First and Goal (Moving the Chains #1) (35 page)

I
pull out my AP biology books, only half listening to Alex yap away about something beside me. Most of my focus is centered on the best pair of tits I’ve ever seen bouncing towards me. Evie doesn’t usually walk with so much force.

Maybe she’s stopping by my locker to thank me for the coffee? I mean, sure she could’ve said something at any point this morning during our shared classes, or she could’ve sat with me at lunch. We’ve never walked to bio together before. But hey, I’ll take it.

She walks right up to me until she’s completely in my personal space. Not that I mind, but it’s unlike her. I’m on full alert.

“What the fuck, Superjock?”

I look around me quickly since her shouting is sure to draw a crowd. Maybe the new rumor will be that we broke up. Shame, since we were never actually together.

Fury rolls off her small body in waves. This makes her PMS week look like child’s play.

“Ooh. Bitchy today, my girl. What can I do for you?”

She pokes me hard in the shoulder with her bony finger.

“Ow!” I yelp like a little girl.

I quickly catalogue all the stupid things I’ve done since I woke up this morning. The only glaring thing I’m coming up with is the comment about her clothes earlier. I feel guilty even noticing her hot body anymore. But I’m not blind. I still see it. And I know Hinton does too.

“I’m…sorry?” I go ahead and make the blanket apology since I’m not really sure what I’m apologizing for. I glance over my shoulder at Alex for some kind of moral support, but I’m clearly looking in the wrong place. He’s practically drooling in anticipation.

“You said that fucking me would be the best thing ever?” She lowers her voice for this part, but her face reddens and her petite frame trembles.

I’m actually a little scared of this Evie. Alex laughs his ass off behind me.

My brain works furiously to figure out what she’s talking about. I’m sure I’ve uttered those exact words in the past, but only to Alex or Jeremy. Neither of them would rat me out to her. And I’ve been trying my damndest to convince her that I’m not only in it for sex, so I’ve even kept those comments to them at a bare minimum lately.

When I don’t respond immediately, she throws her hand up in the air and gestures around wildly. “At some athletic conference last year? In front of practically all the guys in the school?”

I can’t believe it’s taken this long to get back to her.

Last year, the athletic department sponsored a rape culture awareness seminar that was mandatory for all-male student athletes. In spite of Coach not dealing adequately with the Neveah Winters debacle, things in the Ironville athletic department had come to a head. With all the recent media attention surrounding rape cases and football, admin decided to take a proactive stance to approach the problem before we wound up being the next school on the evening news. Only they wanted to expand it to all sports. I thought it was a good idea.

The sports season changed. The usual conversation in the locker room remained the same.

We were seated in the auditorium, grouped by class instead of team. Eddie came sauntering in late, sporting a fresh black eye. He spouted off some story about a pick-up game gone wrong with his brother just before he decided to come and grace us with his presence.

Then he launched into how he had dumped Evie after she begged him to take her virginity the night before. He said after a few dates with amazing blowjobs, her loose pussy wasn’t a surprise. He needed a tighter fuck, and she was obviously a lying slut, so he had to cut her loose. For a few minutes, the entire section of the junior class was dead silent. No one knew how to respond. At the time, Evie was a gorgeous, respected, popular girl. Most of the guys sitting around me had sought her attention. She’d gently turned them all away. Every single one of those guys was probably pissed when she went for Hinton. No one more so than me.

Once the shock wore off, something in my brain snapped. I started laughing. Loudly. I finally caught my breath and wiped the tears off my face. I walked up to Hinton, looked him straight in the eye, and spoke so everyone could hear. I told him I knew he was a damn liar. That there was no fucking way she was anything less than perfect. That fucking Eva Papageorgiou would be nothing short of the most amazing night of my life.

He tried to talk it up like I didn’t know what I was saying, but the damage had been done. He could see the suspicion on all the guys’ faces. He flat out asked me if I was jealous. To which I replied, “You’re goddamn right I am.” He might have laughed in my face then. But he didn’t. Rage was starting to set in on my end. The fact of the matter was I had at least five inches and about thirty pounds on him. I told him to sit the fuck down, and he did. He wasn’t stupid enough to risk me beating his ass in front of our whole class. I nearly did anyway.

I doubt that any of the rumors that were started about her in the following weeks came from any of those guys except Hinton. They were all thinking the same thing that I had the balls to say aloud. They saw him for the liar he was. After that, not a single guy who was sitting in that section of the auditorium ever asked her out again. I had unintentionally marked her as my territory among the jocks in our class.

In hindsight, the guy she’d been waiting on must have been sitting in that section. He heard everything too. I wonder if the only thing holding him back now is what I said that day. That’s immensely unfair to Evie.

“Well?” She spits. “Answer me!”

I glance back at Alex again, but this only seems to piss her off more. He kinda has that deer in the headlights thing going, anyway. He isn't going to be much help.

“Don’t look at him! Look at me! And tell me the truth! Did you really say that?”

She’s fuming.

I’m panicking.

There’s no point in denying it. There were too many witnesses that day. “Umm…yes?”

Alex hisses in my ear. “Dude, you were supposed to lie and say no! When they are this mad, you always
lie
!”

“Shut up, Fossoway.” She points at him with the same finger she’d poked me with.

He bails back inside the safety of his own locker. Smart man.

