Chapter 35Zeke
“The first game of the season is against Colleyville Academy,” Linc says after taking a long pull on what I think is his fourth beer. As he’s speaking to me, I find his focus through the flames on one of the cheerleaders. It seems neither one of us can really focus on our little group. “They have a good team, but we’re still going to kick their asses.”
Hoots and hollers of agreement sprout up around me, but I can’t focus on any of them because Frankie is on the other side of the fire sipping a Dr. Pepper with the same friends she sits with at lunch.
God, the first time I pressed my lips to that perfect mouth of hers, she tasted like Dr. Pepper. My tongue sneaks out, running over my bottom lip at the memory.
“I think we have a good chance against Acker High if this guy,” Linc slaps my back so hard I nearly lose the grip on the beer I’ve been nursing since I showed up, “plays half as good during a game as he has been during practice.”
I didn’t want to join the football team. There are so many things that have happened, making me different from the last time I stepped foot on a football field, but then I mentioned it to Mom during a phone call after my first couple of days here, and she seemed excited that I’d be able to play. So I joined. I don’t want her to worry about me. She has enough things to stress over.
Being around these guys has been slowly driving me crazy. Just like right now with their conversations about football and next week’s party, they really have nothing of substance to say. They’re all superficial, exactly how I accused Frankie of being when she first showed up on the ranch, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Linc leans in and speaks with one of his friends. After Linc is done whispering, Graham nods his head before leaving the group, crossing the field in the girls’ direction.
“What has your attention?” Bronwyn asks as she turns to look in the direction I’ve been staring the last couple of minutes. “Oh. Her?”
I don’t say a word. I just bring the beer to my lips and take a sip.
“I bet it must suck having to stay with her. It wouldn’t surprise me if she didn’t try to sneak in your room at night.”
Man, do I wish she would.
“She’s just gross and—”
“Shut up, Bronwyn.” Her mouth snaps closed as I take a step away from her and glare down into her eyes. “Don’t say another word about that girl to me.”
Her eyes dart back and forth between mine, and I don’t know what she’s looking for but a slow grin spreads across her over-painted face as she lifts her hand to my cheek. “Yeah. I guess you’re right. You must not want to talk about her since you’re forced to be around her all the time.”
I don’t offer up an argument. I have hardly seen Frankie at home. I mostly stare at her in homeroom, Algebra, and during lunch. Those three times, five days a week are about all I see of her. She stays to herself when she’s home to the point that I have to wonder if she ever eats.
Less than an hour passes before Frankie gets up and walks back toward the area everyone is parked in. The guy I’ve been told is named Dalton and Frankie’s best friend Piper follow behind her. Frankie doesn’t look back in my direction before she climbs inside of the truck, but I imagine her eyes on me as she hides behind the dark-tinted windows.
She wasn’t supposed to be here tonight. I heard her and her friends talking upstairs, and she repeatedly told them she wasn’t going. I’d like to think she was jealous of watching me walk out of the house with Bronwyn, and that’s why she showed up, but I only caught her eyes on me once tonight. It seems she doesn’t care who I hang out with, and that makes being around this group of people that much harder.
“I’m going to head out,” I tell the guys when there’s a break in the conversation.
“Oh, yay,” Bronwyn says with a wide smile. “I’ll go with you.”
“No,” I snap. “You stay and have fun with your friends.”
I walk away before she can argue. Not wanting to be alone with her was why I insisted she drive herself when we got outside of the house earlier. I may be around her for show, but I’m not honestly going to spend a second alone with the girl. She’s fast, faster than any of the girls back home, and I’m not getting myself caught up in any sort of situation with her.