“If he does anything, you tell me. I’ll fucking end him.”
She turns to me, walking backward for a few seconds. “Why? You clearly hate me as much as he does.”
Before I can respond to tell her that her words are bullshit, she’s gone.
“Fuck,” I bark.
“Mr. Hunter, you should be in class,” Miss French, our guidance counselor says when she spots me in the empty hallway. I nod at her and head in the direction of my math class.
I don’t see Poppy for the rest of the day, although that’s not unusual. At times, I wonder if she’s a ghost because despite being friends with my sister, who I can’t seem to get rid of now that she’s been added to the varsity squad, her best friend seems to vanish into thin air.
I don’t have the same luck with Preston the prick because he’s the first player I see the second I step into the locker room after school for our conditioning session.
He looks up when he realizes he has company and our eyes hold.
“What’s up, Hunter?” he asks with a fake ass smile on his face. He really is a fucking snake.
“I don’t know. It all depends on whatever that was with Poppy this morning.”
“That, pfft,” he says with a wave of his arm. “She wants me. Won’t get the message that I’m not interested. I mean, she’s not exactly my type. She’s not even ho—”
I have him pinned up against the lockers before he manages to get that final word out.
“What the hell, man? I was trying to let her down gently. Ain’t no one touching Thorn’s cousin, I got that memo.”
My forearm presses against his throat until his eyes widen in surprise.
People around here seem to forget that I’m not one of them, not originally. I didn’t grow up with money, huge houses, and privilege like some of the kids walking these hallways.
I grew up in Harrow Creek. And that place is about as opposite as you can get from everything that Preston has experienced in his pathetic little life.
He might think I’m no threat but he needs to reconsider because while I might look like the fun, gives zero fucks about life, member of the team, he needs to remember that I was trained to fight at a very young age and with one mistake I will take him down.
“You stay the fuck away from her.”
He splutters like he’s fighting for breath but it’s all for show, I’m not pressing that hard. Not yet.
Just as the door swings open, I release him and watch as he sags back against the lockers.
“I’m fucking watching you, Hellburn.”
I don’t stick around to hear his response, instead I step up beside Jake.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah, just having a little chat with our boy.”
Jake glances back over his shoulder and a smile curls at his lips at what he finds.
“That motherfucker isn’t getting my team.”
“I get that, I do. But who else is gonna have it? He’s the best QB we’ve got by far once we fuck off.”
“I dunno, I’m just hoping someone appears from out of nowhere.”
“Amalie is turning you into a dreamer, man,” I say with a laugh.
It’s a well-known fact that his girl has softened his jagged edges just a little but hoping for a miracle seems a little far-fetched, but I guess crazier things have happened. And just to prove a point, both Ethan and Shane join us talking about something to do with their girls. Who’d have thought it.
5
Poppy
“This is pointless. I don’t fucking get it,” Harley whines, pushing the textbook across the counter until it crashes to the floor.
“You’re looking at the big picture. You need to break it down,” I say, hopping from the stool and going to collect the offending textbook.
“I just don’t get it. I fucking hate math.”
“Stop putting so much pressure on yourself.” I bend down and my fingers brush the cover right as his words stop me dead.
“Well, this looks like a fun study session.” I can practically hear the smugness in his voice.
I stand, smooth my skirt down and walk back to my seat.
“What do you want, Zayn?” Harley snaps. “Just because Mom has made you her bitch for the week, it doesn’t mean you get to harass me instead of being out with your little team.”
“My little team? You mean our championship-winning team?”
“By the end of the year, the squad will hold the same title.”
“The squad with a pregnant captain. Right.” Zayn rolls his eyes as Harley tenses beside me.
“Just because she’s pregnant, it doesn’t mean she can’t lead us,” she argues.
I’m used to their bickering and as usual tune them out and reopen the textbook to the section we were working through.
I might not hear the words they’re saying but I’m very much aware of the deep rumble of his voice, and even more so when he walks over and stops beside me. His body heat burns into my arm as he leans over to look at what we’re doing.
“I’m sorry, can I help you?” I snap, my eyes widening at his intrusion of my personal space.
“I don’t know, can you?”
“Zayn, stop being a prick. We’re trying to work.”
“From what I heard, Poppy is working, you’re having a bitch fit about it. You want a study buddy who knows his way around numbers, Pops?”
“No, I’m good.”
“See, you’re not wanted. Now fuck off. Doesn’t Mom want you to clean the toilets or something?”
His eyes drill into his sister but while she’s distracted, his fingers tickle up my bare arm.
Goose bumps erupt at his touch and I have to fight not to visibly shudder.
“Harley?” Jada’s voice filters down to us from where she’s working in her office. “Did you forget my coffee?”
“Shit,” she mutters. “Yeah, hang on.” She hops down and goes over to the coffee machine.
“While you’re there, I’d love one, thanks,” Zayn says, walking around behind me and planting his ass on the edge of the stool Harley just vacated.
“I’m not your slave. You’re the one doing the time, you should be the one doing it.”
“Quit bitching and make Mom’s coffee. You know she gets cranky when she hasn’t had enough.”
“I heard that,” Jada calls.
“You were supposed to.”
“That gardening isn’t going to do itself, boy,” she reminds him.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m going. Slave driver,” he mutters, but it’s with a smirk on his annoyingly handsome face.
“She that pissed about the party?” I ask, although instantly regret it when he turns his eyes on me.
“The party, no. She gave me permission for that. The mess, the damages, and the illegal substances, she’s not so thrilled about.”
“I can’t believe you thought it would be okay,” Harley adds.
Zayn shrugs, his eyes still holding mine captive while she finishes up and leaves the room to deliver the coffee.
“You ready to talk yet?”