Page 31 of Stealing for Keeps
“He is so hot,” Sophie cries as Austin takes the field, clapping her hands and then holding them up to her mouth to yell. “Go, Austin!”
I glance over at Lacey and roll my eyes. “Someone needs to get her a thesaurus. That seems to be the only adjective she knows.”
For the past hour, I’ve had to listen to Sophie, Amanda, and the rest of the soccer girls talk about Austin and what they’d like to do with him or have him to do them in more detail than I needed. At one point, he lifted the hem of his shirt to wipe his face, and the screams they let out have my eardrums still ringing.
“Cut the girl some slack,” Lacey says with a smile, stare leaving the field only long enough to grin at me. “Her vocabulary may be limited, but you have to admit she’s right. The new guy is easily top three of the junior class, maybe of the whole school. Plus, he has that new guy mystique.”
“I don’t have to admit anything,” I grumble, feeling a teensy bit jealous at all the attention he’s getting.
Lacey’s laugh gets lost in the noise as the blue team scores. My gaze manages to go directly to the guy in question. He and Rowan high-five as they jog up the field.
“Who scored?” I ask.
“That was Rowan,” Lacey yells over the crowd.
The buzzer sounds, ending the first half. People around us get up to grab concessions or move around.
My best friend straightens the big bow on top of her head. “So what’s going on with you two anyway?”
“Who?” I ask, glancing at Andie and Brandon next to me.
“You.” Lacey elbows me with a giggle. “And New Guy. He’s obviously into you.”
“What do you mean obviously? We barely talk.”
“Yeah, but he’s always watching you.”
“It’s true. Brandon and I were talking about that yesterday,” Andie pipes up. She has a matching bow in her hair and a shiny new gold hoop in her nose. She pulls it off well.
My face heats, and an uncomfortable feeling stretches across my skin. “He’s just a flirt. Nothing is going on.”
“If you say so,” Lacey singsongs. “We gotta go. Yell loud for us, okay?”
“You know it.” I tip my chin at her. “I’m only here for the cheerleaders.”
Her grin widens as they head down the bleachers. The squad doesn’t usually cheer during soccer games, but tonight they’re doing their routines on the field during halftime, then they have to go to the carnival, where they’re running a cotton candy stand.
Brandon and his friend Miles scoot down the bench closer to me. Someone walks by with a plate of nachos, and the smell of cheese wafts around us.
“Ooh, that smells good.” Miles sits taller, leaning toward the food as it goes by. He stands and rubs his stomach. “Be right back.”
“Get me some too,” Brandon calls after him.
The two of them have been eating nonstop. Hot dogs, candy, chips. I have no idea how either of them could still be hungry.
“You’re a bottomless pit,” I tell him with a smile.
“Coach says I need to add some weight.”
Brandon plays hockey. He grew a few inches over the summer, and he’s tall and lanky. Probably not ideal when you’re being slammed against the boards.
With the row in front of us empty, I prop up my boot on the bleacher. Brandon glances down. “How much longer do you have to wear that thing?”
“Two weeks.”
“That’s not long.” His face brightens. “Can you go right back to skating, or do you have to rehab and stuff?”
My stomach swirls with sorrow and disappointment. I consider giving him a vague reply, but then I remember what Lacey said about sharing my feelings with people. “The doctor said I could get back to regular exercise, but he warned me that if I continued pushing myself like before, I’d risk doing permanent damage.”
