Chewing my lower lip, I think about it. Like really think about it. I can join the team. I can compete. I … I can do this.
“When are tryouts?”
“Technically, this Friday, but if I tell Coach you’re interested, she’ll probably cancel them. She’s been watching you for a while now. You swim during our practices sometimes and she times you. You’re faster than everyone else on the team in freestyle, butterfly, and breaststroke. The only one you struggle with is?—”
“Backstroke,” I finish for her. It’s my least favorite.
She nods. “Yeah. But we don’t need you for that. Not unless you want to do a medley.”
And swim four strokes in the same race, not particularly.
“But like I was saying, if Coach knows you’re interested, she’s not going to make you try out. She’ll just give you the spot with a smile and say welcome to the team.”
I shake my head. “I don’t want any special treatment. I want to earn my spot.” I want to know that I got myself on that team. That I accomplished something.
“It’s not special treatment when you’re as fast in the water as you are. You totally smoked me today before that asshole showed up, and I’m the second faster swimmer on our team next to Cate. But I can respect that.” She puts her hand out. “Let me see your phone.”
I give it to her, and her fingers tap across the screen.
“There. I added my contact information. Tryouts are Friday at eleven.”
“Okay,” I tell her. “I’ll be there.”
CHAPTER 32
GABRIEL
Cecilia is early to class this morning. Nothing out of the ordinary. But what sticks out to me is that she’s texting on her phone. Taking her usual seat beside me, she keeps her head tucked low as her fingers fly over her phone’s screen.
There’s a tentative smile on her face. Whoever she’s talking to, she likes them.
Jealousy digs angry claws into my chest.
Who is it? I need to know.
Cecilia doesn’t have a circle. She talks to me. Or at least, she did. And then she has her parents. It’s gotta be her mom or dad blowing up her phone right now. Except, normally when one of them messages her, she gets this pinched look on her face.
They worry about her. For good reason. I worry about her, too. But they’ve become helicopter parents and all their hovering just pushes Cecilia away. There’s usually a touch of annoyance on her face whenever they check in on her at school. I’m sure it’s annoying, but I wish my parents were more like hers. She doesn’t know how lucky she is that her parents actually give a shit. Mine cut me out of their lives as soon as they could.
Watching her facial expressions now, she’s not at all annoyed. She’s … happy.
Fuck, she’s beautiful when she’s like this. Hell, she’s always beautiful, but seeing her smile. It’s something special. Something she rarely shows the outside world. Which is why I’m so taken aback right now. I’m not used to seeing Cecilia like this. Not out in the open.
She likes to keep her emotions locked down. Her expression blank.
Before, she’d give me these small smiles when we were together. But I’m not on the receiving end of them anymore.
I wish I could break into that pretty little head of hers and rummage around. I don’t like not knowing everything there is to know about her. Her reason for calling things off between us still doesn’t make any sense. If I could get inside her head, maybe I’d find some answers.
I stare down at her phone, trying to read the name on her screen, but it’s too small for me to make the letters out.
I need to know who she's talking to. The longer this back and forth messaging goes on, the more it sinks in that it is definitely not one of her parents. Is it a guy? Did she meet someone?
White hot fury courses through my veins. I swear to god if a dude is trying to move in on her … I shake my head.
It’s only been a few weeks. Weeks. Not months. And she didn’t break things off with me to see other people. She said she needed time to figure her shit out. To heal. And for some bullshit reason, she couldn’t do that and be in a relationship with me.
Fuck it. I need to know.
