“It’s all right,” I answered. I raised an eyebrow. “You worried about me?”
“You wish,” she snarked right back at me, but her tone was teasing.
I glanced at the other girls lined up on the bleachers, looking over me and the other guys on the team. They huddled together, whispering and giggling.
“You could join the other groupies,” I said to Nicole as I nodded my head toward the crowd.
“That’s okay,” she said. “The high school soap opera news of the day was not completely in my favor, you know.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, your overzealous behavior may have kept the guys at bay,” she said, “but the girls are a whole other story. Or are you planning on beating them up, too?”
“Do any of them need it?”
“For goodness’ sake, Thomas…”
“Just kidding,” I said with a smile and a half-grin.
“They all want you,” she said quietly, “and by default, none of them want anything to do with me now.”
“I told you I wouldn’t let anyone hurt you,” I reminded her. “I meant that. If any of them bother you, you let me know. It won’t happen again.”
Nicole looked into my eyes for a moment and seemed as though she was going to say something before the coach’s voice interrupted us.
“Malone! Would you mind getting into position?”
I ignored the coach and leaned against the fence a little harder.
“We’ll be done in about a half hour,” I said. “We can talk about it then, okay?”
“I guess,” she said. She glanced quickly over her shoulder to the group of girls, who were now watching us intently.
She turned toward me again with a defeated look on her face. I reached out and touched her cheek with the back of my knuckles—just skimming her skin quickly from her cheekbone to her chin and leaving a tiny, muddy mark on her face.
“Soon,” I said softly, and then I turned and jogged back to the goal.
Shakespeare might have wondered, “For why should others' false adulterate eyes give salutation to my sportive blood?” Somehow, she had to eventually understand that what I did was for her and her alone, and that I didn’t care what anyone else said about it.
Now, how do I convince Rumple of that?
CHAPTER 11
RELEGATED
The scrimmage had to be cut short because of a fight.
Not on the field—in the stands.
I had the ball in my hands and was just about to kick it downfield when I heard the yelling. I glanced up and saw Rumple and some of the other girls up on the bleachers, screaming at each other. I threw the ball out of bounds, ran up, and jumped over the fence, ignoring the coach’s words to get back on the field. I had to scale two rows of bleachers before I could reach Rumple.
She had gone all “lioness” on Crystal Lloyd.
Meow.
“Maybe he just prefers someone who isn’t quite so skanky!” Nicole was yelling as I got there. She had her fingers curled into claws, and her jaw was clenched. I was pretty sure there was a little sparkle of a tear in the corner of her eye, too. I didn’t know what to think of that.
“One reason and one reason only,” Crystal was saying as her head bobbed around on her neck. She jutted her chin out at Nicole and put her hands on her hips. “Is it still sore, or were you already used to it?”
“You little bitch!” Nicole suddenly screeched, and she started scrambling over the bench to get to where Crystal was sitting with Lisa and Heather.
Thankfully, I got to her first and wrapped my arm around her middle, effectively capturing her and pulling her back against my chest.
“Let me go!” she screamed. Claws out, she grabbed at my arm around her waist. I wound my other arm across her arms and chest, holding her tighter and keeping her from being able to use her arms effectively. I took a step backwards and over one of the benches, pulling her with me. “Dammit, Thomas! Let go of me right now!”
“Not just yet, kitten,” I told her.
“Is that about the right position?” Crystal yelled.
“Fucking bitch!” Nicole screamed back. “Jealous little skank!”
“Whoa there,” I said as I tried to calm her down a bit. I wasn’t the least bit successful, and she continued to struggle against me. I had to get her away from the other girls before she actually hurt me.
“Oh, she definitely let him,” I heard Crystal saying to the other girls.
“It does explain a bit, huh?” Lisa said with a giggle.
“Innocent little act of hers didn’t last long, did it?” Heather nodded in agreement.
Wasn’t she bitching at me yesterday for talking smack about Nicole?
“Klosav!” I yelled out. Mika jogged over and reached us just as I got Nicole out of the stands and back down on solid ground. She kept struggling and trying to punch my arm, but I held tight. “Go shut your girl up. Get Jeremy and Clint, too.”
“No problem.”
He’d been hanging all over Heather since she asked him to the dance, so I figured he could do a little something to help out. The rest of the team was just standing around watching and trying to figure out what they were supposed to do next. Coach Wagner was trying to get them to pull it together, but everyone was focused on what was going on in the stands.
“Dump her ass if she won’t play nice!” I called back up to Mika as I kept pulling my kicking, screaming kitten backwards away from the field. I didn’t wait for his answer because it was right about then that Nicole managed to land a kick to my shin, which nearly took me down.
That shit hurt!
“Holy shit, Nicole!”
“I told you to let me go!” she yelled with another snarl.
“We’ll figure that out later,” I told her. I placed her feet on the ground just long enough to get a better grip on her, spun her around, and tossed her over my shoulder. It made it a lot easier to hold her legs, which really were pretty damn strong.
