“Apologize, Ridley, and then you can go.”
Josh was turning a deep shade of red, though I wasn’t sure if it was from anger, or his windpipe being cut in half.
“Apologize,” tried Mason again.
“Fine. Fucking sorry.”
“Not good enough.” Mason dropped Josh to his feet, but held onto him as he stared down at the girl still on the floor.
“I’m sorry I kicked your books,” he snarled.
The girl on the floor rolled her eyes but said nothing. Mason let go of Josh, with a slight shove that had him storming fast toward the stairs.
“See! That wasn’t so hard!” Mason called after him, then tutted. “He’s such a dick.”
“Yeah.” I nodded, and peered down to see the girl still gathering up her books. I dropped to help her. “You okay? Sorry about that. The guy is a douche.”
Her eyes shot up to mine as she swept back the thick brown hair which had come loose from her ponytail, and I nearly fell on my ass. Vivid green eyes, the color of the Malibu Ocean on an early summer morning, bored through me with all the annoyance she’d aimed at Josh. But with each blink of her thick black lashes it lessened, until she let out an enormous sigh.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” She took the book I was mindlessly holding out for her. “Thanks for helping.”
My tongue had caught somewhere because I’d been rendered speechless, but she didn’t notice as she glanced up at Mason and smiled. “Thanks for that, I appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome,” he nodded, and then looked at me. “Dude, I have to go.”
“Yeah, no worries. I got this,” I replied, picking up the last book. A Guide to the Solar System was heavier than it looked. As we both stood, a subtle scent of sherbet filled the air.
I glanced over her; she was wearing a striped t-shirt covered in shooting stars, with a little rocket logo over her perfectly handful-sized breast. I quickly looked away. She was easily a foot shorter than me, which meant she can’t have been more than five four. No wonder she went flying. At least her jeans would have protected her knees from the hard floor.
What the…
I was still frowning at my internal monologue and the debate I was having on whether to give her one of the team backpacks to stop this from happening again, while also staring at her full and very soft looking pink lips. It was as she slipped the thick black glasses onto her head that I realized why she seemed familiar.
It was that girl, the one next door who Emerson and Mallory had been hounding me about, and I felt a pang of regret I hadn’t stopped.
I didn’t get a chance to speak before a door opened behind me, reminding me why I was on the second floor in the first place.
“What’s all the commotion?!” boomed Coach Barr. “Reeves, what are you doing?”
I turned to look at him. “Nothing, Coach. There was an accident.”
“Get in here,” he ordered.
I spun back round to the girl, but she was already on her way out without another word, heavy books scooped under one arm, and I couldn’t tell whether or not it bothered me as I stepped into Coach’s office.
“Take a seat,” Coach Barr ordered as he pointed to the chair in front of his desk, while he sat down on the other side of it and leaned back. “Now, tell me how it’s going.”
Coach Barr wasn’t known for his small talk. It was almost like he had a competition with himself to use as few words as possible. He was tough, but he got results by making us work our asses off. He’d gone through the draft when he was at college but never made it out of the minors, and at the ripe old age of twenty-five decided to leave and build a career in coaching. While we didn’t always like how hard he pushed us, we did like the wins, so we probably complained less than we would have done, or should have done.
I shuffled around, trying to get comfortable. “Um, it’s good, Coach. It’s good. We’ve been working hard over the holidays, and the beginning of the year. A couple of the guys have competed in tournaments as well. The team is ready for the season to start, and win it.”
He linked his hands behind his head and nodded slowly, like this was news to him, which it wasn’t. He had eyes and ears everywhere. “Good, good. Glad to hear it. You know why I called you in?”
I shook my head. “No, Coach.”
He raised a thick eyebrow at me, because we both knew what I thought I’d been called in for, even if I wasn’t one hundred percent sure.
“I was hoping you’re gonna name me Captain of the Squad.”
