You know our new left winger, who is also my stepbrother? I think I have a thing for him. Any advice?
Yeah, I wouldn’t be talking about this with anyone anytime soon.
Rafael had been to three practices and was showing why he deserved to be on the starting line. He still had haters, but they were quiet. Rafael’s talent was undeniable, and he was pretty cool to everyone on the team.
Except for me.
When he wasn’t shoving his cock down my throat, he was avoiding me.
I looked up to find Asher staring at me, blinking, and I realized I hadn’t answered his question. “Oh, sorry. I’m just distracted. Maybe I’m tired. Practice was brutal today. Hughes knows how to run us ragged.”
“Tell me about it,” Asher agreed. “But, he means well. He pushes us because he wants us to be better.”
Asher and Hughes were incredibly close. Coach Hughes stepped in a few times when Asher’s mom brought home men who got physical with Asher.
He and I had similar backgrounds in that single moms raised us, but his mom was nowhere near as nice as mine. She had an addiction to drugs, and Asher’s life had been a long journey of navigating around the lowlifes his mom brought around. I was so glad that he had Coach Hughes as a stable adult in his life.
Asher looked at his phone. “Where the fuck is Theo? He’s supposed to bring the pregame.”
Case in point: he and Theo were about to pregame in Asher’s bedroom, and his mom didn’t care. She was passed out in front of the TV when I arrived. It wasn’t even nine o’clock.
Rowan’s parents were out of town, and he had invited pretty much all of the 18U team and every beautiful girl at our high school for what was supposed to be a party of epic proportions. His parents were wealthy as hell, and his house was palatial. I’d been there a couple of times; it was more like an estate than a house.
It had a massive pool, a Jacuzzi, enough space for dancing, and even a movie theater. I didn’t plan on utilizing any of it, though. Parties made me uncomfortable, and I despised alcohol because of my Dad.
But nobody wants to be the odd man out, so I tagged along and served as the designated driver; nobody was going to drive drunk on my watch.
The buzzer sounded, indicating someone was at the front entrance of Asher’s apartment building. He ran out of his room to buzz them in.
Theo’s massive feet lumbered up the stairs, quite literally causing the walls of the old apartment to vibrate. Asher greeted him, and they engaged in their usual bro thing—exchanging insults—when I heard another voice that made the hair on the back of my neck stand.
No.
I wasn’t sure if Rowan invited him. What the fuck was he doing with Theo?
As if on cue, Theo barreled into the room and made a beeline for me, wrapping his arm around my neck and giving me noogies. “Wassup, bitch!”
Once Theo had thoroughly manhandled me, I was released. I looked up, and there he was.
Rafael leaned against the doorway, his backward Yankees cap and black hair falling from the sides. His blue eyes locked with mine, and we stared at each other. Then, he released a devilish smirk that sent my heart racing, and I looked down at the floor.
Fuck why did he do this to me?
Theo sat on the bed next to me, then motioned to Rafael. “Look who I found at the liquor shop.”
He would be at the liquor shop.
“He didn’t even know there was a party tonight. What the fuck, Cody? Not even telling your brother that there’s a party.”
Rafael and I said simultaneously, “We’re not brothers.”
Theo held up his arms in surrender. “Whoa, you fuckers have got some sibling rivalry going on. You can cut this hate with a knife.”
“There’s no hate,” I spit out through clenched teeth.
Rafael came further into the room, closing the door behind him. “Nah. No hate. I don’t care enough to hate him.”
Oh, fuck you.
