“Why?”
Her lips tightened. “You’ll see.”
The music changed to a trumpeting fanfare, and the CPA Warriors ran out onto the field in their black and gold uniforms, waving at all their adoring fans.
I caught sight of Jax and grimaced. Erin made a face too. “So… guess who the Warriors QB is?” she said in a low voice, nudging me with her elbow.
I let out a groan. “It’s Jax, isn’t it?”
“Yup.”
“Of course it is,” I said, wrinkling my nose. “What a cliché.”
Jax looked up from the field and turned his head toward our seats, as if he’d sensed us talking about him. When his steely gaze met mine, my breathing stopped. Even though he was at least twenty yards away, I couldn’t miss the naked hatred burning in his eyes.
I still had no idea what I’d done to make him despise me so much. He’d actually been vaguely civil to me on the night of Nate’s party, but he’d gone back to his usual behavior the next morning. A few days after that, it was like a switch flipped, and he started treating me worse than ever.
Maybe it was the accidental kiss. Maybe he’d been stewing over it for all those days, and it finally boiled up to a point where he couldn’t keep the regret and anger at himself inside anymore. I was trying my best not to think about that incident, though. It was a mistake, and it was never going to happen again.
“Did you ever find out how he got into your iCloud?” Erin asked, looking at Jax. He’d stopped staring at me now, and he was parading around with his teammates while someone filmed them on their phone.
I shrugged. “No idea. But I’m guessing he took my phone while I was asleep, put it in my hand, and used the Touch ID to break into it.”
“Like people do on movies with corpses when they want to get on their phones?”
I nodded grimly. “Yup. I bet he wishes I was a corpse, too.”
Erin’s nose wrinkled. “What a fucking creep. I can’t believe he touched you while you were asleep.”
“Yeah, it’s fucked up. But I’m actually more pissed about the video. It was theonething I had over him.”
She raised her brows. “I really don’t mean to sound all victim-blamey, but you shouldn’t have told him you had it.”
“I know.” My shoulders slumped. “I should’ve just sent it anonymously to the school administration. Or straight to the colleges he’s applying to.”
“Yeah.” Erin sighed. “Oh, well. I’m sure we can come up with something else to hold over his head if he wants to keep being an asshole.”
She looked like she was about to say something else, she was interrupted by George’s arrival. He was holding a cardboard container with three steaming takeout cups. “Hi, girls. Sorry I’m late!” he said.
“It’s okay, Mr. Kingsley. The game isn’t starting for a while yet,” Erin said.
“Please, Erin. You’ve known me long enough to call me George,” he replied. He lifted the cardboard carrier. “I brought some hot chocolate.”
I let out a tiny squeal of excitement. “Thank you!” I said, taking one of the drinks. “Does it ha—”
He cut me off. “Yes, Kinsey, there’s marshmallows in them,” he said with a wink. “I know that’s your favorite.”
I grinned. “You’re the best.”
George had recently discovered that hot chocolate was basically the key to my heart. He’d started making one for me and Mom every night before bed, and he always put in the effort to make it perfectly, with real Belgian chocolate and full-cream milk.
He sat next to me and slung an arm around my shoulder. “How are you doing, Kinsey?” he said softly. “You’ve been looking a bit down lately.”
I took a sip of hot chocolate and set my eyes forward. “I’m fine,” I said, not wanting to burden George with my issues. He’d already done so much for me.
Down on the field, Jax looked up and locked eyes with me again. When he noticed George’s arm around me, his handsome face twisted into the most murderous glare I’d ever seen. He clearly hated how close I’d grown to his dad in such a short period of time, and he never missed a chance to put that hatred on display.
I broke eye contact and looked over at the Warriors mascot instead. He was doing a silly twerking dance for all the fans.