Chapter 35 #2
Dante stopped, shaking his head. “Wrong. So wrong.” He laughed despite his best efforts. “Your head in the game?” he asked before he opened the door.
“Never doubt it.”
We walked in, and Sutherland was on me.
“Where the hell have you been?” He marched toward me, and Dante pressed a bottle of water into my hand.
I took a quick drink as Dante stepped in front of me.
“Coach, he’s been driving for three hours, he’s here, and he’s only forty-five minutes late. I told you, there was an accident on I-65.”
I gulped water, composed my features, and hoped Hadley hadn’t left any visible marks on me. “Hey, real sorry about being late.”
He seethed.
I waited.
Dante took a step to the side.
Sutherland looked between Dante and me. He pointed at me and said, “Don’t bother changing, you look like shit. You’re too tired for training. Go to your dorm and sleep. I’ll see you here tomorrow at six.”
“I’m fine.” I protested.
“Spence, Matthews, you can go too.” He turned and walked away.
Dante glared at his back. “Why am I being sent back?” he challenged him.
Sutherland spun around and glared at him. He jabbed a finger in my direction. “Because I may be old, boy, but I sure as fuck ain’t stupid. He reeks of pussy, and you two—” he pointed at Dante and Noah — “stink of shit. Get the fuck out of my locker room. I’ll see you all tomorrow at six.”
The door slammed behind him. I groaned and sat on the bench. “You should have let me fuck up on my own.” I looked up at them.
Noah yanked his shirt off. “Fuck, even when I’m minding my own business, I get pulled into his shit.” He headed for the shower. “I’m so fucking sick of this.”
I watched him thinking about our talk the other night.
Dante looked down at me. “Think we might lose Matthews,” he said, and I heard the sadness in his voice.
“Yeah.” I got to my feet. “This sucks. I don’t remember switching the alarm off.”
Dante shrugged. “Could happen to any one of us. Come on. Let’s go home, you look fucked.” He grinned. “I mean tired.”
I waited until he and Noah showered, they dropped their practice clothes off in the laundry, and then the three of us walked home in silence. “I didn’t mean to mess up your day,” I told Noah.
He shook his head. “It’s fine. I’m just pissed off with him in general.”
“It’s not fine,” Dante murmured. “He’s been a nightmare since I screwed this up for all of us.” He glanced over his shoulder, making sure no one was around. “He’s going to bench me, I can feel it.”
Noah grunted. “At this rate, he’s benching all of us.”
I winced. “It’s so fucked up.”
Dante nudged me with his shoulder. “It was coming whether you did it or one of us did. He’s waiting for us to fuck up.”
“And we keep fucking up,” Noah grumbled. “Has anyone ever transferred from a D1 back to a D2?”
“He’s not benching us,” I told them firmly. “We just need to show our fans, of which we have many, that we’re the three best players on the team.”
“I think you broke his brain when he realized you were dating Hadley,” Noah said. “I was there when he was told, and he went pure fucking white. I genuinely thought he was going to have a heart attack and die.”
“When was that?” Dante asked curiously.
“Friday, I was in PT. I heard Coach Holt tell him, he lost his shit.”
I looked at Dante and then back at the ground. “I’m going to get benched for dating Hadley.”
“Fake dating,” Dante reminded me.
I sighed. “Yeah, that.”
Noah grinned, and Dante smirked. “When do you think you’ll catch up to what everyone else already saw coming?”
Noah swiped his pass, and we trudged up the stairs to our dorm, my mind going one hundred miles a minute. “We’re faking it.”
It sounded like a lie.
Noah made a face. “Sure.”
I looked between them and then decided I needed to sleep. “I’m going to bed, sorry again.” I went into my room and came back out. Noah and Dante hadn’t moved.
“You don’t think it’s fake?”
Dante groaned and headed into his room. Noah glanced at me and walked past, shaking his head.
What did that mean? Was that the answer? What was my answer?
She was easy to be around. Irritating at times, but easy. She fucked good. Better than good.
I chewed the inside of my cheek.
Fuck.
This wasn’t fake.
I went into my room, planning to shower. Instead, I sat on my bed and looked at my phone for about five minutes before I texted her.
Me: Coach chewed me out and sent me home. Sent Noah and Dante home too for covering for me.
I got undressed and took my phone with me to the shower. She was probably still asleep.
Peterson: What a dick. Are you okay?
Me: Yeah. Pissed off, but I can shower, sleep, and deal with it tomorrow.
Peterson: Is there no training this afternoon?
Me: Yeah, but he said tomorrow at 6
Peterson: Screw that, you all need to be there on the field this afternoon. Don’t give him the power.
She was right. I grabbed a towel and went to Noah’s room. He was lying on his bed.
“We’ll be at training this afternoon,” I told him. “We won that championship. He isn’t benching any of us, and you’re staying here, with us. This is our shit, we go through it together.”
Noah’s eyes narrowed, but then he nodded. “Fine.”
I went to Dante’s room and pushed the door open.
“I heard,” he said as he was reading a book; he didn’t look up, but he was smiling slightly. “Sounds like a plan.”
“Good. It is a plan.”
I went into my room and headed for the shower. My eyes closed. “Ugh, this is horseshit. Just tell her.”
I texted Hadley.
Me: No more fake relationship bullshit. You’re mine. Got it?
The three dots came and went.
Peterson: Do I get a say?
Me: No.
I watched the dots. My pulse picked up — maybe that was too strong. She was going to be sassy.
Peterson: Fine.
I didn’t trust that ‘fine.’
Me: Fine?
Peterson: Did I ever give the impression I belonged to anyone else?
Me: Good girl.
I took my shower, crawled into bed, and went straight to sleep.
I was pretty sure I went to sleep with a satisfied smile on my face.