Gimme Everything You Got - Iva-Marie Palmer Page 0,64

his eye. “Nah, I don’t mind helping.”

He beamed as I plucked out the money. “Thank you,” he said.

Worth it, I thought.

I ignored the team’s ruckus, enjoying memorizing the back of Bobby’s head. He had a small freckle where his neck and shoulder met, like his body had designated perfect spots for a person to kiss. I began to imagine a map of freckles, like the capitals on a map. A breathy sigh escaped my mouth, as if pushed out by the warmth flooding my body.

“Are you okay?” Bobby said without turning around.

“Uh, yes, fine, groaning at my homework,” I said. Dickens would stamp out any horny feelings, I figured, and I flipped through my book again, underlining random sentences for whatever paper I’d have to write. When the time came, I handed Bobby change for the second toll.

“So, you’re a junior, right?” Bobby said.

“Yeah, why?”

He cocked his head slightly so that his eye caught mine. “Have you thought at all about what you’ll do after you graduate?”

Working as your half-clothed assistant at Personal Best Training sounds good, I thought. “I’m not really sure yet,” I said.

I thought about the conversation with Joe about college and my mom’s question about where I saw myself in five years. Was it weird I didn’t have a plan? I had never thought so before, but maybe my visions of the future should feature fewer nude scenes and more, like, actual grown-up stuff?

“You should really think about playing soccer in college. There are a lot of newer teams at the college level and quite a few give scholarships right now.”

“Huh, I didn’t know that,” I said. “I’ll think about it. But I’m not sure I’m good enough.”

Bobby grinned. “You’re getting better every day.”

He turned back to the road, and I started to wonder if he’d meant what he said. Could I play in college? And did I really want to go to more school? I sort of figured I’d graduate and get a job first and then I’d take some classes if I needed them. When Joe and my mom had brought up college, I couldn’t imagine it, but now that Bobby said it, I thought, Why not me? My grades weren’t terrible, and in a lot of ways, it sounded better than a job like my mom’s.

“Susan, can you see what my directions say? I think we missed the exit.” Bobby’s voice roused me and I realized I’d been pondering the college thing so intensely, I hadn’t been paying attention.

I sat up in my seat, grabbing for the papers. “It’s exit sixteen A—did we pass it?”

“Damn,” Bobby said. “Yep.”

“I’m so sorry, I must have dozed off,” I lied.

He was guiding the bus down the next exit ramp, and he shook his head as if to say it was okay. “I know this area—I shouldn’t have given you all that responsibility,” he said. My heart plummeted.

He pulled into a Mobil station and stood up. “We overshot our exit just a little,” he said. “We need to fill up anyway, so stretch your legs and we’ll meet back on the bus in fifteen minutes.”

Arlene raced for the front of the bus, shouting, “I have to pee so bad.” A couple of the other girls beelined for the restroom with her while the rest of us went inside the gas station. I was starving, having missed out on Franchesa’s snacks, so I bought myself some chips. When I went to the counter to pay, Dawn and Marie were ahead of me, pooling some money as the clerk rang up two bottles of peach schnapps.

“What’s that for?” I said.

Marie cocked her head to one side like she was teaching a particularly clueless puppy how to pee outside. “To drink, silly.”

“You can’t buy that,” I said, checking out the window to make sure Bobby couldn’t see us from the gas pump.

“Marie and I are eighteen,” Dawn told me, hitching her gym bag up on her shoulder. It made a clinking sound, and I knew there must be more booze inside. “So in Wisconsin we can. A little room party might be fun. And everyone is on board.”

“Even Tina?” I said. The team must have been planning this while I was busy not really helping Bobby. “And Dana?”

“Tina said she’s in if you are,” Dawn said. “And Dana came around. The uptight ones fold so easy.”

I thought of Bobby’s contracts at the start of the season, and almost brought them up. But Marie and Dawn closed in on me, saying,