AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And that is how Theo and I share a disposable poncho.
Chapter 9
Theo
Anaconda
Wednesday August 28th
I shutmy locker and look around, seeing all eyes on me.
“What?” I ask.
“You made captain as a junior, and you’re still miserable,” JT states.
He’s not wrong; I am fucking miserable.
After Monday night’s game, a win in which I was pretty sure after the shit that went down underneath the poncho, I’d be celebrating the hell out of—for different reasons than the football team, of course—I loaded the Tahoe with Kameron, Winnie, and Natalie, added Ellie, Grace, Riley, Leah, and Taya, taking them all to Dean’s old place where they had some sort of dinner planned for a few of the football players. Those few? Cody, of course, Hart, and Black, who were there the other night, but also Hudson, Oz, and Grimes, who I all but delivered to them.
Riley offered to sit in the back, and I basically felt like a shitbag because I all but held her hostage back there until after the girls were all heading in.
When I open the back she’s lying on her back, holding her phone up, smiling from ear to ear at the screen … texting.
She sits up. “I thought maybe you’d all forgotten about me back here.”
“I promise I didn’t forget you, but the thought of you taking off before we can finish what we started under the plastic in the rain makes me crazy.”
She swallows hard then slides her legs over the edge. “As appealing as the offer is, I promised Oz a date when they won the game. Doesn’t feel right to just get sweaty with you, knowing I have a date coming up with him, after recruitment”—she looks at her phone—“next Thursday night.”
“Your hand was on my thigh minutes ago, and you’re in the back of my ride, making plans for a date with Oz, who I legit delivered to your door.”
Her face turns red. “You put my hand on your thigh.”
“You could have taken it away instead of skating it up and down my thigh,” I counter.
She crosses her arms and squares her shoulders. “I was warming my hand.”
“There’s something here, and you know it. Go on your date, but if you’re fucking with Oz, you’re not fucking with me.” I start to step away so she can get out, but then I think better of it. Instead, I take her face in my hands and tip it back so she’s looking up at me. “You and I both know this is supposed to happen.”
Her lips begin to quiver as I bring mine down to them. I don’t kiss her, though; I brush mine across hers before stepping back.
“You want more”—I take her phone from her and send myself a text before handing it back—“you can text me first, because I was left on read for months.”
“Earth to Rivera.” JT snaps his fingers in front of me.
I glance up at him. “Yeah?”
“Breakfast before class with us, or are you gonna stand here in a towel all day?”
I pull my tee-shirt out of my locker and pull it over my head. “I could eat.”
* * *
When we walkinto the cafeteria, Riley is sitting with one of her friends. Bria, I think.
“Where you going?” JT asks as I beeline it to her table before it gets filled up again with Oz and even more of the football team, like yesterday.
“Grab me an egg white omelet with spinach?” I ask.
