“That’s for sure.” Beckett laughs, staring right at her ass.
I get out of the running lane and put my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath. Hannah may be trying to kill me with those shorts, but those hot pink shorts mayactuallybe the death of a few other people. I look across the gym. They’re both still running behind her and have giant smiles, their eyes plastered to Hannah’s ass. Jack notices me and comes over.
“Everything okay?”
“Just trying not to keel over from the heart failure your sister is trying to induce from running in those hot pink shorts.”
Jack glances around the gym, looking for Hannah, and when he spots her, his eyes nearly bug out of their sockets. “Whoa.”
“Yeah. I’m trying extremely hard not to deck Beckett and Dave.” I run a hand through my damp hair.
“I’ll take care of it.”
Jack turns to leave, but I grab his arm. “Confronting her will only make her more determined.”
“Oh, I’m not going to talk to Clark.” He gives me a cocky smile, then takes off down the stairs.
I decide I’m done running. There are too many people to compete with, and I head downstairs, too.
Jack walks over to Coach Eskelson, Hannah’s teacher. Oh boy. I turn the other way, not wanting to stick around for that conversation, and go out into the hall for a drink of water. When I walk back into the gym, I see Hannah has come downstairs. Her hips sway all the way over to her teacher. Coach Eskelson puts her arm around Clark’s shoulder and lowers her head to talk to her. Hannah’s already red cheeks get brighter, and she bites her bottom lip. All the tell-tell signs she’s embarrassed. She says something to her teacher. Coach Eskelson pats her on the back, then walks away. Clark looks around the gym when her eyes land on me. She narrows them, and her hands go to her hips. I shake my head and raise my hands with a shrug. I try hard to keep a smile off my face, but it doesn’t work.
Hannah stomps her foot, then turns around.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Tyler asks, coming down the stairs. We both watch Hannah trudge into the girl’s locker room. “She looks pissed. What’d you do?”
“Why do you assume it was me?”
“You mean it wasn’t?” Tyler eyes me.
I purse my lips. “Not directly. Come on, no one’s using the main gym. Let’s shoot hoops for the rest of the period.”
After PE, I change into my football pants, but I don’t worry about my shoulder pads. I don’t need them. Today is a light practice since we have our first game tomorrow.
I wait for Hannah outside the girl’s locker room. I know the cheerleaders practice in one of the upper gyms. It will make me late for football practice, but I don’t care. Hannah is more important. I want to talk to her since I haven’t been able to all day. I have so much to say and tell her I don’t even know where to start.
Several girls from the volleyball team come out of the locker room. They smile at me, but none of them stop to talk to me. It’s a relief. I enjoy talking to girls, but it gets exhausting when it’s the same conversation every time. The high-pitched hello, followed by giggles, and them blowing steam up my ass with all their compliments. Don’t get me wrong, they’re nice, and if I let it, all those compliments would go to my head, but I never have any actual conversations with girls, except for Hannah. She comes out of the locker room with Leah Hunt, Aubrey Larsen, and a couple of other cheerleaders whose names I don’t know. “Clark,” I yell, pushing off the wall. All the girls with her giggle, then head up the stairs.
“What?” Hannah hisses. Her forehead’s creased, and when she reaches me, she crosses her arms with a humph.
“Why are you mad?” I trail my fingers across her cheeks.
“You know why, you got me in trouble with Coach Eskelson.”
I hold up my hands in surrender. “It wasn’t me. I promise.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “Then who was it?”
I shrug. I’m not tattling on my boy, Jack. He did me a solid getting her teacher to make her change her shorts. “I love those shorts. It’s just so did all the other guys running in the gym.”
“Oh.” She drops her arms, and I reach out, grabbing her hand and entwining it with mine. “So, I guess you’re here to gloat.”
A smile spreads across my face. I won the bet, but it doesn’t feel like a win. “Can we both agree that bet sucked, and we both hated it?”
Hannah steps closer to me. “I hatedalmostevery second.”
“Almost?”
“The kiss.” Hannah lets out a sigh, her hand going to her lips.
