by Ali Parker
“Yes, ma’am.” I extended my hand toward the handsome guy that everyone seemed to respect. I’d heard a lot of good things about him and seen his team in action multiple times over the last three years. “I’m Emily Campbell. Nice to meet you.”
“You as well, Emily.” He glanced around the field. “Are all of these girls on the cheer squad? Some look so young.”
“No, this is our high school youth camp. We use it to train the girls at the high-school level and to help our girls grow in their leadership skills.” Coach Rhodes reached over and tugged at my wrist. “Emily here is going to be trying out for cheer captain soon, aren’t you?”
“I think so.” I forced a smile and kept my eyes on my coach. I wasn’t sure what the purpose of introducing me to the head soccer coach was, but Rhodes always had an agenda, good or bad.
“Excellent. I’ll leave you two be. Don’t keep her too long, Carlos. She has a group of unruly teenage girls to whip into shape.”
He chuckled and turned his attention back to me. “Better you than me.”
“Right?” I crossed my arms over my chest. “What can I do for you, Coach Diaz?”
“Firstly, we’d like to talk to you guys about having a smaller segment of your squad come to our soccer games this fall and help us liven up the crowd. I know it won’t be like the football games, but if we could swing it a few times, I’d be grateful.”
“Depending on what the schedules look like for our previous commitments, we can do that.”
“All right. I’ll e-mail your coach a list of our games for the fall, and you just make sure we get brought up at your planning meetings. We can meet sometime later this summer and talk about any dates that you’ll be able to join us.”
“Okay. I like the sound of that. I love soccer.”
“Awesome.” He slipped his hands into his pockets and glanced around. “So the other issue I’m having is that one of my players got pretty sick last night at the Omega House party. He mentioned a few people that were there, and your name came up.”
“What? I didn’t drink or smoke or anything.” Fear raced through me. I knew I shouldn’t have gone to that damn party. It was going to be the end of me and Brody, and now it looked like I was going to hang for something I didn’t do to top it all off.
“No, of course not. I know you’re known around here as a great girl, an upstanding student and such. The word on the street is that Jacob Wright brought in some type of date-rape drug and slipped it into the beers at the party. Do you by chance know anything about that?”
“No. I saw Jacob this morning and he was deathly sick, so I can’t imagine it was him.” I tilted my head to the side, studying the coach. I couldn’t tell if he believed Jacob to be a villain or not. Either way, I didn’t like it one bit.
“One of the new softball players is putting up some pretty rough allegations, other than him spiking the drinks.”
“Have you spoken with him?” A cold chill ran down my body. Jacob might be a whore, but he would never hurt anyone. The night we’d spent together proved that.
“No. He’s next on my list, but I wanted to try and check out the story before laying the situation before him. He’s got a lot going on, and the kid’s had a pretty rough life.”
“And this girl is claiming rape?” I didn’t mean to blurt it out, but by the sad look on the coach’s face, she was doing just that. “No fucking way. I was with him last night. How could he have been with her?”
The coach’s eyes widened a little. “Really? What time?”
“I got to the party at eight, and I went home this morning around four or five, maybe? I would rather you not say anything as it was a total mistake to sleep with him, and I don’t want to lose my boyfriend. He cheated on me last night, and like an ass, I retaliated.” I glanced around, not quite sure of what I was doing. Lying for Jacob was one sure way to get my own ass in hot water.
What if he had raped someone? No way. I couldn’t believe that if I wanted to.
“All right. Thanks, kiddo. College is a bitch. Just keep your head above water and you’ll be fine.” He turned and paused, then turned back around. “And Emily… thanks.”
I nodded, getting the meaning loud and clear. He knew I was lying, but he had his alibi.
“This can’t be real, right?” Natasha glanced over at me as we sat in Merskys later that day, sharing a burger and basket of fries. She’d treated me to an early dinner, seeing that there was no way I was going to eat otherwise.
“It’s real all right.” I plucked the paper from her fingers and read over the list of clothing items we needed for the fall. The total at the bottom was just under a thousand dollars, and with only two months to raise the money, it looked like there was no way I was going to be captain of anything, much less on the cheerleading squad.
“What are you gonna do?”
“I don’t know. I would normally just give it to Brody and be done with it, but I can’t. I gotta get out of there.” I folded the paper up and picked up another fry. “He wanted sex this morning, and fuck me if I didn’t give it to him. I’m going to hell.”
“Going? Shit. You’re in hell.” She grabbed the drink that sat between us and took a few long draws as she glanced around. “I would say you should get a job here because you have the looks to do it, but this place gives me the creeps. I mean, look at the freaking outfits. People are wearing next to nothing.”
I glanced around and nodded. “This is true. I can see the top of everyone’s boobs. Why are we here again?”
We shared a laugh as the waitress appeared beside us.
“Anything else for you girls?” She gave us a fake smile and put her hand on her hip as if inconvenienced by our mere presence.
