against someone who kept me on my toes as much as Quinn had. I already knew I was going to be too sore to function tomorrow, and Coach would be mad, but I didn’t care.
I had fun.
I forced the thought from my brain. Quinn wasn’t fun. I hated her. I hated that she backed out of our deal. There were thousands of players out there that could run a practice like that, there had to be.
When Quinn finally sat up, she folded her arms around her knees. I could see she was deep in thought, but she unexpectedly turned to look at me, and I didn’t even have the energy I needed to look away. Her eyes sparkled in the moonlight, and for a second, I almost felt like I could see that same excited energy that was barreling through me in her. It was gone as quickly as it had come, and Quinn crawled up onto her feet. I stayed on my back and watched as she walked, slowly, over to her backpack and jacket. She picked them up and didn’t look back as she walked off the field.
Once she was gone from sight, I turned my face up to look at the stars. I counted them until I lost count, and before I knew it, my eyes had drifted shut, and I was snatched from consciousness.
13
Quinn
I was in absolutely no condition to play football. It had been two days since I ran drills with Zeke, and the memories still clung to me as much as the soreness clung to my muscles. I imagined Zeke’s face, determined and passionate as we ran, and the way the sweat glistened down his well-chiseled body. I hated the way it gave my heart a slight flutter. God damn him for being so much of an ass. If he weren’t, we could actually get along.
I was grateful for a home game so that I could use as much time as possible to rest, but when I asked Alec for a ride to the field, he finally got suspicious.
“All right, out with it.” I wasn’t prepared to fight, but Alec pulled the keys out of the ignition, and my legs were too sore to even consider getting out and walking. “What did you do to yourself.”
“I’m fine. I’m just a little sore.”
“I know your schedule better than I know my own. You’ve been to work, you’ve been to regular practices, and your next game isn’t for another two hours. You’re doing better today, but yesterday, you could barely walk. You owe me answers, Quinn.” Alec crossed his arms. “We promised.”
I grumbled. The night that Alec showed up at my door after having been kicked out of his parents’ home, I reamed him for not telling me sooner that he was questioning his sexuality. I’d learned that night that he had gone on several sketchy rendezvous in the interest of experimenting. Any one of them could have resulted in his kidnapping or death, and no one would have known where he was. That night we made a promise to one another never to keep secrets between us that could or did hurt us.
“Remember how I bought those season tickets to the Vipers games?” I asked.
“Yeah?”
“Well, I wanted them so I could see the Vipers play up close. I wanted to take notes on the way semi-pro games go, and that’s obviously my greatest resource.”
Alec raised an eyebrow. “And you got there, and they jumped you?”
“No, you freak.” I cracked my neck and winced at the way it sent a rush of aches down my back. “Zeke noticed me there. We argued, he grabbed me, and I punched him.”
“Wait, what? You got into a fight with him?”
“No, he kept his hands to himself after I hit him,” I replied, “but then he invited me onto the field to run drills.”
Alec looked to the sky, calculating the words. “Wait…” He looked back at me. “I’m confused.”
“I think he was trying to teach me a lesson or something, but we ended up running drills for hours. Everything under the sun. End zone to end zone suicides, presses, and ended with tackles. Finally, we both just ended up starfish on the turf. Neither of us could move.” I looked at him and poked my bottom lip out. “I’m ouchies.”
“Yeah, you’re ouchies! What were you thinking? You have your first qualifier tonight!”
I crossed my arm. “I wasn’t thinking!”
It was frustrating. Normally, I was a very methodical person. I didn’t consider