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“God, you’re annoying.”
He just grins and winks.
Then, he pulls out a red jersey. He proudly shows it to me. It’s wrinkled and probably smells like sweaty jock strap, but it just says “Rebels.” No number or names. No playing favorites.
I smile, and reaching out, I take it. “Thank you.” I hug it to my chest. “This is perfect.”
Then the smell hits me, and I dangle it away from myself as I try not to gag. “You might want to wash everything in your bag,” I suggest, and he laughs at me as he shoves everything back inside.
“Or burn it,” Jace says as he approaches behind Hunter. “You ready to go?” he asks me.
I nod, quickly putting all my books in my bag and holding the jersey. I don’t want my books to have this locker-room stink too.
On the way to Jace’s car, I start to feel a nervous. Is he going to say something to me in the car about what happened yesterday? With the fight? Did Grady tell him that we kissed?
If he asks, I’ll be honest. But if Grady hasn’t mentioned it, I won’t either. It’s not a big deal unless we make it one.
Thankfully, the ride home is normal. Jace sings badly to some tunes on the radio. He tells me how he’s been working hard on his passes, and he hopes there will be college scouts coming to his games.
“I know I’m not a top draft pick. I never will be. But I’m good enough for a smaller college. I just need the scholarship. Grady will get one—he’s got a four-star rating. He’s already gotten offers to a few amazing colleges. I don’t want my parents to worry about me.”
I understand what he’s saying. It also makes me realize that I haven’t thought about my future or college much. I’m not sure what I want to do.
What do I want from life? It’s the ultimate question, but who has the answer at sixteen? Certainly not me.
Do I even want to go to college? Do I want a career in boring business? Do I want a white picket fence and kids?
I need to start thinking about this, because what I do now will determine my future. One thing I know for sure—I want to be an artist. It might not bring in a lot of money, but I will be rich with the love of my passion.
When we pull up to our houses, I see Roman perched beside his motorcycle on the grass. It’s black and chrome. He looks like a bad boy biker. I’d found it interesting he wears such heavy black boots, but now they make sense. I guess he rides to school each day.
“Thanks for the lift,” I tell Jace as I jump out.
“No worries. If you need one tomorrow morning, I’ll be here. Just text me.”
I walk away from the car and toward my front door, the interactions I had with the guys today playing out in my head. It’s all been so normal.
Maybe Asher is wrong? Maybe girls and guys can be friends without sex getting in the way.
But when I look back at Roman, who is following me…fuck. There’s no way sex won’t get in the way.
“Do you think you’ll go to college? Or want a future in football?” Dad asks Roman at the dinner table. Dad ordered Chinese, and it’s been kinda funny watching him talk with Roman.
Roman barely said a word to me while we studied. At first, I thought he didn’t understand the assignment, so he didn’t have anything to say. But as I watched him write down his answers, I realized that wasn’t the case. He’s just quiet. Like when I first met him.
Well, he was quiet until Dad came home and asked him about a hundred questions. Roman hasn’t missed a beat. It’s jarring how he can be so closed off with me. Yet, in my dad’s presence, he’s open and even laughed. I’d had no idea he could do that still.
I’ve decided to make it my mission to hear that laugh again. Because it was deep and real.
“Okay, Dad, no more questions. We have lots of work to do. Football and everything else gets in the way, and we don’t want to fail.”
That had Dad pushing away from the table and clearing it. “No, you’re right. Go study more. I’ll clean up here.”
I get up and Roman follows. Our books and my laptop are on the coffee table, but I know Dad likes to watch game tapes after dinner, so I gather up as much as I can. Roman follows my lead and grabs his stuff, and I lead him up to my room.
He hesitates at the door, which is funny. It’s not like he’s never been in here before. Far from it. He’s had sleepovers in here with me more times than I can count.
Sometimes, he’d slept in the spare room Dad set up if the boys ever wanted to sleep over and not be in the same room as me. That only happened a few times, and it was Hunter who slept in there the most. He said I snore loudly, but I think it’s an excuse because he sometimes had nightmares and would wake me. He would thrash around and call out, and I would wake him and comfort him as best I could. He would cry himself to sleep, and the next day he would go home as soon as he got up. He was embarrassed by the nightmares, but he didn’t have to be. I wanted to be there for him when he needed me.
