Page 12 of The Comeback Pact

She takes the pencil from my hand, but she does it in a way where it’s abundantly clear that even being near me is like an ice pick to her brain. Without a hint of thanks, she leaves me standing there while she goes to the bulletin board and quickly scrawls out a note, then pins it to the cork.

If I were normal, I’d probably ask her what she’s doing. If I was a guy trying to get with her, I might even tell her I could help her with anything she needs and let the innuendo hang in the air.

She marches right up to me and stares down at my hand that’s still outstretched. After placing the pencil back in my grip, she mutters a thankless “thank you” and then walks away.

There’s so much I don’t know about her. Is she the type to hang out in weight rooms? She’s on the dive team, but those guys don’t weight train, do they? Plus, I know she had to take a hiatus because of the injury to her face. She couldn’t very well get in the water and risk infection before it healed.

Seriously. What happened to her was fucked.

Aidan steps over a few benches and walks to the bulletin board as soon as she’s out the door. “What are you doing?” I grind out, peeking at Kenna’s retreating form. She turns the corner, and I relax a little more.

“Seeing what she wrote.”

I want to tell him to knock it off. It’s a violation of her privacy to see what she’s up to, but I’m also curious as all hell.

Aidan lifts the hem of his shirt to wipe the sweat from his eyes and then snatches Kenna’s paper off the board. The top of it rips.

“Dude,” I snap. She’s totally going to know we messed with her note.

“Dude nothing,” he says, grinning at me. He moves my way. “The universe just smiled upon you, man.”

He walks over with a little swag in his step and hands me the square piece of paper.

In small, delicate handwriting is:

Trainer Wanted. If interested, message me at McKennaK.

Aidan strides over to his bag, chuckling. “The way this dropped in your lap.”

“She won’t want to hear from me. Or any football player.” I walk over to the message board and start to pin it back up when Aidan steps behind me and tears it out of my grip.

“You’re messaging her, and we’re sure as fuck not putting this back up. She’ll be forced to work with you because no one else will know.” He wads the note into a ball and stuffs it in his training pants.

I just stand there, shaking my head while he grins.

“You can thank me later.”

Thank him nothing. No good can come from this…except actually making Coach happy.

Fuck, I have to do this, don’t I?

CHAPTERFIVE

Kenna

As luck would have it,the sky opens up as I walk home. I shouldn’t have stopped at the campus café to grab a coffee, but I really needed a pick-me-up. The rain starts to come down in pelts, and I start jogging, but the hot, brown liquid splashes out of the tiny sip hole and scorches my fingers.

It’s nice that my apartment is so close to campus that I don’t need my car, but that’s backfiring on me at the moment. My foot catches on a sidewalk lip outside Alpha Sigma Phi, and I’m pitched forward, flailing for balance. The cup flies from my grip.

Coffee. Goes. Everywhere.

If anyone saw that…

With a quick look around, I stand up straight. At my feet, the contents of my Styrofoam cup are being washed away by the rain in the blades of green grass where it landed. I snatch the empty cup off the ground and trudge home, just past Greek Row, raindrops catching on my lashes the entire time.

I run up the front walk and barge inside, grumbling. The house is close to campus, but not as close as when I lived in the athletic dorm. I would still have a delicious hot coffee if I lived in the athletic dorm.

Loud music blares from Sydney’s room in the back of the house. I hang up my jacket in the entry closet to the closing notes of a Christina Aguilera song. In the dead air before the next song begins, my sneakers squeak out their own tempo as I make my way to my room at the front of the small, two-bedroom house. Sydney’s parents rented the place for her starting her freshman year at Warner and, lucky for me, her last roommate graduated. This place was a Godsend when I returned to school after the incident. My own little oasis. It removed me from campus and everyone’s stares, which I desperately needed.

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