Page 67 of Game On

After glancing disdainfully the room, he leans back against my door and crosses his hands over his chest. His dark eyes are menacing, hooded, as he looks over at me. The room feels suddenly too small with him and I in it and him blocking the only exit. “I’m here to tell you that you making the team means nothing to me, Dale. I don’t care that the rest of the guys want to fuck you, or they claimed you or whatever else their dicks are telling them to do, watch yourself. They’ll always be on my side.”

“Congratulations. Can you go now?” I’m trying to sound brave, but I know what he’s saying is true. They have a bond I can’t understand. I’ve never had four best friends. I’ve never had that good of a friend except for Dawn, and even she and I can’t seem to keep up with each other all the time. I’m not going to even count Tiff as a friend because she abandoned me the moment I switched schools.

He smirks. “You wish. Listen up. Shooting guard start position is mine. You don’t have a chance. You never did. Not even with a famous daddy.”

“I don’t need my dad to know I’m good.”

“But you’re not better than me.” He stares at me, brow cocked as if he’s egging me on to challenge him. I really don’t want any problems with Lake, so I keep my mouth shut even though I have plenty to say to him. How the hell are these guys friends with him?

“We’re on the same team now, Lake,” I remind him.

He laughs bitterly. “We’ll never be on the same team. Watch what happens if you try to take my spot. You think you have all the Ballers, you don’t. I can promise you that.” He moves away from the door and grabs the handle. “Bros before hoes. You’ve heard that, right? You might want to ask them how come all you’ve ever done with them is get fingered. That might tell you something about how it’s us first, everyone else last.”

My cheeks heat. I hate that he knows the intimate things I’ve done. When he shuts the door behind him, my chest expands in relief. I will not let Lake goad me. Especially not in my own house. I grab my sporty bikini out of my dresser and pull it on.Game on, O’Brien.I’d love nothing more than to take the starting position away from him. But I need to earn it and deserve it. He should feel the same instead of emptying threats at me.

32

Being on the basketball team is exactly what I thought it would be. The majority of people in the school like me now, or at least pretend to. They all talk to me, ask me about practice, and the entire school is hyped for the scrimmage against Broadwell Academy. They hate those rich kids. Sure, I still get the occasional shit from the girls who used to hang around the Ballers, but that’s dwindled, too. I can’t know if it’s because basketball season started or if it’s because of me, but Ryan, Hayes, and of course, Alec and Sloan haven’t had a girl around them but me in weeks.

Lake’s still a manwhore.

We spend our days after school at practice, becoming more and more the team we know we can be. We settle into an easy rhythm, and the obvious cream of the crop rises to the top. I hate how well Lake is doing, but at the same time, I’m happy he’s as good as he is. His skills really shine through when all the Ballers are playing as a team. It’s really something to watch when they read one another and pull out plays that make my head spin. How did Ryan know Alec was going to spin to the basket? Or that Hayes was running down the center? They’re not even plays Coach calls, it’s just pure instinct for them. It’s going to be hard to penetrate that teamwork, but I have my own goals, too. If no one gets to watch me play because I’m stuck on the bench, how am I going to make it to college and then further?

Sloan reaches over and flicks me lightly in the arm. He’s followed me to History again on account of him “needing the extra work for a test.” He’s so full of shit. “Are you there?” he whispers.

I look over at him. His whole face is smooth and sure. “Yeah.”

“You’re so in your own head all the time. I need to get you out again.”

I know exactly what he means by this. I can’t say I haven’t thought of him and Alec—and yes, even Ryan—because I have. We still hang out a lot, but there’s barely time for anything else other than the occasional touch and kiss.

The bell rings and the whole class picks up their stuff and leaves. Mr. Schaffer, too, grabs his briefcase and is out the door quickly leaving just Sloan and I there. I stand, slipping my notebook in my bookbag and zipping it back up. Sloan steps his long legs over the desk and into my space. “Hey,” I say when he pulls my bag out of my hands.

He smirks until he backs me up against the desk across from mine. Then, he picks me up and sits me down on it, spreading my knees apart with his legs so he can step inside. My heart pumps wildly in my chest as I look up at the dangerous edge in his hazel eyes. “I keep thinking about you spread out over my air hockey table. So sexy,” he murmurs.

His hands move up my thighs and to my hips. “Sloan,” I say, glancing at the door. “We’re in school.”

He leans over, making me lean further back on the desk. “It’s your fault. You won’t let me see you outside of school.”

“You don’t ask.”

“How am I supposed to say, ‘Tessa, I can’t stop thinking about you. The way you tasted. The feel of your skin’ when all you want to do is talk basketball. Hell, you wouldn’t even go to the Halloween dance with us.”

He hovers over me, and I have to arch my back to look him in the face. When I breathe my chest hits his. “I think you did just say that.”

“I tried—we’realltrying—to give you space, but—” He bites his lip and drags his gaze over my body. “I’m tortured. Ryan is wound up fucking tight and Alec and Hayes—”

“Hayes?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know.”

“He never talks.”

He presses a kiss to the curve of my neck. I move to give him better access. He moans into me, kissing on a sensitive spot that has me bringing my leg up, using my heel on his ass to bring him closer to me.

He’s hard, struggling to keep under control. “If we were alone right now…”

I close my eyes, imagining what he could do to me. Am I fighting this subconsciously? If I want it, why don’t I just let him? My mind hits the snag I’ve been thinking about since the impromptu party at my house. Something stupid Lake said, but it’s been bothering me. “I need to ask you something.”

---