AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My arms burn but I keep forcing them to move. Up. Down. Up. Down. It feels like it takes hours to reach fifty.
Finally, I drop the bar with aclangand sit up. I drink some water and wipe my face with a towel, rubbing away the sweat until my breathing evens. Around me, guys are starting to stand and head for the locker room.
Thursdays are our easiest day. We have a team meeting to go over specific strategies for tomorrow’s opponent and then a weight session. Tomorrow’s game is against Covington, one of our main rivals. The meeting lasted later than usual, then we still had weights.
I stand and head for the hallway. Finn meets me in the middle of the weight room and punches my bicep. “Fellini’s?” he asks.
The local pizza parlor is a popular hangout after practice. I nod, my stomach grumbling.
I shower and change, remembering to text Sydney, letting her know I won’t be home for dinner before I leave the gym. We eat separately most nights, especially now that basketball has started and taken over most of my schedule.
Most of the team is already gathered just inside the door when I arrive at Fellini’s. It’s seat yourself, so they’re waiting for me. I stop next to Finn and glance around, looking for a couple of empty tables. Andfreeze.
I’m totally immobile and it’s involuntary—completely outside my control. I just…can’t move. Blinking, but can’t process what my eyes are seeing.
Betrayal slashes my chest, hot and harsh.
“Adams?” Finn asks. “What are you—oh.” He laughs. “Dude, she’s a junior. She was going to start dating eventually. And that’s the honor club guy. I doubt he’s going to get her into hard drugs or knock her up.”
I manage a grunt in response. Finn thinks I’m focused on Sydney, who’s sitting in a booth next to Graham chatting away. I’m not. I’m looking at the girl with a brown ponytail and aPembrooke Animal Sheltersweatshirt sitting across from my sister. Sittingnext toHarrison Baker.
Cassia is on a double date with another guy—and my sister.
I can’t figure out the flare in my chest, can’t rationalize why I want to walk over and kiss her. Mark my territory and make it clear she’s off-limits.
I’ve slept with several girls. Not as many as the school gossip mill speculates about, but she wasn’t my first—the way I was hers.
That’s the only reason I can think of to justify the way blood is whooshing in my ears. I want to look away, but I physically can’t. It’s like driving by a car crash. There’s some morbid fascination, except the only person I’m hurting is myself. Everyone around me is oblivious to the hot spike of anger in my chest.
“Wanna go over there and mess with him?” Finn asks.
I clench my jaw and finally jerk my gaze away. “No.”
I’m not worried about Graham. Between the talk I had with him at his so-called study party and the fact he seems to be every bit the nice guy he acts like, he’s not a threat. I want Sydney to have fun. To branch out.
I just don’t want Cassia to have any part of that growth if it involves other guys.
We end up sitting across the restaurant from the booth where Sydney, Graham, Cassia, and Harrison are sitting. I’d have to crane my neck to the side to catch a glimpse, and it’s a good deterrent.
Mark ends up sitting next to me. “You okay?” he asks me quietly.
I glance at him. “Of course.”
“It’s not just Baker. I’ve heard other guys talk about her.”
My look turns into more of a glare. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m thinking about the scouts coming tomorrow.”
He nods, but it’s more of anI’ll drop itthan anI believe yougesture. As far as I know, Finn has always been oblivious to my feelings for Cassia, but Mark doesn’t miss much. I saw him glancing between us at the pool last weekend.
Conversation about tomorrow’s game dominates the rest of dinner. As soon as the last slice is finished, I announce I’m leaving, making up an assignment as an excuse.
I’m eager to get out of here. To clear my head. Maybe I should text Grace, but I doubt I actually will. As much as I want to wash away the memory of me and Cassia right now, I know it will haunt me for a long time.
I shouldn’t have slept with her. I don’t regret it, but it was a mistake. It’s made the possessiveness I’ve always felt toward her a million times worse.
“You’re not actually worried about Covington, are you?” Finn asks. “You didn’t say much at dinner.”
“No,” I reply as we walk toward the door. “I’m not worried.”
