On The Rebound (Steinbeck U #1) - L.A. Cotton Page 0,34

I hadn’t seen him yet as he was late getting in.

I missed him so much. It had only been a few days, but it felt like lightyears. Maybe I was being slightly oversensitive, but after our amazing night together at Homecoming, it felt like there was an ocean between us.

He was sick, I knew that. But it didn’t stop the little seed of doubt in my chest taking root.

“Relax,” Madison nudged me as if she sensed my irrational thoughts. “He’ll be here.”

“I know.” I smiled, discreetly checking my cell.

Nothing.

It wasn’t like Zach to go more than a few hours without texting me. But after I’d stopped by his house last night to see if he was okay, I’d only had one message, saying he’d see me today.

He was being cagey. Or maybe he was just going to surprise me. That sounded more like it. He’d probably planned some grand gesture, maybe a repeat of Friday night. My stomach fluttered, remembering how he’d felt pressed down on me, his body moving against mine. It had been the single best night of my life.

“Earth to Calli.” Madison clicked her fingers. “They’re coming out.”

She was too excited for my liking, but I knew it had to do less about the team and more to do with one of their best players, Finn Hopple. She insisted they were just friends, but I’d noticed the way she watched him a little too closely. Finn was okay as far as basketball players went but I didn’t know what I would do if they got together.

You have Zach, silly.

“Eek, there he is.” She laced her arm through mine, barely containing her excitement.

“Give it up for our Bay View Vipers.” Principal Garth clapped, sending the gym into a frenzy as kids whooped and hollered.

“Ugh,” I grumbled, barely paying attention. Until a trickle of awareness ran down my spine. My eyes searched the gym, almost bugging when I spotted Zach… in a Vipers jersey.

My expression fell, confusion clouding my thoughts.

“Madi,” I breathed, my nails curling into her arm. “What is happening right now?”

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” she whispered, her eyes drilling into the side of my face. But I couldn’t tear my eyes off Zach. The boy I loved. Standing there next to Finn and the other players, as if he were one of them.

Zach hated basketball, almost as much as I did.

It was a joke surely. Some kind of elaborate joke. But as I waited for the punchline, Principal Garth ushered the gym into silence, a ripple of excitement crackling around us.

Not me though.

My skin vibrated for a different reason.

This could not be happening. I wasn’t watching Principal Garth beckon Zach closer. I wasn’t witnessing my boyfriend step up to the mic and run his hand through his hair, as cool as a cucumber.

There was just no way.

Except, there was.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” I said, clutching my stomach.

“We don’t know what’s going on yet.” Madison squeezed my arm in reassurance, but it did nothing to unravel the knot in my stomach.

Blood roared between my ears as Principal Garth began to talk. I could see his lips moving but I couldn’t hear him over the crash of my heart against my ribcage. I didn’t need to though. I knew what was happening… I’d known it the second I saw Zach standing there in a Vipers jersey.

He was on the team.

But he wasn’t just on the team; he was the captain.

The gym went crazy, stamping their feet and screaming Zach’s name. Messiah. Messiah. Messiah. While I sat there, willing him to look at me, willing for him to give me a sign—any sign—that this wasn’t real. That it was all some horrible nightmare that I’d wake up from any second. Because Zach hated basketball… we had a club and everything.

But then his eyes found mine and my breath caught. The boy staring back at me wasn’t my Zach at all.

He was someone else entirely…

“So something happened between Homecoming and the pep rally?”

“This isn’t an episode of True Crimes, Josie. I’m not expecting you to solve the mystery of my epic heartbreak at the hands of Zachary Messiah.”

“But something must have changed or happened. You don’t just wake up one day and decide you don’t love someone anymore.”

I didn’t think so either, but Zach had stood up there in front of our entire school and accepted the position of team captain. And no one questioned it, because he was Declan Messiah’s little brother. Basketball was in his blood,