Afterwards, I laid with my head on his chest. One of his strong, muscular arms wrapped around my waist and held me tight as if he was scared I might try to leave in the night. I ran one of my hands through his thick hair, massaging his scalp as we basked in the afterglow of sex.
“I love you,” I whispered.
“My God. I’ll never get enough of you. I hope you know you’re mine forever.”
I fell asleep, secure in the knowledge that our love was meant to last.
***
Then there were… some changes.
Harrison had been one of the backup quarterbacks. He hadn’t received any playing time, which wasn’t a surprise to any of us since he was a freshman and it was early in the season. But then the first-string quarterback, a senior, got hurt at the start of the third game. And Coach had put Harrison in instead of the junior backup.
And when he started playing? He could do no wrong. It was like he was kissed by the heavens. Almost every pass was acompletion. If no one was open, he ran the ball and managed to find a hole in the defensive line every time. We won the game, and everyone credited the win to Harrison
After that, Harrison remained the starting quarterback, or QB1, and he was having his best season yet.
Suddenly, Carruthers went from a good team to a great team, and Harrison was touted as the reason. After a few games, he was even featured in an interview on College Gameday.
At first, we were all so excited for him. It had been his dream to play pro football as long as I’d known him. It looked like if he continued on the path he was on, it was actually possible that would happen for him. We went from being able to walk across campus with no one really noticing us, to being mobbed by people wanting his autograph every time we stepped out of his fraternity house.
“God, this is crazy,” Melinda said to me one day when we were all following along behind Harrison like little ducks following their mama. “You and Carrie used to be recognized more than Harrison was.” She was right. Since Carrie and I were on the sidelines cheering for every game, sometimes people—guys, really—recognized us. It used to piss Harrison off.
But that was nothing like this. This was… life changing.
“Introduce me to your boyfriend now that he’s the starting quarterback,” Aubrey Seeks said one Saturday. She was the brunette bombshell who’d shown interest in Harrison at the start of the school year. She came over to talk to me while we were on a short break from cheering due to a TV time out. “He’s hot.” The way she stared at him left no doubt in my mind as to why she wanted to meet him.
“Maybe some time,” I said vaguely. I wasn’t about to introduce him to even more hot girls. He’d only been QB1 for a month, and the amount of attention he got from beautiful girls was difficult for me to come to terms with.
“Hmm,” she said, a mean look on her face. “I’ll just have to introduce myself then. You know we have a class together, right?”
No. I didn’t know that. Harrison hadn’t mentioned it, but then I bet he didn’t even know who Aubrey was. Or at least I hoped he didn’t.
Carrie linked arms with me. “I hope it’s not because you’re interested in Harrison,” she said to Aubrey.
“Why?” Aubrey smirked.
Carrie gave me a quick grin. “I’ve never seen a couple more devoted to each other than Sadie and Harrison. They’ve been together forever, and he doesn’t evenlookat other girls.”
Aubrey laughed, and there was something about it that made my skin prickle. The look on her face was almost like she was more interested in meeting Harrison after what Carrie said.
I frowned and turned away.
“Hey,” another girl we cheered with pulled us aside. “Be careful with Aubrey.”
“Why?” Carrie asked.
“She enjoys breaking people up. Telling her that you’ve been together forever and are super tight? That’s like waving red in front of a bull. She’ll be all about trying to break you up now—if that’s what she wants to do.”
“Thanks,” I said softly as the girl walked back to her place to resume cheering.
“Come on,” Carrie said once we were alone. “You’re not really going to be worried about Aubrey, right?”
I looked at her. “She’s beautiful.”
“But we’re talking aboutHarrison. He’s gone over you. You and Harrison are solid, Sadie. You don’t need to worry.”
I hoped she was right. I glanced back at Aubrey as we got back to cheering, and I didn’t like the calculating look I saw in her pretty, dark eyes. I’d heard things that backed up what theother girl had told us. Aubrey was known all over campus for being a relationship killer. She enjoyed breaking people up, just so she could say she’d done it. She was gorgeous. She also looked like my exact opposite. I was short with blonde hair, blue eyes, and an hourglass shape. She had black hair, brown eyes, and was tall and lean with very few curves. She was older than me, more experienced than me, and had a bad girl vibe. My nickname was literally ‘Sunshine.’ You couldn’t get much further from ‘bad girl’ than that.
