Few things in life could get me amped from zero to boiling. Something or someone messing with my family would do it, and apparently, someone messing with Cal too.
“Smarter? That’s rich, coming from you dumb jocks. You dicks think we’re gonna let this go?” Blaine puffed up, ballsy for his smaller frame, but it did nothing when he bumped chests with Cal.
“Back off,” one of Cal’s teammates said as he reached around Cal to push Blaine away.
And shit went sideways.
Ty, who didn’t like Blaine any more than I did, was territorial and loyal to the team. One shove incited another, and then we were all bumping and knocking into each other.
I surged forward, yanking my teammates back with shaking hands and ignoring the tremors in favor of separating bodies. Our best players were in this fray, and we couldn’t afford to have anyone kicked off the team because of this shit.
Cal was doing the same. He gripped shirts and shoulders in his big hands and hauled them away from the soccer players.
“Ty,” I barked. He could stop our guys with a few growls, and if he didn’t do it soon, this was bound to get worse.
In the mash-up of students, I got pushed, my back ramming into another, and when I spun, a pair of light blue eyes clashed with my darker ones. The world slowed. The fighting andgrumbles around us blurred and faded. But before time could freeze entirely, Cal was slammed into from behind. Everything was already in slow motion, so I had plenty of time to react before Cal was forced against my body.
And react I did.
There was no fucking way I could let his stacked muscles hit mine without it sparking something that needed to remain lifeless.
Instinct.Survivalinstinct.
Cal widened his eyes and gaped, because he had to know it too. This wasn’t going to end well. Right before we collided, I thrust my arms in front of me, and he flew backward, barreling into his teammates.
Fuck.
Yeah, everyone around us was basically doing the same thing, but it was never thesame thingwhen it came to Cal and me.
Cal righted just as time returned to normal and shoved me with lightning reflexes. Like a whip, it happened so fast I didn’t brace myself and slammed into a locker. The bang was louder than the force of it and got everyone’s attention.
“Get off me,” Cal shouted.
Students and players turned, some yelling, “Fight, fight.”
Ty rushed in front of me. “Stand down, Winters.”
Cal knocked him away. Jesus, fuck, the balls and strength on this guy. I couldn’t let that flutter behind my ribs get to me, though. For one, he shouldn’t have touched Ty. Now I was pissed. And two, I could never let him know all this animosity between us was like foreplay to my fucked-up brain.
I surged back in, getting right in Cal’s face. “Touch him again, and I’ll put you down.”
“Try it,” Cal taunted.
I should’ve backed off. Where was that indifference I lived in? If I stopped right now, this would be over. Everyone was staring,no one fighting anymore. This had now become one-on-one. My ego loved it. My nerve endings loved it. I loved …
The words hung in the air like a red flag in front of a bull. I fisted Cal’s shirt and swung around, slamming him into the lockers as if fighting him would fight the ideas threatening to become reality.
I didn’t love shit. I fucking hated Cal Winters.
We snapped and snarled but never threw a punch. Students were cheering and yelling as the two of us danced, spinning and jostling as we tried to strong-arm each other to create distance between us, and somehow only crashed into each other over and over. The harder we thrashed, the more I had no idea what we were trying to accomplish.
An ear-piercing whistle echoed around us, silencing and freezing everyone.
“Get to class,” Coach Sullivan shouted.
Students parted left and right, leaving a straight shot between Cal and me and the football Coach with Ms. Haney, one of the math teachers, next to him. We lowered our arms, as if that mattered now. We’d been caught.
Coach Sullivan glared. “Winters, Rutledge, follow me.”
