Page 80 of The Fantasy League
“I’m goingon a date with October.”
Mae’s scoff from across the room at my admission was anything but subtle.
Mae and October had absolutely despised each other since we were kids. What was once an academic rivalry in elementary school spilled into a popularity contest in high school.
While they hadn’t seen each other in the better half of a decade, I could’ve sworn they were still playing their little game when it came to their careers. Her being one of the top-paid high fashion models in the world and him being the greatest quarterback in the league. I was doubtful that was a coincidence.
It would be just like the two of them to still be silently competing against each other all these years.
“It’s been, what? Seven years since you’ve seen him? You can’tpossiblystill be holding a grudge this long.”
“I am not holding a grudge!” Mae shouted.
She was totally holding a grudge.
For what though, I had no freaking idea.
All I knew was that the last time they saw each other was at his high school graduation party, just before he moved away to play for the best college football team in Alabama, and she told him that she hoped someone sacked into him so hard that he broke every bone in his body.
I’d always assumed there was more to their feud than they let on, but if that was the case, I thought Mae would’ve told me the whole story by now. Anytime I asked, all she said was that he’d “always been rude” and change the subject.
Seriously, what could two elementary schoolers havepossiblydone to each other that would fuel a two-decade-long feud?
Beats me.
It had been four days since the news broke about Abel’s date with that Aera girl. I hadn’t received a text or call back from him and he hadn’t responded to my resignation email either.
Not that I was keeping tabs on the two of them or anything,butif I was, then I would’ve known that they had yet to make any press statements about their outing.
No social media posts. No paparazzi pictures. Nothing.
It was like the two of them had fallen off the face of the earth. Maybe they were too busy clocking hours between the sheets to come up for air.
Just thinking about them made a shiver crawl up my spine.
Abel never seemed like the kind of person who would go AWOL after something as big as that came out. I thought he would, at the very least, have the decency to apologize. Then again, I guess I didn’t really know him at all.
Lea came over to see me two days ago once I finally had the energy to relocate myself from the bed and over to the couch.
Baby steps.
She told me that she’d spoken to him briefly but she didn’t give up any information about what he’d said. Not that I cared anyway.All she told me was that everyone would “find out the truth one way or another.”
Whatever that meant.
When October called to ask me on a date earlier this morning, I was shocked. Like defibrillator to bare chest, shocked. I mean, I’d always assumed that guy code was different, but asking your teammate’s “ex-girlfriend” out on a datefour daysafter their breakup had to be a violation of some sort of ethics, right?
If it was, he must not have cared. But if I was telling the truth… I didn’t actually want to go on a date with him, and I had my reasons.
For starters, October and I had been friends for a long time and while we didn’t hang out with each other often, it did seem a little out of the blue. We’d known each other for going on twenty years. I had a feeling if he had a crush on me, he would’ve taken some sort of action by now.
Second, Mae hated him more than Satan hated God. I was shocked she hadn’t already murdered me for considering the idea for more than a millisecond. Could you imagine if the date actually went well? I’d be as good as dead to her by morning.
Third and most importantly, Abel was going to find out about it. One way or another, whether it was in passing from teammates, from October himself, or someone snapping a picture of us on our date and posting it on Socialgram.
Abel. Would. Find. Out.
It took some heavy convincing from Lea on the phone earlier,but I liked her logic that Abel finding out about October's and my datemightnot be the worst thing in the world.
