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“I’m ready when you are, Coach.”
“It’s Xander,” he grumbled. “Let’s go.”
I fell into step beside him. “One of the best quarterbacks the team’s ever seen… That’s quite the accolade,” I said. “Especially from Coach Ford.”
“Yeah, well, times were different back then.”
“Did you play ball in college?”
He glanced over at me, his lips thinned. “I didn’t go to college.”
“Oh.” The air turned thick around us and I stopped trying to make small talk. Clearly the guy had issues, and I wasn’t about to make my life any harder than it was already.
All morning I’d had a pit in my stomach at the prospect of coming face-to-face with Coach Ford. But the second I’d stepped out onto the field, it was like I splintered myself in two, leaving the guy who was infatuated with his daughter in the locker room, while Kaiden the football player ran drills and worked his ass off to prove his worth.
Xander set up five hoops and some throwing targets. I knew the drill. It wasn’t anything I hadn’t done a hundred times already. But my job wasn’t to ask questions, it was to follow instructions. To push myself harder, to always want to be better.
So I’d follow Coach’s orders and run the drill with Xander because I was his quarterback now, and he was looking to me to set the example and lead the team.
* * *
Something had shiftedsince Friday’s game. I guess part of me had expected it, but I hadn’t been prepared for the sudden spotlight shining on me.
As I walked into school after practice, the air in the hall no longer hummed with the whispers and stares of my classmates, it crackled with a different kind of excitement.
“Holy shit, man.” Bryan nudged my shoulder.
“Hi, Thatcher,” a couple of girls purred as we passed them.
“Hey, man. Good game, Friday,” a random guy said. “Bad luck about Monroe, but we know you can take us all the way.”
“There you are.” Lindsey stopped dead in front of us and cocked her hip, forcing her cheer skirt up her thighs.
“Sorry, Linds,” Bry snickered. “You have to make an appointment now.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Yeah, you know. Now Thatcher is king of Rixon High, you need an appointment.”
“You’re so fucking weird.” She brushed him off, focusing her eyes solely on me.
“So, Homecoming… I was thinking—”
“Not going to happen,” I said without hesitation.
“You didn’t let me finish.” She scowled, trying to reach for me, but I stepped back out of her reach. “People expect us to go together.”
A trickle of awareness ran down my spine and I scanned the hall, finding Lily over by her locker.
Fuck, she looked beautiful.
“I don’t know what’s so difficult to understand, Lindsey.” I levelled her with a hard look. “But I’m not interested.”
A couple of girls snickered, a gasp going through the air as I rejected the Queen Bee of Rixon High. But I was done letting her think she had some kind of ownership over me. There was only one girl I belonged to, and she was currently watching me through hesitant eyes.
I went to move around Lindsey, but her arm shot out and she pulled me back. Leaning in, she let her lips graze my cheek. “I’d be careful if I were you,” she whispered. “We all have secrets, Kaiden. I’m sure you don’t want yours spreading all over school.”
My brows pinched as I studied her face for any sign she was bluffing.
