Isa was still under my skin like a bad rash I couldn’t stop scratching. One night. That’s all it took. One night of her falling apart in my arms, letting me touch her, letting me taste her, and now I was hooked like some pathetic addict. She was the drug. The kind that felt good going down but left you fucked up the next morning.
I hated it.
I hated that I still wanted her even while she was out here acting like what happened between us didn’t mean shit. I hated that I kept looking for her in the stands even though I knew she probably wasn’t coming. And I really hated the shit that had been floating around the locker room all week.
The whispers about her.
Word was spreading fast— faster than I wanted it to. Girls were saying Isa had been chasing Tristan because of his money.That she wasn’t just some heartbroken girl who got left in the library. That she’d been targeting him for his family name and the Vale money from the jump. A couple of them even swore they were in the training room when they heard her say it out loud. Something about her mom telling her to lock him down for the “six-three NBA grandbabies and the money vault.”
I didn’t want to believe it.
But the more I heard it, the more it started to make sense.
Why she chased him so hard. Why she kept going back even after he pulled away. Why she ran from me the second things got real between us. Maybe I was just the convenient distraction. The dumb football player who was stupid enough to catch her when she fell.
And the worst part?
If any of that shit was true, then the last thing I needed was her finding out about my family’s money. Because the second she realized I was set to inherit millions one day, everything would change. I’d never know if she actually wanted me or if she just wanted what came with the last name.
I needed to pull back.
Fast.
I was lacing up my cleats in the locker room when I heard two of the defensive backs talking a few lockers down.
“—swear to God, bro. My girl said she was right there when Isa was talking about it. Said her mom straight up told her to go after Vale for the money.”
“Damn. That’s cold.”
“Explains why she was so pressed about him, though. Girl was playing the long game.”
My jaw tightened. I stood up and slammed my locker shut harder than I needed to. The sound cut through the noise.
“Yo, Travers, you good?” one of them asked.
I didn’t answer. Just grabbed my helmet and walked out toward the tunnel.
The pre-game warm-ups were loud. Music blasting. Guys yelling. The usual chaos. But all I could hear was that same bullshit looping in my head.Gold digger. Targeting him for the money. Chasing status.It made too much sense. And the more it made sense, the angrier I got—at her, at myself, at the fact that I still couldn’t get her out of my system.
By the time we were out on the field for warm-ups, I was already seeing red.
I was running routes when I heard it again on the sideline. Two of the offensive linemen talking low while we waited for the next set.
“—said she was in there when Isa was talking about locking Vale down for the cash. Crazy, right?”
I snapped.
I turned around so fast one of them actually took a step back.
“We’ve got a game to play,” I said, voice low and sharp. “You guys still talking about campus gossip or something like that?”
The two of them went quiet real quick.
I yanked my helmet back on and jogged back out to my spot, heart pounding harder than it should’ve been this early.
I needed to focus.
I needed to play.
