Page 5 of The Perfect Catch

Chapter 4

Dax

“What are you doing coming from that way?” Jake asked me as I walked up to the group of guys.

“I thought you had math down the other hall,” Colt said, raising his eyebrows.

I shrugged and shook my head. “Principal McKee made me change my schedule.”

Nate scoffed. “Right. Like the principal would even care about your classes.” He paused a few seconds, and his eyes popped open. “You got in the fight right before fourth period? Dax, we leave you for five seconds and you get into a fight? You’re going to get suspended or expelled, and then where would we be? We need you to take state this year.” He leaned over and punched me in the shoulder.

“Thanks for worrying about yourself rather than my life, Dad,” I said, feigning a frown. I waited several seconds before flashing them a smile. Seeing the relief on their faces was what I needed after such a long day.

Jake stepped forward, turning my chin, and the other eyes narrowed in on it. “Look at that shiner.” He whistled.

I pulled my phone out, turning on the camera to see. A deep blue and purple bruise about two inches around covered my jawline and down into a section of my neck.

Seeing it reminded me of Kate’s fingers on my chin. I could try to deny I had feelings for the girl, especially since I had zero chance of ever dating her. We were black and white, peanut butter and pickles. But for some reason, I couldn’t put her out of my mind.

I growled, hoping Trent’s punishment was worse than mine. “Yeah, it was me. My punishment is to be on the lame Senior Committee. I have to help them with the dance next week. It’s a load of crap if you ask me.”

Ben must have caught what I said because his voice came over my shoulder, causing me to jump back a bit. “Sounds like you got the best deal there is in high school after a fight. Decorating a gym or cleaning up trash? I’d take dance stuff any day.”

“I can’t even picture you in a fight, Ben,” I said with a chuckle. He was the most chill guy I’d ever met, except when he took the mound in one of our games. Then he was laser-focused and determined to win.

Penny stepped up next to Jake, intertwining her fingers with his. I was both disgusted and jealous every time I saw them together. Not because I liked Penny, but because I secretly wanted to have a girlfriend. If any of the guys found that out, I’d never live it down. After Jake got together with Penny, I’d been dubbed the playboy of our group since he’d had the title before.

The thing was, I’d only kissed three girls ever, and the one I cared about was standing across the commons talking to someone. It was like my eyes were a magnet for finding her, even in the mass of students.

“Kate!” Penny called, waving to her.

I jumped and turned to look at my friends in the hopes that they didn’t catch me staring at her. Since they weren’t paying attention, I glanced back over for a few seconds, her gorgeous smile making me wonder how I was going to survive the rest of the year in a smaller class where she was.

She walked over to us, still smiling as she took in the group. “Long time no see,” she said to me, reaching out a hand and touching my upper arm for a second before dropping it to her side.

My cheeks heated, and I turned enough to avoid looking at my friends. “Yeah, a whole five minutes.” It came out more gruff than I’d planned, but I was trying not to flirt. Flirting would lead to hope, and I couldn’t do that.

“I need to head out,” Nate said, taking a step away from the group. We all followed, walking down the hallway past the cafeteria.

“What’s so important, Nate?” Ben asked, chuckling. Nate was usually the last one to have to go anywhere.

Nate groaned, turning up his nose in disgust. “I have to help with some campaign thing my dad has going on for tonight.”

“I thought you weren’t into politics,” I teased. Nate’s dad was the mayor of our small town, Pecan Flatts, and elections were coming up again in November.

“I’m not, but I don’t say that in front of Carl Everton. I’d be thrown out if that ever happened.”

Jake slapped him with his free hand. “Yeah right. That would decrease popularity points.” We all chuckled at that as we continued out the doors of the building.

“Hey, guys! Wait up!”

I turned to see Logan, one of our outfielders, running after us.

“What’s up, man?” Jake asked as we walked a bit slower for him to catch up. It had been fun having Logan at school with us this year. He’d been a starting freshman on the baseball team last spring and had made some unbelievable catches in the field. And even though he was only a sophomore, we didn’t mind having him around. He was a funny guy, always cracking jokes.

“Well, I didn’t get lost today, so I think that’s a pretty good sign that I’m going to survive high school,” Logan said, wiping his hand across his forehead as though he’d just run a race.

The rest of us busted up laughing. Our school was pretty big, but it had been six weeks since school started, and the kid usually showed up late for everything because he kept getting turned around.

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