Page 45 of False Idols

Ali blushes and giggles while the guys at the table settle down. They were all busy laughing and eating but Ali is a pretty girl, so they’ll pay attention if she’s here. “Oh, I’m not mad at you. I tried texting you earlier but you didn’t answer me, so don’t push it.” She wags a finger at me in a flirty move but the only thing I want to do is slap her hand away from me.

I lean back in my seat and shrug. “Busy with the game and school, but I knew you’d catch me.” I’m not lying. I knew she would find me, which is why I have to get rid of her. Maybe having fun isn’t the play I want to make right now. I glance over at Jordan and shoot him a smile. “You know my friend Jordan though, right?” I ask.

Jordan perks up when I mention him but Ali crosses her arms and shrugs. Maybe he didn’t cut her off. “Yeah, sure. We’ve talked before.”

“Nice to see you again, Ali,” Jordan offers and a few guys snicker and elbow one another. I shoot them a sharp look and the laughter dies down. Even if I’m third string, they want me to like them. Fuck if I know why. “Uh, h-how are you these days?”

He’s nervous. The fucker that wanted to establish pecking order to a too old third string QB, is nervous around a girl like Ali. She was definitely the one to cut it off. I wonder what a golden goose like Jordan did. He’s the man to be on campus. Looks like I read her all wrong at the party. Ali was using me for sure, but not in the way I thought. Ali can’t be talking to me for any other reason than to make him jealous, I decide.

“I thought I saw you two talking at the party last week. We’re supposed to have another one tonight. You invite her yet, man?” I ask Jordan.

His eyes go wide and his cheeks go pink. “W-what?” he stammers.

“The party,” I say, feeding him the answer. “Weren’t you going to invite her?”

Jordan is a dumb fuck so he stares at me for a hot second before he bobs his head. “O-oh yeah, yeah, I was. Uh, thanks for reminding me.”

“No problem, brother.” I want to puke after saying that but ‘When in Rome’ and all that shit.

I look at Ali and she’s got her hands on her hips. She raises an eyebrow at him. “Well, are you going to ask me or was that it?” she snaps with a tap of her foot. She’s wearing heels so there’s a definitive click to punctuate her question. I have to hide my laughter, but the guys at the table don’t bother. They burst into hysterics and start fucking with Jordan, who ducks his head and mumbles a, “Do you want to go to the party with me, Ali?”

“No,” she snaps.

Yeah, Jordan fucked right up somewhere. Maybe he didn’t pick up dinner, I don’t know. Seems like the type of thing Ali would lose her shit about. Instead, she looks at me.

“How about you take me to the party, handsome?” It’s a question, but it sounds like a statement. I don’t want to do it, but at least if I do, I’m fucking with Jordan.

“Yeah, all right. I’d like that.”

“Awesome! I’ll meet you after the game tonight, okay?” Ali bounces on her toes and winks at me before she gives me a little wave. “I have to go, but call me okay?”

“Sure thing.”

“We are going to have so much fun,” she tells me while she makes a point not to look at Jordan. She flips her hair over her shoulder and struts off. The whole table falls silent to watch her leave. Ali might not be my kind of girl, but there’s no denying she’s got an ass on her.

No one says anything for a beat before someone clears their throat and tosses a wadded up napkin at Jordan. “What the fuck did you do, man? Cheat?”

“No, I didn’t fucking cheat, asshole. I didn’t text or whatever when she wanted and she’s been like that since the goddamn dorm rager.”

“Thought I saw you making out with that one girl. The redhead,” someone else says. And Jordan ducks his head.

“Look, I was really drunk that night.”

I clear my throat and shrug. “It happens,” I lie. I’m a lot of things and I’ve been a lot of things, I’ve killed and stolen, lied and broken laws to get what I needed, but I’ve never cheated. I’m a one woman kind of man. Always have been and always would be. Lucky, fucking Nevaeh. She’s never going to be free of me.

Jordan glares at me. “Don’t fucking start with me. You’re taking her to the party.”

“I couldn’t tell her no. It would have embarrassed her,” I say and gesture around the table. “You think she was gonna talk to you again if she got embarrassed in front of the entire starting line?” I ask.

Jordan stops, his mouth opens like he’s going to speak but then he closes it and nods. “Yeah, okay, that makes sense.”

I lean forward, brace my elbows on the table and pitch my voice like I give a fuck about him, or Ali, or anyone at the table. “Listen, it’s easy. I take her to the party as a way to get her there and you swoop in like prince charming and ask her to talk. I’m not going to stand in the way and you can fix whatever the fuck happened, okay?”

“That’s a pretty good plan,” Billy chimes in. The rest of the guys murmur in agreement and Jordan stops pulling his bitch ass face.

He smiles at me and nods. “All right, brother. Sorry, I read that shit wrong. Shoulda known you got my back.”

“Always man. You know it. Besides, I’m into another girl, all right?” It feels safe to tell them there’s someone else. They’ll have to see Nevaeh and I together soon enough. I’m breaking my liar, my beautiful fucking angel, shattering her into a million little pieces that I can put together in the way I like best. But when I’m done, I don’t plan on being shy about showing the world she’s mine.

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