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I nodded faintly. “I just…it seems really risky, Jacob.” I meant professionally, sure, but also, personally. Football was so tied to who Jacob was— it made him the king, the champion, the Harton hero. It was the reason he had his swagger and his body, the reason he had so much experience with women and had leaned to be a great leader. I supposed he’d still be Jacob Everett without the sport, but it felt like we were talking about cutting out a part of him rather than what might happen if he couldn’t play a sport anymore.
Whoa, I thought to myself. Piper was right. You really do learn that football is life when you go to school here.
“Look,” Jacob said. “Let’s order something to eat. I don’t want to go out, not when there’s still a good chance someone will spot me. We can chill here all day. I’ll send one of the freshmen by your apartment to pick up some stuff for you, if you want.”
“I can’t,” I said.
“Why?” Jacob asked, looking almost offended.
“Because I have another class today, Jacob,” I said.
Jacob sighed heavily. “It’s one day, Sasha.”
“It’s my NFL, Jacob.”
Jacob was quiet for a moment, then smiled at me— a frustrated smile, but a smile all the same. “Fine, fine. Take the car. Go to class.”
I nodded, wondering if Greene would be thrilled to know Jacob had lent out his car. “Before I go though, I need something.”
“What?”
I grinned. “Your phone number. And I’ll trade you for mine.”
13
Jacob was out for four weeks.
I was pretty certain watching the team go on without him— lead by Adams, who was now even more widely considered the upcoming Harton hero— had to sting, but Jacob never wanted to talk about it. I couldn’t blame him; he spent more or less every second of his life focused on football. Now that he was out for four weeks, why spend this painfully stolen time with me discussing it?
And that was very much what our time together was— stolen. We didn’t go on dates or appear in public or sit on the quad together. Jacob would simply pick me up, occasionally, and we’d slip away to his apartment or another alumni condo or, once, to the “Emerald Room” at the alumni resort. It was fun, in some ways, sneaking around— though Piper and Kiersten were impossible to hide from. That was why I was so surprised when they invited me along to a party at Football House one Thursday night.
“Seriously?” I asked, perplexed. I put my textbook down.
Piper shrugged. “I mean, didn’t your fuck buddy invite you anyhow?”
I didn’t take the bait— I would neither confirm nor deny my relationship with Jacob, thank you very much, and he didn’t invite me because I’d made it very clear that Football House just really wasn’t my thing. “Why are you inviting me, though?” I asked instead.
Things had gotten chilly again between us, and I trusted Piper about as far as I could throw her…with a linebacker on her shoulders for good measure.
Piper sighed dramatically. “I don’t know. Kiersten said we should. Mend fences or whatever. So do you want to come?”
No, not really— but Piper had a point. Maybe going to the party could mend some fences, especially now that Piper and Kiersten, like many of the women on campus, had become focused on Adams (who Jacob reported did have a different girl suck him off before each game— Adams apparently called it a quarterback tradition).
“Yeah, sure. I’ll get ready fast,” I said, and put my book down. I did myself up as quickly as possible, given the irritated tap of Piper’s heel in the hallway. When I finally emerged, I was wearing a lavender sundress with a cute cardigan I’d bought offline. I definitely looked more like a librarian than the other two girls, who looked like cocktail waitresses, but whatever. I liked librarians. And besides, I was the one who’d been learning a book’s worth of new sex positions from Jacob Everett.
Football House was much the same as the first time I’d seen it— though now that nights were a tiny bit cooler (or rather, were warm rather than insufferably hot), more people spilled out onto the deck, the drive, and into the back garden where I had watched Jacob take another girl so many weeks ago. Seeing that spot made me smile, made my stomach twist pleasantly— that girl had him before me, sure, but it was me he’d kept coming back to.
For a moment, I found myself drawn to a fantasy where Jacob bent me over the garden bench, just like he’d done with the other girl; I’d slip my skirt up and we’d be surrounded by the smell of jasmine as he pumped into me—
“There he is,” Piper whispered to Kiersten. I followed their line of sight to where Adams was standing— right by the kegs, leaning against the wall, surrounded by admirers. It was so similar to how Jacob had looked the first time I met him that my eyes widened. Where was Jacob, I wondered— but almost as soon as I thought that, I spotted him outside, near the drive. He was with a collection of people, mostly other football players and a few hangers-on. Jacob was still clearly popular and loved, but it was nothing like the court of admirers he’d once held.
