Page 35 of Game On

With his girl still pressed to the hood of my car, Ryan turns to look at me. “I may have to borrow this, Dale. Seems like my girl here likes it.”

The girl is glaring at me, but when Ryan looks down at her, she turns her full attention-fawning smile at him, then they continue to makeout. I hit the lock button on the fob and just walk toward school. For some reason, I can’t scrape the feeling of being used off me. Alec wanting me to pick him up, but he ends up driving. Alec sending me cryptic messages. Ryan practically humping a girl on my car. If he thinks he’s going to have sex with that skank in my car, he can go screw himself. That isn’t happening.

When I look back right before I enter the building, the girl who was sitting next to Alec at the football games comes up to him and tries to take his hand. He peels it away from her and then turns his back. I walk into school more confused than ever.

It’s always been Ryan, hasn’t it?

I suppose it has, but maybe that’s because he was the only one who was ever nice to me, and that was only for a little while. Just one brief moment of bliss before it all shattered around me.

19

Ifinally see Dawn at lunch, so I catch her up on everything that’s happening. She’s enthralled by the idea of the Ballers having a pre-tryout master manipulation thing going on. I tell her how Alec drove my car, and I almost feel relieved when she doesn’t seem to care all that much. Don’t get me wrong, she makes the appropriate WTF comments, but she doesn’t say one thing about his ass or about how she used to want to pounce on him. That might have something to do with the fact that David comes over midway through lunch and sits down. I can tell those two have been very chummy over the weekend, which I can’t wait for her to spill about.

While they’re making googly eyes at each other, Christie comes over. She sits down next to me and says hey. I look up from staring at my milk carton, so I’m not intruding on all the sexual tension happening on the other side of the lunch table from me.

When I see Christie for the first time, she has a slight frown indentation between her eyes. It’s different than her normal self. “Hey,” I say, swallowing.

She places her hands on the stool between her legs and leans toward me. “Are you going to text my brother back?”

I rub my forehead. My brain hurts. I sneak a peek toward the Baller table. They’re all just sitting there, enjoying their lunch. “I kind of thought he wouldn’t want me to.”

“You mean after the game?” she asks. “I think he realizes it wasn’t you saying he couldn’t sit there.”

I bite my lip. Do I want to text him back? I don’t know. The only thing I do know is that I really wanted to kiss Alec this morning. I keep thinking about the way his lips parted for me. He wanted it, too.

A threatening presence looms over us. Dawn looks up, her lips moving into a straight line. “Christie,” the voice says. “I have to talk to my recruit.”

I look over my shoulder and see Alec standing there, his green eyes almost menacing. Behind him, all the Ballers are staring at us. “I’m not stopping you,” she says.

“I need to talk to her alone,” Alec says again, his patience wearing thin.

By this point, anyone else at the school would just leave. Not Christie. “Kind of hard to do that with a room full of people.” She looks back down at me. “So? Are you going to?”

“Going to what?” Alec asks.

“None of your business,” Christie snaps. She’s the only girl I’ve seen that won’t bow to them. It unnerves me.

I gulp. People are starting to look over. Even David and Dawn are watching intently at what’s going on. David starts to stand, but it looks as if Dawn has her hand on his leg. I just need to end this. This is ridiculous. Everyone’s getting antsy for no reason. “Yes,” I tell her. “I will.”

She pops up. “Good!” She leans over to give me a hug and then stands. “Chase will be so happy.”

If I thought the space was filled with tension before, now it’s tenfold. Dawn practically skips away, but Alec doesn’t move. “In the hallway. Now.”

I look over my shoulder at him. His face a mask of barely controlled anger. “What?”

“Now,” he says.

“You don’t have to,” Dawn says. She reaches her hand out and places it on mine on the table.

Instead of snapping at her, Alec just looks at me with those pleading green eyes. It’s almost as if he’s trying to control himself but losing patience quickly. I stand, and Alec grasps my forearm as we walk into the hall together. He moves us to the other side of the vending machine where he pins me against the wall with his presence. “What was Christie talking about? What are you doing with Chase?”

We’re so close again. I breathe in deep, engulfing every sense in his scent. “I, um, I agreed to talk with him?”

“Why?” His gaze stares me down.

My brain finally starts working. How dare he manhandle me out here in the hall. How dare he speak to my friends like that, and me. I stand straighter. “You can have control over basketball, but nothing else, Alec. That’s it.”

He leans in more, and just being a breath away from him makes my heart skip. “Is that right, Dale? I have just control over basketball?”

---