Jason
“We need to talk,” Cameron pressed his hand against my chest blocking my exit from the locker room.
“Not interested,” I said coolly.
“We are doing this.” His brow arched as he shoved me. It was only a mild push but enough for me to know he meant business.
“Fine,” I shot back. “Say whatever you have to say, man, and let me get the fuck to class.”
“You go to class now?” He smirked.
“Fuck you.”
“Why’d you do it?” Cam let out a weary sigh, his eyes asking me a million things I didn’t have the answer to.
Shrugging, I said, “Because I was drunk and she was there.”
“Don’t give me that bullshit. You like her.”
“Like her?” I barked out. “I can’t fucking stand her.” Felicity Giles was exactly the kind of girl I spent my days trying to avoid. Needy. Desperate. Weird as hell.
“You really are a dick sometimes, you know that?”
“Never claimed to be anything else.” I shrugged dismissively.
“I just don’t get it. Vaughn was all over you. You could have taken her back to the hotel…” He let the words hang between us. We’d gone to New York for Hailee’s birthday last weekend. Asher’s cousin Vaughn had showed us around with her brother. She was hot. Slim with curves in all the right places, and Cam was right, she was up for it. Whispered it in my ear more than once during the night. But I hadn’t gone there. Instead, I’d drank more than I should have, gone back to the hotel and found myself outside Felicity’s room in the middle of the night.
“Look, it was just sex. Drunken sex. I was horny, and she was there.” She might not have been my type, all geeky with no filter, but there was no denying Felicity was gorgeous. Long dark hair, narrow waist, and legs that seemed to go on for miles, even if she did stand a good few inches shorter than me. And her eyes, fuck. Two pools of sea-green that had worked some hypnotic voodoo shit on me.
Obviously.
“Just sex,” my best friend repeated flatly.
“Yeah, just sex. She knows the score. It was a good time. Now it’s over. So can we all just fucking move on?” I couldn’t get distracted by some girl-drama, not when I had the play-offs in sight. My focus needed to be one-hundred-and-ten percent on the team. On winning State.
“So it wasn’t a game?”
“Game? What the fuck are you talking about?” Irritation rippled through me.
“You didn’t know?”
“Seriously, Chase, spit it out already.”
Cameron was staring at me like I’d lost my fucking mind. And maybe I had. If I’d had known it would cause this much trouble, I never would have looked twice at Felicity. But then, my step-sister wasn’t supposed to walk in on us.
He didn’t reply, still gawking at me, so I added, “Look, I know she’s Hailee’s best friend, but she knows the deal. I didn’t promise anything, and she didn’t—”
“Will you just shut up a second,” he ground out and it was my turn to gawk.
A beat passed. Another. The air charged around us.
And then he delivered the last words I ever expected to hear.
“She was a virgin.”
“A virgin?” I choked out. “Is that supposed to be a joke?”
Felicity wasn’t a virgin. Sure, she’d been tight, but I just figured she wasn’t as experienced as Jenna or the other gymnasts and cheerleaders who rode dick like it was an Olympic sport. But she hadn’t said a word when I’d gone faster. Harder. I always liked to be in control and that spilled over to sex. I never made a girl do anything she didn’t want to, but I wasn’t gentle either. I liked to fuck. And then I liked to get the fuck out of there. I’d tried the whole relationship thing once before and it had blown up in my face, and I wasn’t ever looking to go there again.
I didn’t do sleepovers and except for a handful of girls, I didn’t do repeat performances. Sex was an outlet. Nothing more, nothing less. And like football, I excelled at it.
So how the fuck hadn’t I realized Felicity was a virgin?
“You really didn’t know?” Cam asked.
“Do you think I would have fucked her if I did?” He winced at my harsh tone. “She was practically begging for it.”
I think. It was all a little hazy. But she’d wanted it as much as me.
“Nice, real nice.” He deadpanned.
“Are we done? Because you’re starting to piss me the hell off.”
“Yeah, we’re done.” He let out an exasperated breath. “Just stay away from her, Jase. She’s Hailee’s best friend and things are already strained enough.” He didn’t say the rest; he didn’t have to.
