“No time! You’ll just get stinky again.” He tugged on my hand until I stumbled out from underneath the blankets. He snickered at my red-and-black LA Angels boxers, and I shoved him until he squawked because his foot landed in an open pizza box.
“Go get me a Red Bull from the fridge. Please.” I widened my eyes at him and made my bottom lip quiver. “I’m running on heartbreak and spite. I need caffeine in the mix.”
He laughed and gave me a quick hug. “Anything. Man, I was about ready to bring my mom here for real. You were scaring me.” His words stuck with me as I hustled to get dressed, and he met me at the bottom of the stairs with a cold energy drink—exactly what I needed to jumpstart my mind.
He drove my car so I could self-medicate and try to get my brain working for something other than turning over—obsessively—all the ways I’d fucked up the other night. I should’ve kicked in Micah’s front door and let him know exactly how much I cared about him, but even to me that sounded over the top.
It didn’t mean I didn’t want to do it, though.
I’d gotten used to being around him faster than I could snap my fingers, but maybe our connection formed quickly because we worked so well together. Sometimes you just met someone and clicked, and I had with him. Sighing, I finished my Red Bull and braced for another early morning practice as the first fingers of a rosy, perfect dawn streaked across the sky.
Milo was right. When we got inside the gym and onto the basketball court, Alexander wasn’t warming up with the rest of the team. The lying worm must’ve been too embarrassed to show his face here. Knowing I’d been targeted by him to begin with because he had too many fucking emotions he couldn’t deal with, not because of anything I’d done to upset him, didn’t make me feel any better. It was all just so much more fucked up now that I knew he liked me—or thought he did, anyway.
“Fuck it. Stop thinking about it.” I shrugged off my hoodie and bent over, stretching along with everyone else.
An hour and a half later, I was sweaty and really feeling the days I hadn’t bothered to do anything as I stood at the half-court line along with the rest of the team while Coach paced around with an old-fashioned clipboard in his hand. He tugged a fucking flip phone out of his pocket, apparently checking the time, and the shock almost made me fall over. It wasn’t new. Could he even text on that thing? He wasn’t so much older than us that he should be using a piece of tech that was almost as bad as using an actual brick to communicate, but the evidence was clear in front of me.
“All right, Fireballs.” He shoved his phone back in his pocket, then held up the clipboard. “The moment you’ve all been waiting for. Your starters.”
A cheer went up from the rest of the guys, but I wasn’t feeling too hot, so I stood there with my arms crossed. I closed my eyes and listened to names get called, and smiled at Parilla, then opened my eyes to smack Milo on the back in congratulations. He grinned at me, but his attention was fixed on Coach. His was the last name, though, and my gut dropped.
“The rest of you, keep in shape. You never know when we’ll need you in the game or when you’ll just be better, and I’ll start you.” He glanced at everyone who had been named a starter when he said that. “There are no safe spots on the starting roster. Either you earn it and keep it or you don’t.”
With that, he turned and walked away, not even bothering to officially declare practice over. The room exploded with noise as congratulations were called out. Some people were pissed off, others sad. I felt numb. I’d cared about being a starter, but on top of not having Micah, this just fucking sucked.
I stomped over to my hoodie and swiped it off the floor, then almost jumped out of my skin as someone tapped me hard on the shoulder. I spun around, fists up, but Coach used his clipboard to smack them down.
“If you stop flaking on practice, in two weeks I’ll pull Banks and put you in as a starter.” My heart leaped.Fuck yes.
“Where is Carrington?”
Milo came up behind Coach and glared at me over his shoulder, but I wanted to know what had happened.
Coach shrugged and scowled. “He washed out. Quit.” He bopped me on the shoulder, then stalked over to scare Michael Mathers half to death and pull the same thing on him.
“After all that bullshit, he quit?” My voice bounced around. People turned to look at me with interest. I spun toward Milo. “He fuckingquit?”
Milo grimaced. “Well, I’m not surprised. He was way the hell out of line. He punched your boyfriend... his dad. ...” Milo bit his thumb for a minute as if he wasn’t quite able to figure out what he should say. “There were a lot of reasons for him to tuck his tail between his legs and run, don’t you think?”
“This is a load of shit,” I snapped, then tugged on my hoodie. I stormed out of practice with Milo hot on my heels.
“What are you doing?” He drummed on my back, then rushed ahead of me to walk backward, as if he thought his antics would stop me.
“Nothing,” I snarled.
He tried several times to get me to answer him. When I wouldn’t detour from my search for Carrington to go to class, he groaned and finally raced off so he wouldn’t be late.
“My mom has fits when I miss class,” he called over his shoulder at me. “Sorry, I can’t lie to her. I’m bad at it.”
I rolled my eyes, but I knew his family was close-knit, so I wasn’t exactly surprised. “You better hope she never asks about Gracie May, then!”
He flipped me off but didn’t stop.
After spending a few hours searching high and low, I finally got Alexander’s address from one of his housemates. Before I could talk myself out of it, I caught a ride to his place with one of his roomies. It was sneaky because I even had an invite inside.
“Where’s Alexander’s room?” I asked Edmond Greene, the redheaded football player who’d been so helpful. I glanced around the bland entryway cluttered with shoes. He gave me a happy smile and tilted his head, all helpful puppy.
“Upstairs. Second room on the right. You’re not going to start trouble with him, are you? It’s good for teammates to work stuff out.” He gave me one serious nod.
