“Maybe,” she whispers. “I don’t know. It was so long ago. I’m over it now. There’s no reason to dig up the past. I want to move on with my life.”
“Yeah, I get that.” I lift a towel from the bench and wipe the sweat dripping from my face. “If you never get close to anyone, you never have to tell them anything. Isn’t that the Bex Bryant way?”
“It’s for the best. Don’t you think?”
I frown. “If you say so.”
I hate it when she acts like this. It’s so hard to get through to her sometimes.
“Preston is having a party this weekend at his house,” she says to change the subject. “He invited me when he walked me home. Which means you’re invited, too. So you’re coming.”
I laugh at her rudeness and then raise my hand to give her a mock salute. “Aye aye, ma’am.”
My dad was in an engineer in the Marine Corps. We moved every few years for most of my childhood until he finally took a job with Lockheed Martin in California, where our family settled down when I was in high school. That’s another reason I never had a boyfriend long enough to fall in love and break my virginity rule. Drake seems to like the challenge, but he has his own problems.
Bex chuckles. “Don’t give me that drill sergeant crap. You’re coming to the party with me. There’s no way I’m going alone. Would you believe one of his teammates slow clapped me when I came downstairs this morning? A fucking slow clap. It was awful.”
“I hope he defended you.”
“He did,” she counters. “Still, it was awkward, and then we got into that fight in the kitchen in front of everyone. What am I supposed to tell him?”
“Try to avoid having the conversation if you don’t want to talk about it. You could also give him the brief version of what happened with Kellan and make him promise not to cause a scene.”
“The next time he plays Boston College, he will kill Kellan.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice,” I deadpan. “His ghost of the past already haunts you.”
She punches me hard in the arm, her teeth gritted in anger. “Don’t be a jerk, Tay. This situation is hard enough.”
“Your dad might have rules about players, but I bet if you told him about Preston, he’d warm up to the idea. If he treats you right, that’s all your dad will care about.”
She shrugs. “Yeah, I guess. I just feel so guilty. It’s like I broke that unspoken bond between us by going behind his back.”
Her guilt over Preston produces a similar reaction within me. I hate hiding anything from Bex, but I made a promise to Drake. His secret would cause an uproar on campus. I could see girls standing in line to take bets on who gets his virginity, throwing themselves at him left and right. And now that I know him better, I also know he would hate that.
“You should tell your dad. What’s the worst he will say? He will not disown you over Preston. He’s his favorite player. He might be more receptive than you think.”
“Sorry about last night,” she says under her breath. “Jamie told Preston you were looking for me. I didn’t mean to leave you behind. I figured you were in excellent hands and wouldn’t want to leave early.”
“I was mad at first,” I admit. “But I got over it.”
She cocks her head in my direction. “Did you really let Drake take you home?”
I glance over my shoulder, and at the mention of Drake’s name, I see Jackie’s face light up.
I nod toward the locker room, and Bex gets what I’m putting down. No way in hell am I talking about Drake in front of Jackie or anyone else on the team. Bex can know that I’m seeing Drake in secret. It’s not against the rules.
I walk alongside the court next to Bex, sipping from my water bottle. “He took me home… and stayed the night.”
Her eyes light up. “No, you didn’t.”
I nod. “Well, I messed around with him, but we didn’t have sex. You know my rule about that.”
She bobs her head. “We both have our rules. So, what did you do with him? You know he’s the biggest player on campus.”
If only you knew…
I shrug off her comment. “He’s not as bad as I thought. Still, he’s not getting my virginity. He has to make me fall in love with him to get my cookie.”
