Chapter 39: Things I never wanted to say

LEO

I didn't sleep well that night.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Quinn's face. I heard her voice. I felt her body under mine.

And then I heard Nate's words, and my father's, too. I wanted to stop hearing them. I wanted to forget what they'd said. They were both wrong, I knew they were. They had to be. Quinn and I were right together. We belonged with each other. We'd both made that clear.

But I thought about what my dad had said. College was going to be hard. College football was going to be a full-time job, if I wanted to get into the pros. How would I juggle that along with making Quinn happy, if I couldn't even manage to do that when we were only in high school?

And Quinn wanted to be a writer, wanted to be a journalist. Was I justified in denying her that chance, just because I needed to go to a college that would help funnel me into the pros? She could still study journalism wherever we went to school, and I was sure that was what she'd tell me if I brought up the sc