“You could’ve gotten in a lot of shit for what you did,” I said.
Again, he shrugged, like grappling with trouble had long been a natural part of life.
“I guess nothing was going to stop you from doing it.”
“No way, bro. I played the game that way in high school, and that’s how I’m going to play in college. I told you I take no prisoners.”
“You’d make a better enforcer than team captain.”
He cocked an eyebrow at me as if to say,nice try.
“What about Coach Hardison? Isn’t he going to be pissed at you for getting thrown out?”
He nodded, but not in agreement. It was one of those nods that acknowledged a dicey situation and said he understood the consequences.
“Coach Hardison and I have already had words.”
“And?”
“And he reminded me that I’m on thin ice as it is.”
“No pun intended.”
“Yeah.” A tiny laugh spilled out of his mouth, and I realized it was the first light moment we’d shared together. “He reminded me that I could’ve lost my scholarship over the Mister Goodbar incident and that getting thrown out of games for fighting before the season starts doesn’t help my cause. Oh, and he said he can’t go to bat for me forever.”
“Definitely not.”
“But that’s not what I really wanted to talk about.”
“It isn’t?”
“Hell no.”
“Okay, then what do you want to talk about?”
“The twenty bucks you owe me.”
“I don’t owe you squat, dude. The bet we made was that I could score more goals in that game than you. And I did.”
“So the hell what? I definitely would’ve scored more than you if I hadn’t been thrown out of the game.”
He pointed to himself like he had in the locker room when declaring his supremacy over the team captain’s locker. This argument was equally stupid, and I already felt trapped. Besides, if I said nothing, he would win, and I couldn’t allow that.
“Hey, I wasknockedout of the game,” I said. “I’m sure I would’ve scored plenty more if it weren’t for that goon Trevor Trombley.”
Kayden smiled, shaking his head, like I could make all the excuses in the world. I didn’t care about that. Want to know what Ididcare about?
His dimples.
That’s right. Kayden didn’t smile nearly enough, but when he did, the most insane set of dimples I’d ever seen appeared. Maybe it seemed insane because I’d never thought that way about a guy before. Any other time, I would’ve turned away, desperate to deny everything. Now, I wanted to enjoy the moment.
Okay, the cat was out of the bag. I found looking a little too long at Kayden sort of fun but equally scary. A guilty pleasure. Had he noticed me looking at him? Did he know what I was doing, or had he dismissed it? I drew a deep breath to soothe my nerves, wanting to steal another look but hesitated.
“Look,” I said, “neither of us could’ve won that bet because neither of us could’ve predicted how everything went down. It would make more sense just to call off the bet.”
“Wait, hold on a second. That’s bullshit.”
“What’s bullshit?”
