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Xave reaches for the ball cap on his bedside table. He bites the guitar pick between his teeth while he pulls the hat on to keep his untamed hair out of his face. “What do you want to know?” he asks, removing the pick from his teeth. He starts playing again, but more softly.
I shrug. “I dunno. Anything. She acts like she thinks I’m gonna bite her head off or something, even though I’m almost positive I never even talked to her before a few days ago.”
“Yeah, it’s not just you. Pretty sure she’s like that with everyone. People treated her like shit last year.” He pauses. Tries some complicated finger picking thing then goes back to the strumming and says, “Before that too, actually.”
“What? Why?”
He shrugs. “No idea. Just people being assholes. ’Cos she’s a little weird, I guess.”
He goes back to playing the same song as before. He’s crazy good on the guitar, and as far as I know, he never took any lessons or anything.
“Someone put a dead jellyfish in her locker this morning,” I say, remembering the look on her face when I shoved past the crowd.
The strumming stops. “What? That’s messed up.” He starts up again, then adds, “I bet it was Maddie Jarvik. She was up in Caroline’s face a couple days ago and got pissed when I told her to back off.”
“Maddie Jarvik? Seriously?”
“Dude. Tell me you’re not surprised. That girl is nasty. In all senses of the word.” He grins, shaking his head. “I can’t believe you ever got involved with that.”
“I was never involved with Maddie Jarvik.”
Xave laughs. “Seriously?The end of summer bonfire? The tent by the hammocks?”
“Oh… Yeah.” I pretend to remember, but honestly, I have zero recollection of ever fooling around with Maddie Jarvik. Clearly, I’m a terrible actor though, because Xave chucks the guitar pick at me.
“Is your memory really that bad? Or have you seriously hooked up with so many girls you can’t even keep track anymore?”
“I just said I remember her.” I let my head fall back against the cushy top of the chair.
“You are so full of shit right now.”
I totally am.
Xave’s busting a gut, now. “You are gonna seriously piss off some girl, and get your ass handed to you someday.” He is genuinely baffled by my careless womanizing ways. But also endlessly amused. “You need to… I don’t know. Just take it easy, man.”
I want to tell him I’membarrassedthat I don’t remember a hookup with a girl that happened a few weeks ago. Also embarrassed that he thinks that’s just how I roll. Which, yeah, I guess apparently itishow I roll these days. But man, telling him the truth—about why I can’t keep track or remember stuff from who I’ve hooked up with to where I last put my phone—would mean revealing so much more. Stuff I can’t risk getting back to my folks or Coach or any number of people.
Football is my life. It’s all I’ve got to show for the past ten years, honestly. But, there are times lately when the effort I have to go through just to protect it doesn’t seem so worth it anymore. That part tires me out more these days than the game itself. But then I know if I did anything to make me lose my spot on the team, I’d miss it more than I’d miss my left kidney. I can’t imagine my life without football. I don’t want tohaveto imagine my life without football.
Xave is still shaking his head at me from his regal-sized bed. “You know you don’t need to fit all your sexual experiences into your last few months of high school, right?”
Oh, yeah. Forgot we were talking about my latest hookups. Trust me to detour even that line of thought to football somehow.
“You’re hilarious, man.” I flip him off. “So lucky I have you to pass down these pearls of wisdom about my romantic life.”
“Romantic?” he chokes. “Dude, you hooked up with her in my brother’s Paw Patrol tent.”
Okay. So, not my proudest moment.
Another one to add to the growing pile.
“What did you hook up in my Paw Patrol tent” Xavier’s little brother Finn calls from the doorway, a popsicle clenched in each hand. “Can I see it?”
The popsicles are totally lopsided and dripping down his wrists onto the floor.
Xave tosses his guitar aside. “Sorry, pal. Seb can’t remember what he hooked up in your tent.” He flashes me a scheming grin. “But I’m sure he’ll find some new sweet thing to bring into your tent before next summer.”
I roll my eyes and curse him under my breath.
