“What?!” Bryce yells. Coach Paulson stays silent, watching as Carter tries to work out the move.
“That’s it,” I prompt. “One ball low to the ground around your ankle. The other stays bouncing near your knee.”
He gets it for maybe six seconds before the low ball slips and dribbles out of reach. Coach Paulson blows the whistle, and the rest of the team hoots and stomps in encouragement.
“Good work, Carter. That’s impressive ball handling.”
The twelve-year-old boy in my head snickers.
“All of you,” he addresses the rest of the team. “You did great work out there. Hit the showers!”
He’s not wrong; they did an amazing job, especially for high school kids. They’re more than ready for the game tomorrow—the last one before winter break—but I can’t get excited.
I fucked up. I know I fucked up. But we’retaking time apart.Pshh!I roll my eyes at myself. More like taking time to marinate in my terrible decisions.
“Hey, coach!” Carter calls out to me on the way to return four balls. “You must be feeling pretty pumped, huh?”
I nod automatically.
“Definitely. You guys are going to crush Barrington Prep.”
His trademark smirk takes over his face.
“Of course we are, but that’s not what I’m talking about.”
I raise an eyebrow.
“What are you talking about, then?”
Carter looks at me like I’m crazy.
“You seriously don’t know?”
“Did another scout set some time with you and your parents?” I guess. He starts to shake his head, then stops.
“I mean, yes, we got a call from another scout, this one offering a full ride, but I’m talking about your girl, Kendra.”
I stop short.
“What about her?” I try to keep my voice even. There’s no way he could know about our fight last week. I haven’t told anyone, and Kendra’s too private to say anything to the press.
“She fucking annihilated her ex, man!”
“Language,” I scold. He just scoffs.
“She destroyed her ex. Humiliated him on live TV. It’s all my sister and her friends are texting about lately.” He pulls out his phone to show me the footage.
It’s Kendra. Andre is holding out another bouquet of flowers. She grabs it and throws it on the ground. Then he grabsher. My hands ball into fists involuntarily. That dude is asking for a beatdown.
When Niko steps in and Andre finally lets go, my heart resumes beating. Andre’s yelling at her now, spewing terrible things in front of everyone. He’s still talking shit even after she left. No one helped her. Everyone just had their phones out!
I look at the date of the footage; it’s three days ago, the day of our fight.Fuuuck!She stood up to Andre.Publicly!And thenI accused her of faking things between us. Of me just being a fling. Ugh, I could not feel any lower.
I school my face so it doesn’t look like I’m seeing the footage for the first time. I stupidly turned off my alerts for news on Kendra while she was out of town and missed an entire grand gesture!
“Oh, that,” I say, feigning nonchalance. “That’s old news. I thought you were talking about something else.”
He looks at me skeptically for a few seconds, then shrugs.
