Page 19 of Catch Me

Reid takes my face in his hands. “What matters is that you’re staying here. Don’t worry.”

I glower at him. “Reid Parker, tell me what happened at practice before I call Lex or Cade.”

He drops his hand from my face and stands. He walks to the side of the room and leans against my desk. “Coach called me into his office.” He pauses, his fingers tightening around the wood. After a moment, he shrugs. “He’s starting Oscar next game.”

9

Igasp. Who does this guy think he is? He just starts school one day and now he gets to be our starting quarterback? “Coach Jackson can’t do that.” I stand and step toward Reid, but he moves out of my touch.

“He doesn’t have another choice, and besides, Coach says it’s just until I get better.” His eyes hold mine like he wants to believe Coach and he wants me to believe Coach, but there’s a flicker of fear underneath. What if Oscar is just that good? What if Reid can’t get better in time?

My brother and the guys all had plans to go to college together. Jules was going to follow Brady while I was just interested in going to the best college I could get into. Now, I’m not even at the top of my class anymore, Brady’s dead, and Reid’s no longer our starting quarterback. He can act like the tough guy all he wants, but I know this must be bothering him.

I march right up to him and grab his hands, lifting to my tiptoes. He checks the doorway behind me. “If your parents catch us this close…”

“Reid, be honest with me. You must be thinking about Warner’s right now.”

He blinks. “Last I heard, Oscar wanted to play there too.”

I bite my lip to keep from showing any reaction.

“Now he’s playing in my spot. Yes, I’m worried,” he says, his voice hardening. “It’s been all we talked about since we were little. I need to get into Warner’s. I need the scholarship money.”

I close my eyes, replaying snippets of conversation I’ve heard in the past. “The All-State Scholarship?”

Reid pulls out of my grasp and moves away again. “Yes, the All-State.”

“You could still win it.”

His eyes flare with emotion. “Not when I’m fucking sidelined!” His outburst makes me jump. He quickly looks toward the door and then lowers his voice. “I just can’t talk about this right now, Briar. Okay? Are you going to be alright here for the night?” His gaze softens, and he finally moves toward me. He wraps his strong arms around me and kisses my temple. “If your mom starts talking about sending you off again, call me. I’ll think of something.”

I grip his shirt. “Don’t think about me. I’m fine,” I tell him, hoping I’m right. I’m hoping Mom just had a momentary lapse of judgment and that she really wouldn’t send me to live a state away without them, without everyone. “You have enough on your plate.”

He pulls away, his hand cupping my cheek as he turns my gaze to meet his. “I never have too much on my plate to worry about you, okay? Call me.”

With that, he seals a short kiss to my lips and walks down the hallway. He passes Brady’s door, giving it a solid look that makes me wonder what he’s thinking right now. He probably feels like I did just after Brady died, seeing my life that I had laid out in front of me just crumble in front of my very eyes. It was like the very foundation I had counted on was now shaky and crumbling.

When I hear the front door shut, I message Lex and Cade.Check on Reid, would you? I’m worried about him.

I receive thumbs up in response. After that, I fall back on my bed. I want nothing more than to run after him, but I’m grounded, and there’s no way I can get out of it. Not with my parents threatening to ship me off. I feel trapped, so my mind wanders. Just what in the hell does Sasha think she’s doing? She dated Reid for years and now she’s acting like he’s her mortal enemy. She paid that Richards guy off to hurt him. Now she brings in his only true competition to the school he wants and the scholarship he needs.

I pick my phone back up and look through the old messages I sent to Ezra when I thought it was Ezra and not her, just looking for anything to be used against her. She needs to back off of Reid. And me.

I kind of want to haul off and kick her ass. Mar her pretty, cheerleader face. But I know that won’t really hurt her. It would make me feel good for a few seconds. Really good. But I’m on thin ice as it is, so physical violence probably isn’t a great idea. Also, I’ve never hit anyone before in my life. I make a fist with my hand, looking at it. I know I could do it if I had to, but it’s not the revenge I want. I want Sasha to feel like this. I want her to suffer as much as we are right now. Whatever it is she wants, I want her to feel it keep moving out of her grasp like she’ll never be able to achieve it.

That probably makes me all kinds of wrong, but I don’t care.

Instead of working on History, I pull out a blank notebook and start making a list of what Sasha Pontine treasures in this life. At the top, I have her parents’ approval. In my head, I can still see her face when I made them move at the football game. I can see the shame in their eyes when the crowd got on my side instead of theirs. On the next line, I write family legacy. In the other few lines, I fill it in with popular boyfriend, cheerleading, looks, admiration, basically anything I can think of.

Now, I just have to figure out any way I can to try to take these away from her. I’ve already started some of it. At least, Lex has. He placed the phone call to police. She’ll never tell us what happened to her, if anything, when she got to the police station, but maybe we can find out and exploit it. If she got in trouble, any trouble at all, the best thing to do is to make sure everyone else knows because that’s the exact kind of thing her family wouldn’t want to get out.

I pick up the phone and text Lex privately.How can we find out if Sasha got in trouble for the picture?

I can ask… What do you have planned?

Come over?

I know my parents probably won’t like this, but I’ll tell them Lex is going to help me catch up with my work. Instead, he’s going to help me plot out revenge against the sadistic cheerleader. At the risk of sounding like a cheesy nineties flick, I can’t wait to take her down.

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