Things between us were strained. But then what had he expected when I found out about him and Hailee?
Growing up, she had been the bane of my fucking life. I’d hated her. Hated everything about her. But a lot had changed since senior year started. I guess that was a trending theme with it being the final year of high school.
Me and Hailee weren’t exactly friends now, but for the sake of Cameron, we’d called a shaky truce.
“Is that all?” Anger laced my words. I was so fucking over all this bullshit.
“I know it’s hard seeing me with her—”
“Save me the ‘I’m sorry I chose your step-sister’ speech.”
“Jase, come on...” His hand curled around my arm. “It doesn’t change anything. You’re still my best friend. I’ve got your back. Always.”
But it did change things.
It changed everything.
It had always been the two of us against the world. Now it wasn’t.
And I didn’t know what the fuck to do with that.
I pushed off the wall the second Felicity appeared. Mondays she stayed behind after school for book club.Fucking book club. It sounded like something my grandma would have enjoyed if she were alive.“Jason?” Her mouth fell open when she spotted me, those big sea-green eyes widening to saucers. “What are you—”“Let’s go, Giles,” I said, trying to keep it as impersonal as possible. My dick had other ideas though, traitorous motherfucker, stirring to life the second my hand clasped around her tiny wrist. Remembering how it had felt to pin them above her head while I slid inside her, making her cry out my name.“Go? Go where?” She huffed indignantly. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”“You think you have a choice?” I dragged her around the side of the building toward the gym. It was quiet, just like I knew it would be.“Jason,” she hissed, trying to yank free of my grip. But I kept walking, refusing to do this out in the open where anyone could walk by and see us.Shouldering the door to
Felicity“You’re distracted,” Hailee said over her sundae. “It’s him, isn’t it? Jason.” There was a coolness to her voice that squeezed my heart.“It’s not…” I let out a heavy sigh, meeting her gaze. “I thought I’d feel good or relieved or something but now I just feel…”I didn’t know what I felt.The list was supposed to help me push my boundaries, to step out the confines of my perfectly average life and take more risks. It wasn’t like I’d planned to seduce Jason. To play his stupid game of cat and mouse. He was just there. Like a slow building wave that before I realized what had happened, crashed over me and swept me off my feet.“Oh, Flick.” Hailee reached over the table and grabbed my hand. “I could kill him for doing—”“It wasn’t his fault. I need you to know that. I—”“You like him, don’t you?”“I can’t really explain it but something’s different this year.” I’d never looked twice at Jason and his friends before. Neither had Hailee though, and look how that turned out. Now she
“Hailee, come here.” He gave her a reassuring nod, and slowly Hailee rose from the chair. But Thatcher’s hand clamped down on her shoulder.“Not so fast, baby, we’re just getting—"“Get your hands off her.”“Or what, Chase? You’re a lover not a fighter and I don’t see Ford anywhere, do you?”Anticipation crackled in the air, the whole diner watching on with fascination. A few cameras were aimed in the direction of the stand-off between Cameron and Lewis Thatcher and I knew it wouldn’t be long before it was all over social media.“You don’t want to do this, man.” Cameron implored, holding his hands up. “It’s a public place, people are filming.”Hesitation flashed over Thatcher’s face, enough for Cameron to grab Hailee’s hand and yank her toward him. “Go.” He flicked his head toward us, and she hurried to Asher’s side.“Maybe we should call Jason,” she said.“That is the last thing we want to do right now. Your boy can handle it.”“What’s going on here?” Tate appeared looking flustered.
