My little sister slipped away from my mom the moment she saw me and I abandoned my Collette lookout as I swept her up in my arms for a bear hug when she crashed into me.
“You did great, Ethan!” She pressed her face into me and hugged me tight.
“Thanks, squirt.” I messed up her hair. Right on cue, she glanced up at me her nose wrinkled in annoyance.
I smelled my mother’s expensive perfume before I felt her lips on my cheek. “You did great, sweetheart.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
And then my dad was next to me, giving me the sort of one-armed manly hug I never got except for times like this one—rare and fleeting moments when I’ve actually managed to make him proud.
“That last touchdown,” he was saying, “that was incredible.” His face was alight with excitement like he was still reliving that moment.
Mymoment.
This wasn’tthe first time I wondered if my dad had any idea that the guy standing in front of him was his own man. That I was an individual in my own right and not some carbon copy he’d created so he could relive his glory days.
A group of cheerleaders jostled me on one side as more players came out of the locker room and into the already crowded hallway. It was getting hard to hear as people shouted over one another.
“Great job, Ethan.” My friend Claire, one of the senior cheerleaders, gave me a quick hug as she squeezed past me.
“I need to talk to you, Son,” my dad said to my left. His movement brought Claire closer to me and in the confusion, Claire pressed into me. I felt her giggle and I glanced down to give her a sympathetic smile and shrug. We’d been friends since Kindergarten. If not, this would have been embarrassing.
But just then one of the cheerleaders shifted and from the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of brown hair. Collette. I craned my neck to see if I’d been right, only to be met with Collette’s furrowed brow.I didn’t have to worry about her spotting me as well. Her eyes were fixed on me but she wasn’t smiling. If anything, she looked hurt.
I raised a hand and beckoned her over. She jerked forward quickly like she’d been shoved from behind, and that was when I saw Olivia behind her, pushing her toward me.
Well, at least one of them wanted to see me.
Fear had me scanning Collette’s features, trying to figure out what she was thinking. The weird look. The wariness—it had to do with my last text. I knew it. I’d shown my hand when I’d asked herpoint blank if she had a boyfriend and now she was trying to figure out a nice way to tell me that she’d never seen me as anything more than a friend.
“Did you hear me, Son?” My father’s voice lost its jovial tone. I whipped my head around to face him. Sure enough, he was all business once again. He placed a hand on my shoulder, his grip hard and unrelenting. “Good news, right?”
“Uh, what’s the good news?”
I tried to sneak a glance over to my right but my dad was in my face. I could feel Collette though. After weeks of dancing together, our bodies were somehow in tune with each other. I tried to move toward her, acknowledge her so she wouldn’t run off?—
“Are you even listening?” my father snapped, all post-win good vibes officially gone.
“Oh, Jack, leave the boy alone,” I heard my mom mutter. “You’re making a scene.”
His grip tensed one more time as I saw the internal struggle flash inside of him. But then, he sighed and dropped his hand from my shoulder. Hiseverything is perfectsmile returned. The threat of making a public spectacle got through to him because of course that was all that mattered here.
“What were you saying?” I asked.
I felt Collette brush against my side, hovering just behind me, waiting for me to acknowledge her.
“Isaid…” My dad drew the word out and it took everything in me not to shake him in frustration.Just spit it out. I had a girl to see. I needed to get a straight answer from her on whether or not she had a boyfriend, because if she did—well, I didn’t know what I’d do, but the mere thought was killing me.
Not knowing was even worse.
“The recruiter from Yale was very impressed, I’ll tell you that.” My dad was once again happy, clearly pleased by whatever conversation he’d had with the scout. I’d zoned out for a second but caught up quickly. Recruit. Yale. All my dad’s dreams were coming true. “He’s coming to the fundraiser on Thursday night so you two will talk then.”
I opened my mouth to give my perfunctory, “yes, sir” but stopped when his words registered. Thursday. That was the same night that Ryan’s band was playing The Tailgate. “Um, actually Dad…”
He froze, his eyes fixed on mine. “What?”
The words got stuck in my throat. I could practically feel Collette tense beside me as she waited for me to continue. To say…something. Anything.
