Page 86 of Trick Play
We collectively flinch, silent under the force of his anger.
He paces in front of us, his arms crossed. When he finally speaks again, his voice is quiet, but no less furious. “Kilpatrick, I understand you were the leader of this little altercation?” He pauses, but no one answers, which is close enough to agreement for Coach. “You know the rules on fighting.”
“It was me,” I jump in, drawing surprised glares from the guys next to me, Kilpatrick most of all. But I ignore them, focusing on Coach.
He stops his pacing to stare at me, his anger focused enough that it feels like it might burn a hole right through my skull.
“He was talking shit about my girlfriend,” I say by way of explanation. Kilpatrick grunts next to me.
Coach crosses his arms and stares me down, waiting for me to say more or to break under the weight of his glare, I guess. When I don’t, he sighs and points between Kilpatrick and me. “This the same girlfriend you two were shouting about a few weeks ago?”
I jerk my chin in a nod. Coach heard all that? Or did he just hear about it? Who’s the rat who keeps telling Coach about shit like this?
Coach stares at me another long moment, though his anger seems to be dissipating. Some. “I guess I should be grateful I don’t have to bench my starting quarterback,” he grumbles, then tips his head back to stare at the sky. “But suspending my backup for our most important game isn’t exactly a great feeling either.”
Shaking his head, he gestures at the hotel entrance. “Go inside. If I hear about any of you even stepping a toe outside of your rooms before it’s time to leave tomorrow, you’ll sit out the game, even if we have to forfeit, and the start of next season will be spent running sprints until you puke the first few weeks. Are we clear?” When no one moves or responds, Coach lifts his eyebrows. “Are we clear?” he repeats more loudly and more slowly.
“Yessir,” we all grumble, filing into the hotel and heading straight for the elevators.
Kilpatrick hangs back with Simon and me, catching me before I follow Simon into our room. “Hey. McAdam.”
I turn, holding the door open with one hand. “Yeah?”
He looks up and down the hall like he’s uncomfortable talking to me like this. “Why’d you do that?” he finally asks.
“Do what? Punch that guy in the face? Same reason you did, I imagine.”
He blows out a breath and shakes his head. “Well, that too, but that’s not what I meant.” He looks me up and down. “She told you? What happened last spring?”
I nod.
“All of it?” he clarifies.
I nod again, and he rocks back on his heels, looking down and shaking his head. “Huh. I didn’t realize you guys had gotten that close. It’s not something she talks about. Ever.” He lifts his eyes to mine again. “But why take the fall? You would’ve started. Isn’t that what you were going for all along?”
Shrugging, I’m not sure how to answer that question. Because, yeah, it is. “I wanted to earn the spot,” I say at length. “Not because you were suspended for fighting with a douchebag who deserved far worse than the couple of punches we got in. And if anyone did to my sister what he did to yours? I don’t know if I could’ve waited for him to shove me first. I might’ve just started pounding his face in once I realized he was in front of me.” I shrug again. “I would’ve started the fight if you hadn’t been blocking my way like usual.” He doesn’t crack a smile at my lame attempt at a joke. “Might as well take credit for it, right?”
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Piper
Ellie leans over as the football teams take the field. “I have to confess. I don’t really like football all that much.”
I look over at her, surprised, and she shrugs, a little grin on her face. “I know, right? It’s a sacrilege.” She reaches behind her and tugs on her ponytail, looking at the sea of people around us, everyone settling in and focusing on the field where they’re getting ready to do the coin toss. She leans on her arm rest closer to me. “Honestly? It’s been kind of a relief that most of the games since Simon and I officially got together were away games. That way I wasn’t expected to go. Autumn would come with me to the home games, which made them not so bad.” She squints at me. “You’re a fan, though, aren’t you? Didn’t I hear someone say you used to go watch practices for fun?”
Chuckling to cover my flare of embarrassment, I nod. “Yeah. I’m a fan. And yeah. I did.” I shrug. “I had a hard time making friends at first”—because I made no effort to make friends, but we won’t get into that—“and it was something to do other than studying. Plus, I’d grab dinner with Gray and his friends after, so it wasn’t as pathetic as it sounds.”
“I don’t think it sounds pathetic,” Ellie says lightly. “You and your brother are pretty close, huh?”
At my nod, she sighs wistfully, then wrinkles her nose. “Cal and I were close when we were little, but that all changed once he got to high school. Then I became, like, the worst human to walk the planet. Having me at the same school was soawfulif you asked him. Sadly for him, our parents are Marycliff alums and they’d always said they’d cover college if we went there.” She spreads her hands, palms up. “So here we are at the same school again.” She shakes her head in mock sympathy. “Poor Cal.”
I can’t help laughing. She hasn’t talked much about her brother with me—a fact I appreciate for obvious reasons—but this isn’t so much about him specifically as it is contrasting their relationship with mine and Gray’s. “You guys seem to get along better now, though. You come to all the football stuff and everything. And I mean, you’re here watching the game.”
She shrugs. “Yeah. Because you invited me to stay with you if I could fund my ticket. And because of Simon. He’s the only reason Cal’skindaokay with me being around. He wasn’t given much of a choice in the matter.” She tilts her head back and forth. “And I mean, to be fair, he did help smooth things over with Simon and me when we’d broken up. If not for Cal, I don’t know that Simon and I would be together at all. So I guess I have to give him credit for that.”
“Wait, what? I haven’t heard this story. I thought he wasn’t happy about you dating his friend. Isn’t that what you said before?”
She laughs, filling me in on the details about her secret relationship with Simon and how the stress of it staying a secret caused problems serious enough that Simon broke up with her. I get the feeling there area lotof details she’s glossing over, but I don’t push, because while I am interested, the game is starting. “Anyway,” she says quickly, “when the truth came out, Cal blamed himself for our breakup and everyone’s unhappiness and decided it was his job to fix it.”
