Page 3 of Feral
The shouts that sailed through the air alerted Ella to the fact that the soccer field was in use even before it came into view at the top of the hill. She watched as the players ran across the field, fiercely competitive even though it was only a practice session.
Soccer was a bigger deal at the school than most, as she had learned. With so many toms trapped under one roof, having a physical outlet was imperative. There was a fan club forming over on the bleachers around the field, and Ella recognized a few of the queens as belonging to Marissa’s crew.
Then again, who didn’t?
She thought of turning back before any of them decided to ruin the otherwise beautiful day, but before she had the chance, a shadow from overhead closed in on her. Ella looked up just in time to see a black-and-white ball hurtling toward her. It struck her face hard enough to make her stumble back, and somehow, her feet slipped out from underneath her and she went down hard.
Ella’s hands flew to her nose, which had borne the brunt of the blow. It was bleeding, but she didn’t think it was broken. She could hear the startled cries coming from the field and hurried to get to her feet before anyone decided to capitalize on the opportunity. For all she knew, it was no accident that ball had found her.
“Oh, shit!” cried a familiar voice. Ella looked up to find Bishop jogging toward her, his glorious abs on display and glistening with sweat. She should have known he played. She’d gotten a good enough feel of his muscular body to know he was an athlete. “Ella, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said, her voice too nasally to sound convincing. She pinched her nose with her fingers in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
“No, you’re bleeding,” he said, frowning as he approached and took her face in his hands. He looked her over with the same concern as he had that night she’d nearly drowned. The first time, at any rate. “Here. Keep your head up, like this.”
She let him position her head back, keeping her hand on the bridge of her nose. As if he hadn’t already seen her in enough humiliating positions, now she had to add blood running from her nostrils to the list.
“Is she okay?” another guy called, jogging to the top of the hill.
Bishop spun around with an unexpected amount of rage in his expression. “No thanks to you.” He grabbed the ball and threw it at the other tom hard enough to stagger him. “Keep your fucking plays on the field before you kill someone.”
Ella had never heard him speak so harshly, or use profanity for that matter, and his teammate seemed equally stunned. Nonetheless, the tom grumbled an apology to Ella before running back to join the others.
“I’m fine,” Ella repeated. “Really.”
“He’s an idiot,” Bishop muttered, clearly unwilling to be pacified. “This isn’t the first time that’s happened.”
“And here I thought I was special,” she teased in hopes of lightening his mood.
Bishop snorted. “Well, you do seem to be particularly prone to peril.”
Ella found herself reddening in embarrassment. She hadn’t run into Bishop since word had spread of her unique situation, and she was sure he’d heard by now. Everyone was talking about it, and she was surprised he wanted to talk to her at all.
She felt the awkward silence between them growing, but before she could put it to death, he spared her. “This is probably a bad time to ask, but are we still on for dinner tonight?”
“Dinner?” Her face went blank as she remembered. “I forgot.”
Bishop winced dramatically. “Ouch.”
“It’s not like that,” Ella said with a sigh. “It’s just with everything that happened yesterday…”
Understanding crossed his handsome features. “Yeah, I heard. I tried calling you, but you didn’t answer.”
She pulled out her phone and realized that sure enough, several of the missed calls were from Bishop. “I’m sorry. Axel’s been blowing up my phone since last night, so I haven’t checked.”
“Well, in that case, I understand,” he said in a wry tone. “I’d probably throw the damn thing into the bay, or at least change my number.”
Ella couldn’t help but laugh. “You and I are probably the only two people in school who feel that way.”
“Us and Marissa,” he said, seeming to immediately regret it. “Sorry. I heard some shit went down with you two in the girl’s bathroom,” he added, the look of concern returning to his gaze. “What happened?”
“Nothing” was already on the tip of her tongue, but Ella stopped herself. She wasn’t sure if it was the fact that she trusted Bishop, or merely that she was tired of lying to everyone around her, but the temptation of having someone she could be honest with was too much to resist.
“She hates me. That much is probably obvious.”
He didn’t look surprised in the least. “I heard about how Axel broke up with her in front of you. It was shitty of him to put you in that kind of position.”
“He does a lot of shitty things,” she agreed. “But to be honest, she hated me a long time before that. Ever since we were kids. I’m not sure what I did, and I doubt even she remembers now.”