I carried her across the field, into the parking lot, and to my car despite all her protests. Dropping her ass down into the passenger seat, I blocked her way so she couldn’t get back out. Eventually, she stopped screaming at me and started to calm down.
“You want to tell me what that was all about?”
“Just what I said before!” Nicole snapped.
“What did she say to you?”
“It doesn’t matter!” She pulled her legs up to her chest and covered her face with her arms. Her shoulders rose and fell as she took deep breaths. I was pretty sure she was trying to stop herself from crying.
“Obviously it does,” I replied. I crouched in front of her and touched the edge of her knee with my finger. She pushed my hand away.
“Take me home!” she finally yelled.
“I will,” I said, “but my keys are in my soccer bag, which is back at the field, so you’re going to have to wait a minute. Will you stay right here for two minutes while I go get my shit?”
Rumple huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, lioness turning back into a kitten. She still had her claws out, but at least she wasn’t screaming for blood anymore.
Meow.
I took my own deep breath. Her display was kind of turning me on, and I was pretty sure that was a bad idea right at that moment. I stood and placed my hands on the roof, leaning in close to her. She looked up at me, and I could see the tears in her eyes.
“I’ll take care of it,” I promised. “Let me take care of it, okay?”
“I’m not coming back to your practices.” She was adamant.
“I’m going to fix that, too,” I said. “I should have thought of it before, but that will be fixed before tomorrow. You’ll have someone else to sit with who won’t give you shit, and those bitches aren’t going to bother you again.”
“Are you going to play another round of locker stuffing?”
“No, I have other ideas, though.”
“Like what?”
?
??I’ll tell you on the way home,” I told her, “as long as you tell me what Crystal said to get you so fired up.”
Nicole promised to stay in the car while I went back to the field to grab my soccer bag and my practice jersey from the ground. I looked up in the stands and was glad to see exactly whom I wanted to talk to at the moment. But first, a quick call.
“Hey, Malone.”
“Everything you can find on Harry Lloyd in the next five minutes. Call me back.”
“Will do.”
I hung up and stared at my phone for a minute as I collected myself. I tapped the app store, found a set of ringtones that sounded like meowing kittens, and set my phone to use them. I tested it out, snickered to myself, and then took a few leaping steps up into the bleachers.
The scrimmage was obviously over, and everyone was either milling around the field with Gatorade bottles in their hands or had moved off to the bleachers. Mika and Jeremy had Heather and Lisa off to one side, and Crystal was standing near them with her hands on her hips. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I wasn’t looking for them right now anyway.
“Hey, Ben!”
He looked over at me with his eyes narrowed a little. Ben was a midfielder, and though there was nothing flashy about him, he was a decent player. He was a quiet guy with a quiet, shy girlfriend. She was in the bleachers with him, silently reading a book while he rehydrated.
“Hey, Thomas,” he said with his usual, soft tone.
“I need a favor.”
Just like Shakespeare wrote in The Merchant of Venice, I was going to have all of this fixed “in the twinkling of an eye.” I’d promised Rumple everything was going to work out, and I intended to keep that promise. I just needed a little assistance from my teammates. I hoped this would get Nicole to trust me—this was my school, after all, and I was in charge. I only needed to secure some backup.
“Ben, you and Maria are about to get some steady company.”
My phone rang on my way back to the parking lot, making little kitten sounds that were realistic enough people were looking at my soccer bag like it had a litter in it. I snickered again, dropped my soccer bag to the ground, and fished the phone out.
“What do you have on Lloyd?”
“A couple things. One, he’s trying to get a school loan.”
Ah, yes…I had a pretty good idea who would need such a loan, too.
“That’s a good one.”
“He’s also on heart medication—sounds like he had a mild heart attack last winter.”
“Okay—anything else?”
“That’s all I got for now. I’ll see what else I can find.”
“Good deal.”
I hung up and turned back around, searching. No time like the present.
“Hey, Crystal!” I yelled. She was walking back toward the school with Heather and Lisa. Mika and Jeremy were still near the stands, watching them walk away. “Get over here!”
She turned her head toward the other girls, who snickered, then tossed her hair over her shoulder and walked toward me.
“Ready to see some reason, Thomas?” she said with a sly little smile.
“Funny,” I replied with a hint of sarcasm, “I was going to ask you the same thing.”
“It’s not my fault if she can’t handle the truth.” The snarky little bitch bobbed her head at me as she raised her eyebrows, challenging.
She was going to regret all of this.
“Come over here,” I said softly, and I took her arm and led her over to the side of the building and out of sight of anyone else wandering around. I leaned my head close to her and spoke sternly. “Let’s get something perfectly straight between us, and I am by no means talking about my cock. You aren’t coming near that.”
She snorted, and I gripped her arm a little harder.
“Ow!”
“Shut up.”
“What the fuck, Thomas?” she snapped at me. “Are you going to shove me in a locker, too?”
“No, I have much more interesting plans for you,” I informed her.
