Page 60 of Shut Up and Score
Me: It feels different for me too. I don’t have to perform. And I can breathe here.
GoldenSpiral23: Maybe that’s what this is. Not an escape. Just a place where we finally get to be real.
It’s so simple. So easy. And I swear, if he asked me to meet him right now, I might actually say yes.
Which is terrifying.
Because I’m not supposed to be this open. Not after everything. Not with someone who could turn out to be anyone.
Anyone.
Even—
No.
I close my eyes for a second. Force the thought away.
When I open them again, another message is waiting.
GoldenSpiral23: I think about you more than I should. Even when I’m supposed to be focused on serious shit.
Especially then.
I bite my lip.
Because me too.
God,me too.
Me: That makes two of us. Guess we’re both screwed.
GoldenSpiral23: Maybe. But for once, I don’t feel alone in it.
I set the phone in my lap and stare straight ahead.
And across the quad, Colton shifts on the bench—still unreadable, still just a silhouette in the sunlight—but I can’t stop the thought now.
The one that keeps whispering louder every time we talk.
What if it’s him?
I set my phone in my lap, the last message from Golden still glowing on the screen.
Maybe. But for once, I don’t feel alone in it.
It makes my chest ache in this quiet, unspoken way. As though something’s breaking open that I didn’t realize was still locked. I don’t even notice Luke watching me until he plucks the bar wrapper from my hand.
“You’re doing that thing again,” he says, “where you look as if you’re falling in love with your phone.”
“Maybe I am,” I mutter, trying to play it off.
Luke raises a brow, slow and deliberate. “Okay, butishe hot?”
“I don’t know,” I say truthfully. “That's kind of the point.”
He hums. “That’s hot. Very mysterious. Very secret-agent-coded. Want me to distract you so you don’t fall too hard for a stranger?”
Before I can answer, he swings a leg over to straddle the wall, facing me, his grin pure mischief. “Or are you not into tall, sharp-jawed teammates with excellent taste in cologne and a tragic taste in men?”
