On the Sideline (BSU Football #3) - J.B. Salsbury Page 0,21
a black ragtop pulls up to the house and Riley takes off jogging to the car. The windows are tinted so I can’t see shit. I lean to try and spot who’s driving and catch a glimpse of curly brown hair when Riley slips into the passenger's seat yelling, “I’ll text you!”
The car sits idle for a few seconds before I hear the gears shift and it rolls away.
I got the Riley situation handled, and now I need to confront my issues with Bex.
Bex
“Took you long enough,” Riley says when she gets into my car. “Did you stop for food or something?”
I stare at Loren through the glass feeling like he’s staring right back at me, which is impossible through the dark tint. He looks just as good as he did an hour ago when he picked up Riley. How does a man make a t-shirt and jeans look so edible? He’s like a Hollister model—
“Why are we sitting here? Drive!” She sinks down in her seat as if she’s afraid he’ll come after her.
Reluctantly, I pull away. “You’re lucky I had a craving for a grape Slurpee or you would’ve been waiting a lot longer.” After Loren and Riley left the house I felt like I was going to jump out of my skin imaging them together. Him holding open her door, putting his hand to her lower back while they walked through a room, cuddled up on the couch, and…more. I went for a drive and ended up at the gas station four blocks from Loren’s house when I got the 911 text from Riley saying she needed me to pick her up NOW. “What the hell happened?”
“Ugh, it was so bad. He’s so hot, like so hot, but so gross.” She makes a gagging noise.
“Gross how?” I can’t imagine anything about Loren being gross. He’s always clean and smells like soap, his house is always tidy, he drives a decent car, all the things Riley likes in her dates.
“He ordered takeout pasta for dinner and I swear it had twenty cloves of garlic in it—pay attention! You almost ran us off the road!”
Garlic? I told him she hated garlic.
“And he sweats! Oh my God, he sweats for, like, no reason and touched my arm!” She squirts a healthy dose of hand sanitizer onto her forearm and rubs it in. “How did I not see these things about him before? Yuck!”
Sweat. I mentioned her disgust for bodily fluids.
A slow smile spreads my lips.
Loren sabotaged his date on purpose!
But why?
“So that’s it? You’re not going to give him a second chance?” Please say no, please say no.
She uses her phone camera like a mirror, checking her reflection, and shivers. “I’m too grossed out to think about that now. He’s hot and all, and his body, oh my god, but ew. Just ew.”
“Yeah…ew.” I suck back my grape Slurpee and smile.
Chapter Seven
Bex
When we return to the house the sisters surround Riley like a pack of lions on a fresh kill. My heart breaks a little for Loren as he’s about to get ripped apart and passed around the Greek gossip mill. It might seem harmless, but the mill has the potential to ruin a person’s reputation for their entire college experience. Possibly beyond.
Brit Miller crapped his pants on a date with an Eta Pi and he ended up having to date outside the school because no girl would touch him after that.
Todd Brown stole ten dollars from an Eta Pi’s purse on a date, he couldn’t handle the backlash and dropped out of school. I hear he’s now working at a Dairy Queen in Apple Valley.
And poor Shawn Lewis asked his Eta Pi girlfriend to stick her finger in his butt while they were making out. He never showed up to school again and deleted all his social media. Rumor has it he moved to Australia.
Loren could be next, depending on how Riley plays it. If she wants to see him again, she’ll candy coat the story while still making sure to reveal herself as the victim. If she doesn’t want to see him again, well… Australia.
I can’t stomach either so I make my way to my room and flop on the bed in the dark. I told him no garlic and sweat, and he did it anyway. Why would he do that? If he didn’t want Riley, why even invite her over?
With more questions than answers, I decide a hot shower and some melatonin gummies are in order. Wet