Page 143 of Game Changer
So maybe Kip hadn’t been as careful as he’d thought he’d been.
“He’s not... No one knows. And it might not be anything, so please—”
“Of course.”
Kip’s own words filled him with a fresh wave of despair.It might not be anything. Oh god. It can’t really be over, can it?
He pressed the heel of his palm to his forehead and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to fight off a complete breakdown. “Does Mom know?”
“No, I’ve been keeping this one to myself.”
“Thank you. I’ve wanted to tell you. Both of you. But now things are... I don’t know.” He sniffed, and turned his eyes up to the ceiling.Keep it together, Kip.
“You’re on the outs?”
“Yeah. It’s a mess right now. I want to clean it up so badly.”
Dad smiled and patted his arm. “You will.”
To his credit, Kip was able to keep himself from falling apart until after his father had left his room. As soon as the door clicked shut, he sobbed into his pillow like a teenager. God, he’d gotten intograd schooland even that wasn’t enough to cheer him up.
He needed to fix things with Scott. He had to at least try.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Holy shit,” Maria muttered. “He’s back.”
Kip turned from where he’d been restocking the bananas to see—“Scott!”
He was standing there, in his running clothes, face sweat-slicked, just like the first time he’d walked into the shop. Except with more beard.
Kip hadn’t meant to say his name like that. Surprised.Familiar. He’d just been thrown. Hopefully Maria would chalk it up to his supposed fanboy crush on Scott Hunter.
“Hey,” Scott said, his voice soft and uncertain.
“Um, can I...help you?”
“Yeah,” Scott said, with a shy smile. “I was thinking it might be good to...return to basics.”
“Oh.”What doesthatmean?“So...blue smoothie, then?”
“Please.”
Kip made the smoothie and Maria smirked at him. He ignored her.
He handed the drink to Scott, whose eyes darted over to Maria, and then back to Kip. He could almostseethe “fuck it” pass through Scott’s brain.
“I, um... I wanted to see you.”
“Oh.” Kip braved a glance at Maria. She looked like the cat that caught the fucking canary.
“The game’s tonight, and I was hoping...”
“Oh.” Kip deflated. “You need your good luck charm there or something?”
“No! No, that’s not—” Scott’s eyes darted to Maria again. He lowered his voice, not that it mattered. Maria was very obviously hanging on every word. “I want to talk to you. Alone. Soon. Please, Kip.”
Kip saw the anguish in Scott’s eyes and a flicker of hope sparked inside him. Was it possible that Scott wanted to fix this as badly as Kip did?
