“Now!”
Parker sighed and got up. “I was just trying to have a conversation.”
“Bullshit. Everyone knows you’ve wanted Sadie since freshman year. You were just trying to stir shit up.”
It had worked.
“Besides, I’m not even the starting quarterback at Carruthers. How would I possibly start at Alabama or Tennessee?”
But Parker had already walked off to go bother someone else.
“You could’ve played at Alabama or Tennessee?” I was horrified. Carruthers was great, but if you wanted to play in the NFL like Harrison did, those other programs were better.
“Yeah.” Harrison looked out at the lights of the town below us. He turned to look at me. “But I wanted to be with you.”
“I would’ve tried out to cheer at Alabama or Tennessee,” I protested.
“I know. But I also know that cheer scholarships aren’t full ride. The out of state tuition is expensive, babe.”
My face burned. My family wasn’t poor, but we weren’t rolling in money, either. Out of my closest friends, we definitely had the least amount of money. My mom was the bookkeeper at the high school, and my dad was a fireman. Plus, I had three siblings. The cheer scholarship I’d gotten covered almost everything since it was at an in-state school. I’d gotten a small academic scholarship to make up the difference. My parents weren’t having to come out of pocket for anything for me, and I hadn’t had to take on any student loans, thank goodness.
“We could’ve made it work. I know long-distance doesn’t usually work out well, but we have something really special.”
“I know we do.” He rubbed my hand and smiled. “But I didn’t want to risk it. How could I send my girl off to college without me? You’d come home engaged to some rich frat guy by Christmas.”
I laid back down on the blanket, studying the sky through the branches of the tree we were under. The tree I thought of as our tree. “Do you really think we have what it takes to make it?”
“Absolutely.” He said it with complete confidence. “You’re the only girl I’ve ever loved, and I know you’re the only one I will ever love. We’re going to be together forever.”
I smiled and cuddled into his side. We’d already talked a lot about the future. He would play in the NFL. I would be a teacherand cheer coach until we were ready for a family. Then I’d stay home with the kids. We’d had endless discussions about it.
Harrison was my first everything. First kiss, first boy I’d loved, first sexual partner—everything. And I was his. I wanted it to stay that way. How amazing would it be if we were able to tell people in the nursing home one day when we were old and gray that we’d only ever loved each other?
I got a smile on my face thinking about it. The small crisis was over. Yes, he’d passed up major scholarships for me without letting me have a say in that decision, but the most important thing was that we loved each other.
And we did.
Nothing could rip us apart.
Chapter Two
Sadie
“Your boyfriend is so hot,” Aubrey Seeks, one of my new sorority sisters said, “I don’t see how you can even stand it.” She fanned herself, laughing.
I never knew how to respond to people saying things like that, so I just smiled.
I didn’t really like Aubrey that much. She was a couple of years older than I was, and she was also on the cheerleading squad with Carrie and me. I had tried to like her, but there was just something about her that rubbed me the wrong way. And it wasn’t because she was ridiculously beautiful and flaunted it. It was something else that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. She seemed… fake or something. I felt like under all those smiles she was actually a mean girl.
“Thanks,” I said when I realized she was expecting me to respond. Melinda, Carrie, Blair, and I were at the sorority house for a pledge meeting. We had to live in the dorms our freshman year; we couldn’t live in the house like other members until we were sophomores. Aubrey was older and lived at the sorority house.
Aubrey was putting a final swipe of lipstick on in the elegant foyer mirror of the sorority house before leaving to go out with a group of girls. Her eyes met mine in the mirror. “Did you say he’s an athlete?”
“He plays football.” She was making me uncomfortable, but I didn’t want to be rude.
“Hmm. Love those football players,” she winked at me. “What position?”
“Quarterback… so, I really need to get going…”
