Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 149510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
“It’s no big deal, Kay.”
“No big deal?” she exclaims. “Duke’s QB is smokin’ hot. I mean, he’s clearly not as good as our QB, but who cares about football skills when you’ve got a face and body like that guy, amirite?” She playfully nudges me with her elbow, and I snort at her antics.
“Down, girl,” I tease. “Your horny is showing.”
Kayla cracks up and shoves the football in my lap. “Call him.”
My head is already shaking my refusal. “No way.”
“What? Why not?” Kayla searches my face like I’ve grown an additional head. “I know you and Finn had a little something-something going on at the Halloween party.” When my head whips toward her, she treads a little more lightly. “I mean, we all saw you dancing and making out, but I’m pretty sure you’re still technically single…” She pauses and reaches out to grab me by the shoulders. “Oh shit! Are you guys, like, a thing now, and you’re keeping it under wraps or something?”
Nausea floods my mouth as sadness the size of a boulder finds a place inside my stomach. I discreetly swallow hard against it. “No,” I say, but my voice sounds half strangled. I clear my throat. “There’s nothing going on between Finn and me.”
“Wait…did something happen?” Kayla’s mouth turns down at the corners, and she swivels in her seat to hold both of my hands. “I mean, I’ve been sensing that something’s been off with you.” She lowers her voice to a whisper. “But every time I ask, it feels like you’re brushing me off…”
It’s my turn to frown. I hate that I’ve been making one of my favorite people at Dickson feel like I’m brushing her off. “I’m sorry, Kay. Brushing you off was not my intention. I’m just…dealing with some stuff I’m not ready to talk about yet.”
“Girl, no need to apologize. I get it. Not everything is peachy keen every single day of the week,” she comments. “You know Nathan Hodges?”
My eyebrows draw together. “He’s on the track team, right?”
She nods. “We were dating a little bit in October, but then he met some biology major with big boobs.”
I wince, realizing only now that I’m not the only one with stuff going on. “I’m sorry.”
I wish I could tell her the truth. I wish I could just word-vomit my tragic situation all over her lap. But I can’t. It feels wrong to tell anyone. So I give her what I can.
“I was definitely hoping something would happen between Finn and me, but…” I pause and shrug. “You kind of need both people to want that for it to work.”
“Damn, I’m sorry,” she says and squeezes my hands. “You should have told me that was going on, Scottie. I would’ve been there for you.”
“I know. You’re right. Next time, you’ll be the first person I call,” I tell her, making a promise that I don’t feel like I can actually keep.
“Well, if my opinion means anything,” Kayla comments with a nod toward the football that’s still in my lap. “Then I think you should call that man.”
“You realize he goes to school seven hours from me, right?”
She waves her hand in the air. “I’m not saying date the guy. Just, like, have a little fun with him. Even if it’s just some flirty texts back and forth.”
I wish I could agree with her, but I miss Finn too much to talk to another guy. Which is probably insanely pathetic, I know, given how badly he wants me to leave him alone.
“Just consider it.” Kayla takes the football from my hands and stands up to put it back in my duffel. “Good grief, Scottie,” she groans when a pair of my gym shoes falls out of my bag, and she has to pull my bag down and set it in the aisle to get the football and shoes shoved back in it again. “What in the hell do you have in this thing?”
“Books,” I admit. I’ve been sucked into reading Cassie Kelly’s whole damn collection.
My phone vibrates in my pocket as Kayla shoves my bag even harder with a laugh, and I pull it out to check it.
As soon as I do, I wish I wouldn’t have.
Karma called, bitch. And she’s coming for your ass.
“Who is texting you?” Kayla asks as she plops back down in the seat, my duffel bag safely secured in the overhead bin above our heads.
“Just my dad,” I lie and shove my phone back into my pocket.
Truthfully, I haven’t really talked to my sister or my dad for any meaningful amount of time since before Halloween. And it’s not for their lack of trying. They’ve texted and called, but I’ve only been able to offer them brief, two-minute phone calls or short and sweet texts back.
Getting out of bed every day and trying to focus on class and cheerleading is about all I can give right now, I’m so swollen with heartbreak.