe he could tell because he popped his tongue against his cheek and tilted his head like he was trying to work out my angle. “Don’t worry about me.”
But Iwasworried. Clearly it didn’t matter if I left Alexander alone or not.Fucking hell.
“Why the change?” he asked, and he sounded a little more human as he stared at me. My belly flipped because without him being a jackass, I could see some of the things I liked about Micah in him. Nicely shaped lips. Long legs. Eyes that seemed to show a million emotions. I shook my head and swallowed, grabbing Milo’s arm and walking away.
Milo did his job as my best friend, scowling and making faces at Alexander as we hustled away from him along the sidewalk. My phone vibrated in my pocket and I tugged it free of my pants.
Micah: Am I still coming to see your band tonight? What time?
Smiling, I answered.
