I blink at her. ‘Wait, what?’
‘You heard me. And the worst thing about it? I found out in the bathroom, while I was inside a stall when some girls came in and started talking about how nobody was gonna invite me because Scottie told them not to. And they werelaughingabout it.’
More tears spill over onto her cheeks and her face crumples. Anger balloons in my chest.
‘Why would a guy do that? Because he wanted to ask you?’
‘No, he already has a date!’
She’s sobbing again. I get up and pace next to her bed. ‘So lemme get this straight. This asshole already asks a girl to the winter formal, but he goes around telling every other guy in your class not to invite you? Why the fuck would he do that?’
‘I don’t know. I think because I told him I couldn’t get free tickets to any of your games.’
‘So fucking what? Even I don’t get free tickets to the game!’
‘He’s a jock. Everybody worships the ground he walks on.’
‘He plays sports?’
‘He’s on the soccer team.’
I stiffen. ‘They play after school’s out?’
Her eyes flit to mine, like she can read my mind. ‘Yes. Maybe. I don’t know. Jake, just leave it okay, I can handle it.’
Rage in my stomach threatens to boil over. Nobody treats my sister that way. I hold out my hand to her. ‘Put your shoes on. You’re coming with me.’
She’s still wiping tears. ‘No. Just leave it.’
‘Riv,’ I say, my tone forceful. ‘Some guys might be happy to sit back and watch their baby sister take shit like that from some ugly high school douchebag. But not me.’
Thirty minutes later we’ve pulled up in my pickup beside the chain link fence that surrounds the playing fields at River’s high school.
River didn’t say a word the entire journey here. Just leaned her arm against the doorframe and rested her chin on her hand. She’s wiped her face clean of tears and makeup but there’s no mistaking she’s been crying. Now she’s staring from the window in the opposite direction from the soccer game that’s playing on the other side of the fence.
The ball of rage in my stomach has ruptured. I’m haemorrhaging anger and frustration, and maybe it’s not only because of River’s situation. I’m angry that I haven’t been there for my sister. I’m pissed at Sam Conway too, for making me take her daughter out on dates, like it’s an unwritten rule in my NFL contract that my pro-career depends on making her family look good. I’m frustrated at the hold Serenity has over me, and I have this creeping suspicion that there’s something she’s not telling me, like maybe she’s fooling around with me but I’m not the only guy in her life. I know her father’s sick. But there must be another reason for her never being around or always needing to leave. And I think that reason has been staring me in the face all this time.
‘Which one is he?’ I ask in the driver’s seat with the window down.
River glances over at the game for a brief second. Their uniforms are black with yellow numbers.
‘The number ten,’ she says.
‘That’s Scottie Lincoln?’
‘That’s him. Can I go now? I don’t wanna be here if you’re gonna talk to him.’
‘Where you gonna go?’
‘Meet me at the mall? You can buy me a McFlurry.’
‘Fine.’
She opens the car door. ‘Look, just don’t hit anybody, okay? He’s not worth it.’
‘Don’t sweat it, Riv. I know what I’m doing.’
When River’s crossed the road, I take the pickup round to the school’s front entrance. I park across the road from the main lot and I wait.
