Someone was jealous.
Sasha fisted my sleeve in her small hand and yanked me to a stop. “I’m talkin’ to you.”
I leaned toward her, keeping my voice low when I wanted to scream in her face. “And? You think just because you speak, I have to listen? That’s not how the world works.” I straightened and pulled my shirt free. “Better get used to it.”
“You ruined my relationship, Jack Rutledge. You and your stupid feud with the football players.”
“Upset you’ve lost your whipping boy?” I asked, bluffing with my assumptions of her treatment of him.
She narrowed her eyes as red tinged her cheeks. “You’ve got some nerve.” Her little five-foot frame shook as if she might be gearing up to hit me. “Of the two of us, who’s been in trouble for fighting? And the school knows less than half of it. You’ve bullied him, attacked him.”
I snorted, but fuck, that hit the mark. “You don’t know shit. Cal can take care of himself,” I said with a little less surety than I’d have liked.
Sasha’s heels clicked as she hurried after me when I rounded a corner. Eyes straight ahead, she wasn’t even in my periphery as she chased.Get a clue, bitch.I’m not giving in to whatever this is.
“I don’t know why you even care. You haven’t won. Cal will always be mine.”
Don’t react.She doesn’t know shit.She just needs an outlet or something.
“This distraction will end. You’ll see. Football season is over, and he won’t care about you or your rivalry.”
I kept my smile to a quick quirk of my lips. From the sound of it, she hadn’t figured out I’d been cornering Cal and blowing his mind. No, she just thought he was getting too wrapped up in the competition, the fight between our teams, and she’d been set aside.
Wait, was she right? I reached the door to my classroom and froze. Cal might be the nice guy everyone claimed, but he had a competitive streak a mile wide. Had I judged this wrong? Was I the distraction? After the camp this weekend, we wouldn’t have any reason to be in each other’s faces. Would all of this be over?
Sasha laughed. The pitch of her voice was worse than the buzz of wings near my ear. “Yeah. You’ve figured it out, huh?” She stepped closer, my skin crawling with her nearness. “I’m the only one who understands him. Cal needs a cause, you see? He needs to be mentally challenged, and whatever hold you had on him has expired.”
The click of her heels quieted with her withdrawal, but I stood at the door, hand reaching for the knob as I internally growled in frustration. She couldn’t be right, but I had enough self-doubt over what I wanted, what I could risk giving to Cal, that her words had done the trick.
“Helloandwelcometothe Athletic Leadership Camp. I’m Head Counselor Adam Vaughn. You can call me Adam or AV, either way.”
I glanced at Ty beside me as we waited in a crowd of guys from schools in the region for this introduction to the sports camp we were volunteered for. Nick stood on Ty’s other side, with Cal too far from me on the end. I wasn’t thrilled for this weekend, but Ty was unusually pumped.
“You okay?” I whispered.
“Yeah. This is awesome. We get two whole days to fuck up some little dudes.”
A guy in front of us turned around. “That’s not the point of this,” Complete Rando said.
“You do you, man,” Ty answered, not at all concerned as he bounced on his toes.
“In a few moments, me and the other veteran counselors will show you to your cabins.” Adam—I refused to call this man AV—chuckled. “They aren’t big, just enough room for beds and a bathroom, but you won’t spend much time in them anyway.”
He went on explaining the basic plan for the weekend as other counselors handed flyers to us with the same agenda listed. I halfway paid attention but mostly leaned around Ty’s back so I could sneak peeks at Cal. He should be all over this sort of thing. So far, I’d been completely mistaken. The four of us had driven a little over two hours after school to get here, and during that time, he was just as he was now. Sullen. Taciturn. I didn’t like it.
Tonight, we had the meet and greet, and tomorrow, we started bright and early with hundreds of kids ages seven to fifteen. Every hour from sunup to sundown was planned with games designed to teach kids how to be team players and lead by example, not just in sports, but using it as a way to get through to them, get them listening. I supposed it had good intentions, and this would look great on my college application.
I hadn’t messed with Cal since Monday, and an itchy Cal-withdrawal had crawled under my skin. I didn’t like that either. I didn’t want to need him like some Cal junkie.
Cal dropped his chin for the twentieth time, sniffed, swallowed hard, then glanced toward the front as the head counselor kept on about whatever.
Somewhere between the evil glares, the heated words, the shoving away, and then pulling him closer, the crush I wanted dissolved hadn’t, and in fact, it had deepened. Sasha’s claims from earlier kept me on edge, and though I thought I knew Cal, maybe I didn’t. Maybe she’d been right, and Cal was standing here fucked-up because he’d cheated on his girlfriend with a guy all for the sake of competition.
Maybe he regretted everything.
Maybe I’d pushed too far.
After the meeting, we were encouraged to mingle with the other guys from the various schools. I wandered aimlessly, notrealizing I was following Ty as he made new friends until he stopped suddenly, jerked his head toward the exit, then marched out of the building.
