Sage laughs and tries to be quiet about it but fails. “Well, you’ve thankfully kept all your…partsin your pants–” Shegiggles.“—and I haven’t seen an ounce of anger coming fromyou. If you give me his number or email, I’ll tell him you were on your best behavior, and you can just go.”
I look up at her in surprise and expect another joking smile, but she seems sincere.
“And why would you do that?”
She shrugs before standing, hugging her iPad to her chest. I swear that thing is glued to her. “I don’t want you to have to suffer any more than you had in the last few days.” She tells me to have a good day before walking off, and I stand without hesitation to grab my things.
“Oh, I don’t think so.” Jordan snatches my helmet, and I try to grab it back, but he takes a step away from me.
“Jordan, don't start because I will actually punch you in the face. Give–”
“Hey, if I have to be here, so do you. Cheer the fuck up, buttercup.” He walks off with myhelmet, so I follow him. “Look, guys! Liam is joining us.”
“No, the hell–”
“Really?!” Sage whips around, and her green eyes land on mine. I study her for a beat, trying to figure out if her eyes are reallythatgreen or if they seem that way against her dark skin.
“No.”
Her smile drops, and I turn back to Jordan, but he goes on before I can. “Coach is asking us all to check in that you’re here.” He shrugs. “What if someone snitches?”
“You mean, what if you decided to be a dickhead and snitch.”
Jordan laughs, and when I take a step toward him, he takes several steps back, but it only pisses me off more. I pull in a deep breath, and he must notice I’m about to punch him because he turns serious.
“Okay,” He puts a hand up, stepping forward to surrender my helmet, and I snatch it back from him. “You seriously can’t leave, though.” He tells me Coach has been randomly FaceTiming myteammates to make sure I’m here, and I hate how much of an asshole Coach is.
All I did was sleep with his daughter and beat up her boyfriend, and now I’m being treated like a murderer in a maximum-security prison. I didn’t even know she had a damn boyfriend, andheswung at me. Coach’s daughter is a cheater, and Liam is the bad guy. I shake my head of my thoughts before returning to my usual seat.
After a few minutes, some girl starts crying, and I decide I’m leaving. I’m heading towards Sage to get to the exit when she whips around and bumps right into me.
“Oh!”
I wrap an arm around her waist and quickly catch her as she stumbles backward. “Those heels are going to get you killed.”
She takes a step back as she steadies herself. When she looks up at me, she rests her hand on her hip. “I’ll have you know I was awarded Best Walk in nine-inch heels.”
“Right.” I raise my brows, unamused.
“It’s true!”
“Right.” I try to walk past her, but someone else bumps into me, and I let out an annoyed breath. “Watch where you're going.”
“Sorry!” She wipes her tears, her makeup running down her face, and I feel my skin crawling as things clearly start to fall apart in here. I hate mess, and this is getting messy.
“I am so sorry again, babe…” Sage tries to reassure her, and she sounds like she really does feel bad about whatever she did to this girl. “They're not my rules, and if I can have it my way, I’d let you–”
“It’s okay.” The girl in tears rushes to reassure her, but she doesnotlook like it’s okay.
Sage tells her she doesn't have to leave, and she looks a bit better, but says she's going to get herself together in the bathroom.
Sage looks up to the ceiling and lets out an exasperated breath before turning back to me. “This is a mess.” She shakes her head, looking over at the group.
“Yeah, I can tell.”
A relieved smile touches her lips as she looks back over at me. “Thank you for that, Liam. You sure do know how to make a girl feel good.” She quickly shakes her head, and I bite my tongue in amusement at how flustered she suddenly looks. “That’s not what I meant.”
“What’s not what you meant?” I cock my head to the side, and she somehow looks more nervous. “Someone has a dirty mind.”
