I gave him a side look. “Sounding cynical there,” I said, keeping my voice low.
He stopped walking, and so did I. He looked around us, checking for passersby. “I know why you were fighting with those seniors,” he told me quietly. “I know you, Dante, and I know you don’t like it.” He stepped closer. “You’ve one more season here. This boat isn’t the one you want to rock.”
I swallowed. “Are you threatening—”
“I’mwarningyou. I know it sucks, it really fucking sucks, I know it does.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Trust me, Spence. Keep your head down, don’t make waves about this. You hear me?”
“I only just learned about it,” I admitted. “I haven’t probed.”
“Don’t,” he said with a tight smile. “Keep doing what you’re doing, son. Ignore the rest.” He tapped me on the back as we got to the locker room. “Don’t ignore the shoulder. You should’ve come to me yourself.”
We walked back inside, and I wasn’t surprised to see the locker room was mostly empty, except for my two roommates.
“You okay?” Dust asked, looking up from his phone.
“Yeah, MRI tomorrow, injection and massage today, ice when I get back to the room.”
“Great. Dinner?” Noah asked, standing.
“Yeah, tonight you will eat allyourfood,” Dustin told me, bending to pick up his backpack. “And none of mine.”
“I need a shower,” I reminded them. “Save me a seat, okay?”
They nodded and left, and I hurried through my shower, the conversations with Diana and Hembry replaying in my mind.
I headed straight to the dining hall. I’d missed too many meals. After standing in line, getting a huge plate of food and two sides, I went and sat with Noah and Dustin.
“When did we start sitting in our own bubble?” I asked them curiously as I sat down. We were at a table of six, and no one else was coming over.
“Since you and Matthews started throwing punches at your own teammates,” Dustin said around a mouthful of chicken.
Noah grinned. “That’ll do it.”
“Well, they were assholes,” I reminded Dustin. “You’d have thrown down with them too.”
“I know,” he said, scooping up some rice. “Didn’t say you shouldn’t have, just that you did.”
“So that’s why we’re pariahs?” I asked, looking over my shoulder at the rest of the dining hall.
Dustin shook his head at me. “I swear you live in a fog,” he chided. “Most people sit with either their teammates or their roommates.”
I frowned as I bit into my roll. “Did we do that last year?”
Noah snorted. “How did you not notice?”
“He’s usually reading,” Dustin told him. “He likes books and shit.”
“Ahh,” Noah murmured. “Makes more sense about the tutor now.”
“So you moved on from just ‘sounding her out’?” Dustin asked, his face carefully neutral.
I could lie, and after the shed, I probably should. “It got complicated.”
My friend watched me from across the table. He gave a slight nod. “Okay. Just don’t do anything stupid.”
That advice may be too late. I decided to change the subject.
I looked over my shoulder, seeing no one behind us. “I had an interesting chat with Hembry.”
