Good, because if they were watching me, that meant they wereworried. And worry always meant one thing:there was something worth finding.
A slow thrill curled in my chest — dark, electric,hungry. I’d been told already to let it go. To stop digging. To swallow what I’d found and stay quiet.
But I didn’t survive the dean’s watch list by learning how to behave. I survived by learning how to wait, how to watch, and how to choose exactly where to sink the blade.
“Game on, boys,” I murmured, sliding my strap over my shoulder as my confidence slid back into place like a loaded chamber.
I caught the linebacker’s eye on my way out — just a flicker, nothing more — but it hit like contact nonetheless.
He smirked.
I smiled wider.Notsweet or polite.Predatory.
“Game.On.”
Chapter 4
Dustin
“And that was it?”
I watched Noah and Dante as they told me what happened at the bar after Naya and I had left. Hadley had made eye contact once and then left. She hadn’t tried to approach Noah, whom she’d kind of spoken to earlier when she asked about the program.
She’d just finished her drink, picked up her bag, and left.
I dropped my bag, peeled off my hoodie, and forced my shoulders loose. Everything felt tight. Like I’d slept half tensed. I knew why, I was just refusing to think about it.
“Then that’s what we want, right?” I switched my attention to Dante. He nodded, but he had that look in his eye. The look that said he was analyzing facts. The look that said he was going to throw a Hail Mary, but really, he was going to pass the ball to his running back. Butreally, he was going to run the ball himself.
“We’ll wait,” he finally said.
The ‘for now’ wasn’t spoken out loud, but I heard it anyway.
The three of us walked out to the training field, saying ‘hi’ to a few of the guys who were already there, stretching like they had something to prove. Maybe they did. We’d all seen the game film.
Dante had already been here for an hour; I knew his schedule as well as I knew my own. Noah had been watching film as he got ready for training this morning when I left. I could hear his iPad through the wall of our room. I’d already run laps in the athletic facility. All three of us were already warmed up like professionals.
Noah mumbled a goodbye and jogged off toward the defensive line, where the guys were already lining up behind the blocking sleds. The heavy steel rigs sat anchored in the turf, padded fronts braced and waiting — the kind of equipment built to make you question your life choices on a cold March morning. In a minute, they’d be driving them downfield, shoulders low, legs burning, digging in as if the whole damn season depended on it.
Even though we were in the offseason, they still needed to train like we weren’t. Spring training started in less than ten days, and we were not preparing for the next game. We were making sure we were on the team for the next game.
Defensive linemen only had one gospel: get to the quarterback first — theirs or ours. All that mattered was to break the play. Break the rhythm. Break the game.
Even from here, I heard the thump as Noah’s shoulder hit the pad — and while I understood why he hit the sled like it had personally insulted his mother, I still flinched at the phantom pain of the impact.
Dante was silent beside me, and the ball I hadn’t seen him pick up was being turned over in his hands. “Naya okay?”
“Yeah, she needed food. Spent her trip money on a concert ticket for one of her emo bands she adores.” I shook my head. “Mom gave her tough love and didn’t give her any money — a teachable moment, right?” I shook my head as I looked over at him with a small smile. “But she also sends her to her big brother, who she knows will make sure she eats and has cash.”
Dante grunted. “The burden of having a sister,” he murmured.
“Yeah.” We shared a look, and the ground beneath us felt a little firmer.
“You good?” he asked.
“Always am.”
I knew he wasn’t convinced, so I decided not to justify myself. Let him think what he wanted. Some conversations aren’t worth the energy. When Dante fixated on something, you could spend twenty minutes pushing back, or you could let him think what he wanted and get on with your day.