AllFreeNovel
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“Get bored?”
I huff a laugh, leaning my head back against the rough, salt-stained shingles. “Draw.”
“Sometimes.”
“What do you draw?”
“Whatever I feel like.” She pauses. “I paint, too.”
I say nothing. I feel like the less interest I show, the more she’ll share.
It works.
“I teach art classes at the community center. It’s—I don’t know. Something I just do for myself.”
That last sentence lingers in my head. “Something you do for yourself.”
“Yeah. Like you and football.”
I snort a laugh that only stops when I spot her confused expression out of the corner of one eye. “Oh. You were serious.”
“You don’t like playing?”
“It’s not about liking it or not. It’s who I am. It’s what people associate me with. But the practices? The training? The expectations? I’ve never once felt like any of that was for me.”
“Then quit.”
I scoff. “I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“My dad would never forgive me. My friends, my teammates, would never understand. And…ever since I was a little kid, I pictured walking out onto the field I watched my dad coach on as the starting quarterback. Everything up until now was to get there. Even Alleghany. Yeah, it fucking sucked, losing every year. But the point of my high school career was getting to Arlington. So we’ll see if I ever make it.”
I glance at Natalie. She has an odd expression on her face. Almost…guilt. Or uncertainty. It passes quickly, like a cloud passing across the sun.
“If I tell you to do something, will you do it? Just do it, no questions asked?”
Both my eyebrows rise. I can feel the crinkle form in my forehead. Possibilities race through my head.Kiss her again? Never kiss her again? Cut out talking about football? Get a hobby? Stop sitting down right next to her?“Why the hell would I agree to that?”
“It was a yes or no question, Stevens.”
This could go badly for a number of reasons. I’m not someone who takes promises lightly. And I definitely don’t make promises I intend to break.
“Yes.”
“Can you put a shirt on, please?”
She asks the question very seriously. It takes me a second to absorb the request and then I laugh. “For real?”
“Liam! You agreed, no questions.”
“My abs bother you that much?”
“Strike two,” she says, and I start laughing again. “They don’t bother me. They’re just…unnecessary.”
“Unnecessary,” I repeat, grinning.
Natalie rolls her eyes. “Whatever. Like you don’t know you’re hot.”
