I pull a towel down my face and catch the bottle of water flying through the air at me. I twist the lid open and chug half of it before saying, “You were slow.”
“I’m fucking hung over.” Jack is downing his own bottle as he sucks air.
“Practice starts next week. Coach will have your ass if you show up like you did today.”
“You know, you weren’t always such a goody-two-shoes. I remember a time at the beginning of high school you were actually,” he pours half the bottle over his head before shaking like a dog, “fun.”
“We both know where fun got me.”
Jack isn’t wrong. My grades are perfect because I work hard. The only reason I didn’t fuck up my GPA the first year and a half of high school was because my classes were easy, and I wasn’t old enough to drive yet.
I check my phone as I head to the locker room. Three calls from my mom. My sister, Emma, texted twice—no doubt about our mom. And the most recent is from my dad.
I don’t open any of them. Talk about fucking up your grades—Emma is doing a bang-up job of it. Apparently, my parents expect me to know what’s wrong with her. I have no clue.
Instead, I scroll down to the subject of my newest tutoring assignment. I checked in on her last night to see if she had any questions.
She hasn’t answered my texts. Not even one of them.
It seems Carissa Collins has ghosted me.
I toss my sweaty towel in the basket and open my locker. Jack leans next to where I’m pulling out my gym bag. “Fine. I’m willing to be boring with you until you leave for Hopkins. I might be able to party with anyone, but you’re my person. I think I’m the only one who doesn’t want high school to end.”
“It’s in Maryland, asswipe. You act like I’m going on tour with a band.” I pull a hoodie over my head before gripping my duffle and slamming the locker. The old men are starting to file in after work, and I promised Dad I’d get home as soon as I could to check on the hermit—also known as Emma. “You killed too many brain cells last night if you don’t want high school to end. I’ve got to get going. You still have a chance at a scholarship, but not if you’re hacking like a chain smoker during workouts.”
“This is all you think about, isn’t it? You have a one-track mind, Hollingsworth, and it does not fit the eighteen-year-old strapping stud that you are.”
I slap him on the shoulder. “I’ve got tutoring again tomorrow, but after that, we’re here. We’ve got to get your ass in shape.”
What I don’t tell him is he needs the scholarship ten times more than I do. My full-ride to Hopkins lets me use the college fund later for medical school, when I’ll need it more.
“If I promise to become at least twenty percent Levi, will you promise to at least come to one party with me? Just one.”
I turn and stop in the middle of the locker room. “Fifty percent, and I pick the party.”
“Fifty?” He grabs his bare chest like I just shot him. “You’re literally killing me. Thirty-five.”
My cell vibrates in my pocket, but I ignore it. “Fifty. You can do it. I believe in you.”
“I can’t believe you’re doing this to me. I feel dirty and used, but I’m desperate enough that I’ll take your boring-ass, lame, kill-me-slowly, Mary Sue deal. Are you planning on running for President someday? Is that why you’re dead set on protecting your digital footprint?”
“If I wanted to be President, I’d be out fucking up my life like you to give the media something to talk about when I’m old.”
My friend grins like a fool and flexes, proving he might’ve been sucking air earlier because he hates to run, but he can kill it in the weight room. “Jack Hale for President. I like it.”
I give him a low wave. “Don’t get arrested before tomorrow.”
The cold air hits my hot muscles as I make my way to my Jeep. We ran sprints, lifted, and ran hills on the treadmill. It’s still muddy from the snow melt, so we’re at the gym until practice starts for spring sports at the indoor facility.
I’m backing out when my phone rings over the Bluetooth. Shit, it’s my mom again.
My parents divorced when Emma and I were young. It’s never been ugly, and they make it easy. Even my step-dad is pretty cool, but he was transferred to California not too long ago.
I hate high school more than anything, but I wasn’t about to start over my senior year. Plus, my coaches and trainers are here. I’m committed to college only two hours away. Emma throwing a fit saved me from having to do the same. In the end, Dad does what he does best and fixed that shit for us fast.
But that means we’re in a new house, and Mom is three time zones away and calls us nonstop when she knows we’re not in school.
The sooner I get this over with the better and touch the screen to answer. “Hey, sorry. I’ve been at the gym.”
“I just got off the phone with your dad. He says he’s keeping a close eye on Emma, but I need to know if that’s true. She’s not herself. I can hear it over the phone, but that’s only when she bothers to answer—which isn’t very often.”
“Mom, in her defense, you call a lot.”
“Levi…” My name is drawn out the way I’m used to when she’s irritated.
“What do you want me to say? You asked me the same thing two days ago. Mom, I swear, he’s home when we’re home. He’s not even working full-time right now. Trust me, Emma’s no different than every other girl at school. She needs to find new friends. Hers turned into bitches when they got to high school.”
“Watch your mouth.”
“Well, they are,” I mutter, turning into the new neighborhood where my dad bought a house just so we could stay at the same school. “I’ll try and talk to her again, but she doesn’t want anything to do with me either.”
“I should have brought you two with me. I should’ve put my foot down and insisted.”
“Trust me,” I bite. “That would not have been the answer.”
Her sigh is heavy, cutting through the speakers of my car.
I know that sigh. She’s giving in.
“Her grades, Levi. She’s struggling. Even with all you went through, you never had a problem with your grades. She’s falling behind so fast.”
That reminds me of a certain new girl from Arizona. “I’ll see if she’ll let me help. But Dad is doing everything he can. She’s never at home by herself.”
“I guess that makes me feel a little better.”
“I’m home. Gotta go. I’ll text you if Emma says anything about … anything.”
“I can’t wait to see you next month. I miss you both so much.”
It’s hard to miss her when she calls constantly, but I don’t say that. “Yeah, miss you too. If Em spills all her secrets, you’re my first call.”
“Thank you.” She’s grateful, as if I’m serious, which I’m not. Emma and I have always been close. If she tells me her secrets, there’s no way I’m spilling them to anyone.
I pull into the garage next to my dad’s truck as Mom makes me promise all kinds of things before I manage to hang up. When I walk through the mudroom and into the kitchen, my dad looks up from where he stands in front of the fridge with the door open. “Hey.”