She takes another step forward until she’s pressed against me. Now I really have no idea what’s going on, but warning bells are definitely going off in my head.

“Who is she?”

“Wait, what?” I gape down at her.

“Who is Dream Girl? You tell me right now.”

“What?” I repeat to her. I have no idea what’s going on in her head today.

“Ugh!” She pushes me with her pokey hand. “Why do you have to be such a dumb jock?”

“What, exactly, are you mad about here, Eva?”

“You don’t even get it, do you?” She storms away from me, still pissed as all hell.

I watch her stomp down the hallway towards our bio class. Suddenly I wish I could sit anywhere but beside her for the next ninety minutes.

Alex and I exchange baffled glances.

“Is it that time of the month?” he asks, closing his locker.

“Yep.” I follow Evie’s path of destruction, hoping for mindless lecture until we’re released to the gym. And no partner work.

Pep rallies used to be the most boring thing in the world. Until Evie became drum major. Now that she stands in front of the band to conduct, they are far more interesting. At least I have something decent to pay attention to.

She pretty much ignored me in class and in the hallways. I still have no idea exactly what she’s so pissed off about. Either what I said last year, or that I won’t tell her who Dream Girl is. I’m not sure how those things are connected except that she might feel I ruined her chances with Dream Guy.

So here I sit with the rest of the football team, slouched down in my seat, my arms crossed over my chest and trying to figure out my latest roadblock with her. At least being a senior gets me in the front row for a better view.

Josh leans up from behind me. “Your girl has one fine ass, Falls. Congrats on landing that.”

He slaps me on the shoulder and sits back in his seat. I’m speechless. That might be the first sort of nice thing he’s ever said to me. And it’s entirely based on a lie. I’m really not feeling very peppy right now.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t wanna smack that ass right about now.” Alex shudders. “Girls are disgusting this time of the month.”

“I can’t even enjoy the view anymore, thanks to Hinton.” I grumble. And Dream Guy.

“Why the hell not? It’s still a great ass.”

I give Alex my best death glare.

He just stares back at me blankly. “Hey, I didn’t say I was gonna touch it, but I’m not blind. Jesus, Rob, calm down.”

“You need to let it go,” Mike says from beside me. “I told you nothing happened. She told you nothing happened. And even if Eddie had raped her, what good is having a girlfriend that you feel too guilty to touch? If you can’t enjoy your girl’s body, then you got no business being with her. It’s not fair to her, and it’s not fair to you.”

Alex leans forward to peer past me at Mike. “So you’re saying it’s wrong to be attracted to a woman who was sexually assaulted? That’s kinda fucked up, man. It’s like saying the rape stole her sexuality. I can appreciate a fine ass without having to touch it. And I sure as fuck know how to respectfully let a woman know I like what I see.”

“I never said that,” Mike fires back. “I’m just saying if you can’t appreciate your girl’s ass, then it’s going to make her feel worse about herself. If a guy feels too guilty to touch his chick, then he needs to let her be with someone who will treat her ass the way she’d want.”

“Can we please stop having a conversation about Evie’s ass?” I whine. Well, great. Now I can’t stop looking at it. But I am not going to imagine caressing, gripping, or smacking it under any scenario. Nope.

Another cheer finished, Rachel steps up to the mic to announce today’s senior game. Senior games are a tradition at all our pep rallies for as long as I’ve been a student here. Each pep rally has a different game, and only seniors are called to participate. Sometimes it’s the captains of each of the fall teams. Other times random seniors whose names are pulled out of a hat get to pick underclassmen to help. Sometimes we’re paired up with teachers. It’s always something that makes the participants look like fools and is an enjoyable laugh for the crowd. Homecoming is the big power couple games. Those are always viewed as a serious competition. If you can’t hack it in the Homecoming Senior Game, bets are pooled among the student body on how long until the breakup goes down. If you’re a couple because of The Bio Effect, the betting pool is even bigger.

“Today our senior football players are going to try their hands at a different sport: basketball.”

“Hey!” Alex yells from beside me. “I already play basketball!”

Several of us switch to basketball after football season. The students laugh along with Alex, knowing this fact very well.

Rachel points at him. “But you don’t play it like this!”

She gestures for us to stand up. I’m really not in the mood, but as the captain of the team, I have to lead by example. I put on my best fake smile and play along.

“All right boys, now choose any lovely lady you’d like and then line up single file!”

The chatter in the crowd increases as every girl in the gym speculates on whether her crush will choose her as his partner. For guys like Mike, the choice is clear. He walks straight over to the band and pulls Chelsie up by the hand, heading over to line up with relatively little scandal or excitement. Most of the other players mill around the gym, taking their time. They already know who they’ll choose, but try to draw out the moment and excitement…and attention. Alex makes the best show of all, pointing then shaking his head. He moves onto the next target, leaving a trail of disappointment in his wake.

I know I’m not in the same position as Mike, but my feet take me to stand in front the band, anyway. Right to where Evie is seated off to the front and side. I gesture to her with my finger to join me. Her eyes widen, and she subtly shakes her head, the panic evident on her face. I hadn’t thought this out at all. She’s already pissed at me…for something. Maybe I’m still blowing her chances. The idea of choosing anyone other than her is absolutely foreign to me. Another partner isn’t an option. So I gesture to her again, resulting in a firmer head shake. Smirking at her, I walk right over to her chair and pull her up as she tries to resist.