Chapter 19 #2
“Sure,” he said easily. “I’ll check yours tomorrow. Not saying I have it right, but I can definitely look.”
I said goodnight to both of them and took my hot chocolate to bed. Once I was done, I got ready for bed and slept right through to my alarm at five thirty.
I hit snooze one too many times, and then Dustin was in my room telling me to get up.
“Hot chocolate puts me in a coma,” I grumbled as I got out of bed.
“Five hours of sleep puts me in a coma,” he said, sitting on my unmade bed and immediately closing his eyes. “Today will suck.”
Once I’d splashed my face with water, ignored the whole ‘toner reminder’ and grabbed my gym bag, the two of us jogged to the stadium in the hopes it would wake us up.
It was somewhat gratifying to see a few of our teammates were as bleary-eyed as we were.
Coach Sutherland took one look at us and raised his eyebrows. “You too?”
Dustin nodded. “Yes, Coach.”
“Drinking?”
“Beer.” I didn’t say ‘each’ because Dustin wasn’t legally old enough to drink. Sutherland let the omission slide.
“Go get an IV, both of you. Back in fifteen.”
“Yes, Coach,” we said in unison.
I noted that none of my teammates were offered the rejuvenating IV, and so did Dustin. We said nothing as we headed to the PT room.
Diana was in the small kitchenette making coffee and talking quietly to Coach Hembry.
“Hey,” I interrupted them. “Coach Sutherland told us to get IVs.”
She looked us both over, her amusement clear. “On a school night?” she teased.
“Eight hours of sleep is preferred,” Hembry grumbled.
“I prefer eight, too,” Dustin sassed him, following Diana to a treatment room. “But we played pool, and somehow it became a whole thing of honor and sacrifice.”
I snorted, dipping my head so Hembry didn’t see my laugh. He got on well with Dante — he was the QB coach after all, but I didn’t know him well.
Diana patted two beds in one of the treatment rooms. “Sit. I’ll be right back.”
Hembry closed the door behind her. I watched him warily as he turned back to the two of us.
“You two know what you’re doing?” he asked flatly.
“Coach, we—”
“Don’t bullshit me, Slater.” TJ Hembry gave us both an appraising look. “She told me what’s going on, and how it somehow now involves you both.”
Dustin and I exchanged a look.
“What do you hope to achieve?” he asked quietly, stepping closer. He looked over his shoulder. “I know why she’s doing it, but guys, do you really think they haven’t already contacted the NCAA?”
I spoke first. “What do you mean?”
“She’s already reported this program to the NCAA. Twice. Her and Mason.”
Mason? I’d read Mason as a man who’d accepted defeat. I’d been wrong.
“What happened?” Dustin was more alert than I was because he wanted to know the results of the calls, which hadn’t been my first thought.
“Nothing.” Hembry looked between us. “I told Dante what I’m telling you. Keep out of it.”
“And if we can’t?” I asked him. “The NCAA protects the players, no? The students?”
Hembry scoffed. “Unless they have reason to believe you were complicit in the violations.”
“We have nothing to do with them. You know that.” Dustin looked pissed.
“Yeah, tell your girlfriend and whoever else is digging.” He folded his arms over his chest. “Every athlete on the program is always carefully . . . monitored.”
I didn’t hide my shock. “They’re watching us?”
“Of course they’re watching, are you really that na?ve?”
My transfer. My eligibility. My contacts. All of it. I swallowed down the bile. “Why are you telling us?”
“Yeah, aren’t you part of ‘they’?” Dust asked him quietly.
“No. And don’t fucking insult me, Slater. You know better.”
“Do I?” Dustin challenged. “Why is nothing being done?”
“Because there is nothing to find,” Hembry said calmly.
“Or they don’t know exactly where to look,” I surmised. I met the coach’s stare. “And neither do you?”
He looked like he was going to argue, but he shook his head. “No. I don’t.”
“So instead of speaking up, you’re leaving?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I went to a lot of effort to keep that quiet. What was the point?” he grumbled to himself.
“What do we do, Coach?” Dust asked. “Seriously, we know something shit is happening. People connected to us know. I’m not okay with pretending I know nothing when next time it could be me. Or Noah. Or Dante.”
Hembry snorted. “It’ll never be Spence.”
I felt the specific wrongness of that before I even thought about why.
Dustin glanced at me. “Why?”
Diana came back into the room, her smile fading as she picked up on the tension. “Do I want to know?” she asked tiredly, setting the IV bags down.
“No.”
She didn’t comment on the fact that all three of us answered her question or on the fact that Coach Hembry walked out of the room shortly after she entered. She set up the IVs in silence and had Dustin and me back out onto the training field in no time at all.
I felt better physically, but my heart felt heavier.
“Why not Dante?” Dustin asked as he watched Dante throw the ball down the training ground.
“Too risky, maybe?” I mumbled. “More than just this school will notice if he gets benched or whatever.”
Dustin’s hands were on his hips. “Fucking QBs always steal the glory.”
I sniggered at that. “Time to lift our profiles?”
He nodded slowly. “Yeah. Let’s make sure they know our names as much as they know QB10’s.”
I looked down at the turf and thought about it. “We’re not in competition with him,” I reminded Dustin softly.
“In this we are.” His voice was grim with truth.
“We need to stick together, but we also need to make sure we’re seen.
” He turned to me. “You did the right thing, asking Briar to handle your social media. I’m doing the same.
I’ll ask Hadley for help. Let’s not take it for granted.
Let’s make sure they remember who we are. On and off the field.”
“And Dante?”
Dustin licked his bottom teeth. “You heard, Hembry. The QB’s golden. Let’s worry about ourselves first.”
“Slater, you still sleeping?” Sutherland bellowed.
“No, Coach!” Dustin ran down the field and joined the offensive line.
I blew out a breath. Every day came with a new problem. So much for being relaxed.
Now we were pitting ourselves against Dante? This was worse than before.
Thank fuck I knew where to go to get a punching bag.