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“Party at my house Friday. You should totally come.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that, hot stuff. We don’t party with Raiders,” Bryan said.
“But aren’t you… Raiders, I mean?” Her perfectly plucked brow arched. “Come. It’ll go a long way to breaking the ice with the team. They’re not all assholes like Jenson.”
I wasn’t sure about that, but she had a point. If we wanted to assimilate with the team, we had to at least try to make the effort.
“We’ll think about it,” I said.
“Good.” She made a show of licking her lips, her eyes fixed right on mine. “I’ll see you around, Thatcher. Guys.” Hopping down off the table, she spun on her heel and sauntered away, her itty-bitty cheer skirt riding up the backs of her thighs and giving us a peek of her ass.
“Fuck, I’m in heaven.” Bryan slammed his hand down on the table. “Tell me we’re going to the party?”
“Maybe. She has a point. We might need to be the ones to try to break the ice.”
“I don’t like it, Thatch,” Gav said. “It has setup written all over it.” His eyes went to where Monroe was sitting with the rest of the football team. They weren’t paying us any attention, laughing at some joke one of them was telling.
“He won’t want us there,” he added.
“Yeah…” I nodded, my lips curving a fraction, “but maybe that’s all the more reason to go.”
Chapter Three
Lily
“So?”Mom asked the second I sat at the counter watching her tend to an abandoned kitten. It was a scrawny little thing with matted fur and cloudy eyes, but it was still one of the cutest things I’d ever seen. “How was it?”
“It was fine, Mom.”
“You’re sure?” Concern glittered in her eyes.
“Yep.”
It had been fine. No one bothered me or tried to talk to me. Except for Ashleigh and Peyton, it was almost like I wasn’t there.
Usually, I took comfort in feeling so invisible. Being invisible meant being off people’s radars. But something felt different about it today.
It was senior year. My last year of high school. Did I want to spend it hiding in the shadows?
“He’s so small,” I said, watching her bathe the kitten.
“Someone found him behind a dumpster.”
“I don’t know how people can do that, just abandon them.” My heart ached for the small, helpless animal.
Mom’s passion was the rescue center she managed. I’d grown up in A Brand New Tail, sitting right at this counter, watching her work her magic. The kitten purred as she scrubbed his fur.
“We’ll have him as good as new soon enough.” She smiled over at me. “Still thinking about following in your mom’s footsteps?”
“Maybe,” I said around a small shrug.
“You’ll need to make a decision eventually, Lil.”
“I know.” But the prospect of college terrified me. Everyone said it was a chance to find yourself, to learn who you really were. But for someone like me, it was an unknown quantity that made my stomach drop just thinking about it.
“You can stay local, sweetheart,” Mom said, as if she could hear my thoughts. “Nobody is going to force you to move away from home, you know that, but I think college would be good for you.”
“I want to go, Mom. I just…” The words clogged in my throat.