“You aren’t going to hit me,” she said with conviction. She narrowed her eyes at me. “You can’t do anything to me!”
I leaned into her, pushing her body back against the brick building. I tilted my head and placed my mouth right up to her cheek.
“You know what would be a damn shame?” I purred against the edge of her ear. “If your dad’s credit report ended up with a bankruptcy on it—and some really bad credit card debt to boot. I bet he’d have a hard time trying to pay for your college then, wouldn’t he?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Crystal pushed against the bricks, twisting her body and trying to get a little distance, but I wasn’t going to have any of that. She glared at me.
“I mean with one phone call and about ten minutes, I can fuck up your dad’s credit score so bad, he’ll never get the loan he wants. Never. It won’t ever go away, because even if he gets it cleared up as a mistake, which wouldn’t be until you’re twenty, I’ll just fuck it up again. You hear me? That little ‘get out of the small town’ dream of yours would be dead on arrival.”
Her face went a little pale.
“Not to mention how much it would suck if the pharmacist screwed up his heart pills.”
“What the hell?” she said in a breathless whisper.
“Don’t fuck with me, Lloyd,” I warned. “Consider yourself relegated – you no longer play in this league. If you try, you’ll lose, big time. And by don’t fuck with me, I mean don’t fuck with my girl. You stay the hell away from her because if she hears one more thing from your mouth—directly or indirectly—I’ll fucking destroy your family. Got it?”
Her body tensed, and she nodded. I released her arm and gave her a little push back toward the school entrance.
“Get the fuck away from me!” My nostrils flared as I glared at her.
She didn’t need to be told twice. I retrieved my bag and continued on my way.
Nicole had calmed down a little by the time I got back to the car. She was sitting with her feet up on the seat again, and I tried not to cringe. I remembered what her locker looked like and decided I was going to have to do something about it. I settled into the driver’s seat and turned the car on before I looked toward her.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Not really,” she replied. She stared out the window.
“What did she say?”
“I really don’t want to repeat it.”
“You said you would,” I reminded her.
“I didn’t agree to anything,” she snapped as she turned her head to look at me. “Besides, even your own conditions included you telling me what you were going to do. You go first.”
“Fine,” I said, grateful for the out. “Forget it, then. She won’t say anything else to you.”
I backed up and pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street. I still kept my speed at twenty-four miles per hour, crawling along and enjoying just being in the car with her. Nicole leaned her head back against the seat and sighed.
“You know, it’s bad enough just coming to a new school during your senior year,” she said. “Now I have to deal with all this shit, too? Seriously, Thomas—I don’t know if I can handle all of this.”
She held her hands over her face again, which I really, really hated. Aside from not being able to see her face—which I quite liked to look at—she was obviously upset, and I didn’t know what to do about it. She had taken care of me when I was a mess, but I didn’t know how to return the favor. All I could cook was mac and cheese. So I did the only thing I could think of, which was to try to convince her I would take care of it without actually giving her any details. I didn’t think she would care for the details.
“I’m going to work something out, okay?” I said, trying to reassure her. “Please, just let me work it out. It’s going to be okay, and you don’t have to worry about it. Tomorrow will be a thousand times better. I just didn’t know what to expect
today, and I didn’t prepare so well. I’m fixing that now.”
At least she didn’t argue.
Nicole stayed silent the rest of the way to her house. I pulled up into her driveway and had a nice mental debate about whether or not I should turn off the car and walk her to her door, plan to stay awhile, or just leave her alone. I didn’t want to leave her, but I also hadn’t checked Dad’s schedule for this week.
For the chance to spend more time with her, I was willing to risk Dad’s beating me home. I turned off the car and came around to her side, but she had already opened the door and was starting to get out.
“I thought I was going to open your door for you,” I reminded her.
“We’re not at school, Thomas,” Nicole said. “There isn’t any reason to pretend here.”
I nodded, but I didn’t like it. I wanted to open her door for her even if there wasn’t anyone looking. I wanted to take care of her. I came up with an excuse instead.
“It’s good to stay in practice,” I said, hoping she would believe me. I had to move quickly to follow her up to the front door. “You know, so we don’t forget when there are other people around? This won’t work if it’s not convincing.”
“I think everyone is convinced,” Nicole said dryly.
“For now,” I said, but my mind was starting to spin a little bit with the other sorts of things people were going to expect. I mean, I would expect to end up with at least the threat of detention for PDA or something, not an actual detention—which no teacher in his or her right mind would give me—but at least the warning. The whole idea reminded me that I never did hear what Crystal’s exact transgression was.
“What did she say to you?” I asked.
Nicole didn’t respond for some time and then finally let out a long sigh.
“Are you going to tell me what you said to her?” Nicole asked.
“That conversation is not on my bucket list,” I admitted.
At least that got a bit of a snicker out of her.
“Let’s just leave it like that, okay?” she suggested.
“If you want,” I replied. I wasn’t really worried about it; I could always find out from someone else.
My pocket meowed.