Savannah took one look at me and narrowed her eyes. “Hadley, you’re not going without me.”
I chewed the inside of my cheek. “I don’t have anything else to do,” I told her reasonably. “Plus, I don’t think I’m allowed in the stadium.” I saw her flat stare. “For real. I think Head Coach Dickhead told me I wasn’t allowed anywhere near it. Or his players.”
Savannah sniffed. “Well, you were under Dust last night, so you can’t just pick and choose to follow Coach Sutherland’s ridiculous demands when it suits you.”
“How do you know I wasn’t on top?” I asked her playfully.
Savannah laughed, her cheeks flushing. “I know why you’re attracted to each other. You’re both huge flirts.”
“I may flirt, he follows through.” I pinched her arm when she went to protest. “The very first night I met him, he kissed me before he said a word.” That wasn’t entirely true. “Okay, he said hey or something, then he kissed me, and then asked me if I wanted to leave with him.”
Savannah was frowning. “How did you get into that situation?”
I looked away a little guiltily. “I knew who he was, I wanted an in for the story, I followed him out back of the bar, and I guess I gave him the ‘come hither’ signal or something.”
“And he just kissed you?”
“Yes.” I nodded once. “The guy has moves.” After last night, I wasn’t objecting to them being used on me anymore.
“Huh...” She was lost in thought, staring across the room at a row of textbooks in glass displays. It made sense why no liquids were allowed in here. Kind of.
“What are you thinking?” I asked her, realizing her frown was about more than Slater’s ability to make a girl’s knees weak.
“What if Sterling also has moves?” She looked over at me. “He was a freshman. Tiffany wasn’t. Hotshot QB from your hometown, what if he was also getting offers from girls to hook up, and she wanted a taste?”
“And it went south?” I asked dubiously.
Savannah turned her chair around to face me more. “Look, we both see it. The sports guys get a lot of attention from girls. A lot.”
“Attention doesn’t mean they have the right to do whatever they want,” I protested.
“I know that. So do most of them, thankfully. But there are those who think being on the team means anything is available to you.” She looked back at her screen. “You see it everyother week in professional sports — allegations of misconduct, investigations of assault. Some men are pigs. The uniform makes them worse. There’s a reason most women pick the bear over the man in the woods, Hadley.”
I nodded slowly. “Shit, that’s really sad.” I gulped. “True, though.”
“What year was Tiffany?”
“Sophomore.”
“Only a year between them...” I flicked through my notes. “She would know him. In high school, there’s no way to escape the jocks, especially if the team’s decent.”
“Ugh.” Savannah threw her pen down. “This whole thing makes my heart hurt.”
I didn’t disagree, but it made me angry too. “We need to go to Chattanooga.”
“We do.” We exchanged a look. “Not on Saturday.”
“You want to go on Sunday?” I asked.
“I have a brunch thing with my dad on Sunday. Booster event.” She glanced at me. “There are legacies, boosters, donors, all that. I bet some of them remember him.”
“You can’t ask,” I told her, feeling a moment of panic. “You can’t let them know that we’re looking at this. If we raise suspicion, it could all blow up in our faces.”
“I’m not an idiot, Hadley.” Savannah opened her calendar. “We can go next Saturday.”
“How do you know I’m not busy?”
She gave me a flat stare. “Because you want to go now, and I can only imagine the level of willpower you must have to keep yourself in that seat.” She huffed in amusement. “Trust me, I know you’re dropping everything for this. So thanks for being patient.”