Page 35 of The Tomboy

I entered the cafeteria already knowing what I planned to eat—a bowl of crunchy granola with blueberry yogurt, and a toasted bagel with cream cheese. Yeah, I think I deserved both. The queue wasn’t long, and by the look of it most of the football team were seated, the rest hovering over the hot food stations, probably gorging on bacon, eggs and protein shakes.

With my tray stacked, I scanned the room on the look out for Miles or Theo or someone else’s table I could join. Phoenix’s absence was acute in situations like this. Jordy, Miles and Theo were all friends, but Phoenix and me—we were the tightest. Like brothers.

I spotted Miles next to Lucy and Hannah, the exchange student, so I headed in that direction, only to come to a jolting stop when I saw Taylor sitting at a table between two football players. Cullen Mercer was the quarterback, Coach Mercer’s son, and Tennessee Jackson, well, let’s just say no one would want to come up against the wide receiver in a dark alley, or on a football field.

In a split second, I noticed that she had the same bowl of crunchy granola as me which consolidated the fact that we were soulmates—but why was she was sitting with Cullen and Tennessee?

My heart was beating faster than when I was running laps, and my mind spun with the unthinkable—Taylor was dating one of them! I’d lost out, wasted too much time, hadn’t been bold enough.

“You gonna sit, Saunders?” It might have been Cullen, it might’ve been Tennessee—I had no idea, too busy trying to process that Taylor was lost to me.

“Uh, nah, I...” I was a bumbling, stumbling fool. Stupid to think I could compete with the football team. The Covington Chargers weren’t actually very good. They never ranked in their division. But, well...playing football came with a certain prestige, warranted or not.

“I hear Phoenix is coming back soon,” Cullen said.

“Uh, yeah, I was talking to him last night,” I said. “Hopefully next week.”

“That’s awesome,” Cullen said with an eyebrow raise.

“Yeah, it is,” Tennessee agreed.

Phoenix and I were hardly friends with them, but it was kind of cool to know that everyone was rooting for him.

“Yeah, uh, see ya,” I said, backing up a step. I wasn’t sure where to focus my gaze, but I didn’t want to leave the scene without acknowledging Taylor, even if she was dating one of them. “Uh, Taylor? Good games against Woodruff yesterday.”

“Thanks,” she said without looking at me.

“All that gym training’s paying off, huh?” Cullen said with a laugh, and Tennessee gave her a firm slap on the back and said, “Yeah, hang with us every morning and you’re destined for greatness.”

I didn’t see Taylor’s response, because I had knocked into a chair behind me, my tray unsteady, in danger of losing my bagel. Balancing the tray, I managed to keep my granola bowl intact, but was mortified as my bagel fell to the floor and bounced beneath their table. Usually I would pick it up—I didn’t like mess—but with Cullen and Tenn laughing, I made a hasty retreat, trying to digest the fact that Taylor trained at the gym with the football team every morning.

I cursed myself as I sat down next to Miles. I was meant to go through her statistics with her and talk about photography class, but I’d embarrassed myself. In the background, Cullen and Tenn were chuckling loudly, surely having a joke about my klutziness. I reached for a spoon, my cheeks flaming. It was bad enough losing my bagel and looking like a fool, but to think Taylor was training with and/or dating either Cullen or Tenn, that brought me crashing down to a new low.

Chapter 11

Taylor

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