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Carmine chuckled. “Well, I may have gotten between her knees, if you know what I mean.”
Rolling her eyes, Dia sat down. “So you banged. I’m sure that was romantic.”
“We didn’t bang,” Carmine said. “We made love.”
* * *
Carmine’s presence was scarce the next two weeks, even more so than before. He would slip out of the house for school while Haven was still asleep and wouldn’t get home from football practice until dinnertime. After they ate, the two of them would head upstairs, where Carmine did his homework before going straight to bed.
They didn’t even sleep in the same room most nights anymore.
Haven’s shame grew as the days passed, and Carmine’s demeanor shifted along with hers. Falling back into old patterns, he would lose his temper and lash out, and Haven would brush it off, despite that his words often hurt.
It was Friday evening, and Carmine’s first game of the year. Haven’s palms were sweaty when she climbed in the driver’s seat of Dominic’s car at around seven o’clock. It’s for Carmine, she told herself. No amount of people would get in her way of supporting him.
When she reached the school, the noise from the stadium could be heard from the parking lot, the announcer on the loudspeaker screeching above them all. She stood by the car, trying to gather the courage to move, when someone grabbed her shoulder. Her heart pounded furiously as she swung around, her hands protectively covering her face.
“Whoa,” Nicholas said. “It’s just me.”
She dropped her hands. “What do you want?”
“Do I have to want something? I figured I’d walk you inside.”
“If you’re hoping to hurt Carmine by having him see us together, you can just leave.”
“Honestly, that hadn’t crossed my mind, but now that you mention it . . .”
“Good-bye, Nicholas.” Her frustration was enough to make her legs finally move. She made it a few feet when she noticed a group of girls blocking the entrance, with Lisa in the center.
“I thought you might like an escort past the firing squad,” Nicholas said, walking up behind her. “But if you’d rather go alone—”
“No.”
Sighing, he pressed his hand against her back. “Come on, then.”
She walked again, staring at the ground, and heard laughter as they approached the stadium.
“Picking up Carmine’s leftovers?” Lisa asked. “I didn’t realize you were that desperate.”
Nicholas shook his head. “Do you even hear yourself? You used to be his main course. If I were desperate, I’d be with you instead.”
He pulled Haven toward the ticket booth and paid for his ticket, but she just stood there, frantic. She hadn’t considered that she would need money. “I, uh . . . I didn’t think . . .”
His brow furrowed as he reached for his wallet again. Tossing a few dollars at the lady working, he grabbed a second ticket and handed it to her. She tried to object, not wanting him to pay for her, but she had no other way to get in the game.
He led her to the bleachers, his walk more of a strut as he shoved his hands in the pockets of his cargo pants. His shoulders slumped, his dingy ball cap concealing his gaze as Haven scanned the crowd, spotting Dia in a center section.
Before she could thank Nicholas, he’d already slipped away.
Haven headed up the bleachers, her nervousness waning as she took a seat beside Dia. Haven waved at Carmine on the sidelines, but he just stared at her from the field, expressionless. She wasn’t surprised—another one of his moods, she guessed. It was certainly nothing new these days.
The coach called his name, drawing his attention away, and he headed onto the field without another glance in her direction.
* * *
The spectators were as rowdy as Haven remembered from the year before, but this time she was more at ease in the crowd. Her body buzzed with excitement by the time the game came to a close, and Carmine ran straight for the locker rooms as the crowd descended upon the field.
Haven and Dia headed over to the grassy knoll to wait. She stood near the chain-link fence as Dia strolled around taking pictures.