Jason“What the fuck happened?” I demanded the second Cam and Asher arrived at our regular spot in Bell’s, a local bar run by an ex-Raider and one of our biggest fans. My eyes flicked to Hailee who was quiet and a little pale at his side. I barely even acknowledged Felicity. I couldn’t risk her pulling that hypnotic voodoo crap on me, not here.“Well?” I arched my brow, growing impatient.“It was Thatcher. He showed up at The Alley.”“He was bothering you?” Meeting my step-sister’s gaze, my eyes bore into hers, and she gave me a small nod.“Fuck.” I raked a hand through my hair, trying to rein in the anger I felt coursing through my veins. Thatcher was supposed to be my problem. Mine and the team’s. He was never supposed to go after Hailee. But that shit was on me and I’d deal with it.One way or another, Thatcher would get what was coming to him. Even if I had to bide my time until the season was done.My fist curled against my thigh, anger radiating deep inside me. Fucking Lewis Tha
“Is that what you think? That I was talking about you?” I stepped closer. “That was a mistake. You were a mistake. One I don’t plan on making again.”Felicity’s breath hitched, pain flashing in her eyes. “Fuck you,” she seethed.“Baby,” I reached out, pulling a strand of hair. “We already did that.”“I hate you.” Her voice trembled.Good. She needed to hate me. I didn’t need her getting the wrong idea about us.About me.For as much as I hated to admit it, Hailee was right. I needed to stay away from Felicity. She was too naïve, too fucking pure. Until New York, until me, she’d been a virgin for fuck’s sake.I stepped forward again, putting us almost chest to chest. I hadn’t planned on getting this close, but there was no denying she pulled me in. Almost made me want to finish what we started in New York. My eyes dropped to her lips; soft pouty lips I knew the taste of. Her tongue darted out as she watched me watching her.“Jason, what are—”“Shut the fuck up,” I ground out. Her chest
Felicity“Happy game day.” I flashed Hailee a wide smile, but she frowned.“You’re... happy.”“Is that a crime?”“No, of course not, I just thought...”“That I’d spend the week moping after Jason?” Laughter spilled out of me, but it was strained. “Like I already told you yesterday and the day before that, it was a mistake. A blip. Jason, who?”Hailee’s eyes scrutinized me. Sharp and assessing and filled with doubt.“If it makes you feel better,” I went on, filling the awkward silence, “I added another item to my list.”“You did?” Her brows went up as the school came into view.“I did. Number eleven: Do not, under any circumstances, fraternize with the football team.”“Asher’s on the football team.” I felt her heavy gaze on me.“Asher is a friend.”“Is that what we’re calling it. He likes you, you know?”“He doesn’t like me. He likes the idea of me.”“We could double date.” She sounded happy at the prospect; too happy.“Hails,” I glanced at her, “Don’t get any ideas about me and Asher,
True. I did. Lists kept me organized; reminded me of things I needed to do. Lists for the grocery store. Lists of the celebrities I crushed on. Not to mention my senior year bucket list.Lists made me happy.“You’re right. I am an excellent maker of the lists. It’s an undervalued talent for sure.”“Oh come on.” She nudged my shoulder. “You know what I mean. Just because you’re not really good at one thing doesn’t mean you’re not good at lots of little things.”“Yeah, you’re right.” My smile was forced, the knot in my stomach tightening.It wasn’t that I was jealous of Hailee, I wasn’t. She was gifted and I was excited for the Seniors Night unveiling. For her. But it only heightened my self-awareness of how lacking I was. It was senior year. The year of college applications and chasing future dreams. A future my parents had all planned out for me since the womb. They wanted me to follow family tradition; attend UPenn, get my business degree and work some white-collar job in the city.B
“You’re a good friend, Felicity Giles.” Hailee wrapped her arms around me, hugging me tight. “And I promise to do everything in my power to make your senior year as awesome as it can possibly be.”“Ride or die,” I said.Hailee pulled away, grinning at me. “RideJason“Yo, QB, check it out.” Grady flipped me his cell phone. I caught it, my eyes narrowing on the tweet.@ThatcherQB1: Raiders better watch out, the Tigers are on the prowl #Tigersgohunting #Raiderscansuckit“Doesn’t Thatcher’s cousin play for the Tigers?” he asked me as I handed back his cell.Shrugging, I grunted. “Fuck if I care. He’s just bitter we put their asses in the ground Rival’s Week.” We’d played them a couple weeks back. It had been a dog fight, both teams refusing to roll over. But, in the end, we got the win, and Thatcher had gone back to Rixon East with his tail between his legs.“Should we be worried?” Cam leaned in, whispering in my ear.“Do I look worried?” Thatcher was clutching at straws. He couldn’t tou