“Yeah, are you guys hiring?” Natasha asked.
“Um, no.” She started to clean up our mess. “Ready for your bill?”
“Yeah, thanks.” I turned back to Natasha as her eyes narrowed a little. “Hey. Let it go. It’s not that big of a deal.”
“It is a big deal, but whatever. You need to go get a job at DeAngelo’s. They have decent uniforms, and Mr. DeAngelo is a great guy.”
“I’ll think about it.” I knew Jacob’s dad owned the place. Everyone knew it. “What do you think about Micah Sanders?”
“That was a quick change of subject.” She snorted and pulled out a twenty, throwing it down on the table.
“I know, but he mentioned you at the Omega party last night. Really just in passing during one of our conversations, but he’s such a good guy.”
“Yeah, that’s part of the problem. Good guys are usually pussies. I’m not interested. I’m honestly trying to just keep my focus on basketball and my grades. He’s incredibly cute but not my type.” She got off her seat as a group of girls moved into the booth behind us, talking way the hell too loud.
“It was the party of the century, and Jacob was in rare form.” One of the girls giggled.
“Did you get to sleep with him?”
“No, but I tried.”
“Me too!”
“He’s a fucking animal in the bedroom. He fucked me up against the glass wall to the back door about a week ago, and I could still see the ass smudge when we were there last night. I’m in love.”
They laughed some more as my burger rose back up into my chest. How could he take so many random women to his bed? Was he that starved for affection, or were women just toys to be used and thrown out?
“Let’s go.” I walked toward the door as my phone buzzed in my purse.
“You need to get that?” Tasha lifted her hands in the air and bounced around a little.
“Yeah. It’s Brody.” I lifted the phone to my ear as it stopped ringing. “Oh. Never mind.” I smirked and walked to her car. The text that came through a few seconds later had him apologizing again and letting me know that he would be with his parents until Monday and the apartment was mine.
The only request… keep it clean and don’t touch my shit.
And t
his was the man I’d originally hoped to marry. What a joke.
Chapter 10
Jacob
“Warm-up laps. Go. Now.” One of the coaches for FC Boston cupped his hands over his mouth and called out to all of us standing around making introductions. It was nice to already be known for some of my former accomplishments, but with that recognition came expectation too.
Nervousness danced around in my belly as I turned and started to run alongside the rest of the guys gathered there for our first summer practice.
“Hey. I’m Clint.” A guy about my size and weight reached out his hand to me as we bounded along.
“Jacob.” I shook it. “You from around here?”
“Yeah, I actually go here at Mount Ida.” He gave me a crooked smile.
“Awesome.” I tried to get back into the groove, but the guy wouldn’t stop talking. He was a year younger than me and seemed to have a man-crush of sorts. Shaking him was going to be harder than trying to explain to one of the slutty girls at the Omega House why I didn’t date.
“Line up.” Coach motioned for us to join him on the side of the field. “Wright, you and Jackson are my blue forward. Daily, Marks, Pennington and James, you’re blue midfield.”
I jogged toward the field and didn’t wait to hear who would be on defense for my side. Clint jogged up beside me and lifted his hand as if to give me a high-five.
“Looks like me and you, buddy.”
“I’ll take the lead.” I hit his hand and took my position, ready to exert some energy and remind myself that I wasn’t a worthless piece of shit. The events at the Omega House Friday morning left me questioning everything about myself. Someone in the frat had set us up and brought in date-rape drugs for one of two reasons: to rape someone or to make it look like I was trying to.
The whistle blew and the scrimmage started, stealing my thoughts and saving me from myself. I moved through the green team’s strikers and midfield before passing it to Clint. I had expected him to try and score for our side, even with a less than clear path to the goal, but he kicked it back my way. I didn’t hesitate as I twisted toward the goal and kicked with all my might.
“Goal for the blue team. Just because they have Wright doesn’t mean they’re going to automatically win. Remember. You’re all here for a reason.” Coach moved up to the sidelines and gave me a big grin. “Show him what you’re made of and why he should play his ass off for us this summer.”
A chuckle went around the group as we jumped back into it.
Two hours later with sweat drenching my entire body and my heart racing, the game was over. The blue team had smoked the green, but everyone blamed that on me. I wasn’t going to tear up about being the scapegoat, but I owed Clint an apology. He’d set me up for the score almost every time without fail.
“Hey.” I walked over to him and lifted my hand in the air. “Fucking amazing job out there today. You didn’t have to spot me like you did.”
He hit my hand and smiled. “Yeah, I did. We’re on a team, and you’re the better scorer. I’ll pull out some ninja shit soon, but today was about you.”
“All right.” I turned to find Micah jogging around the track not too far from where we were. He’d been good enough to ride up to Mount Ida with me that morning, but we hadn’t spoken much, thanks to me sleeping over the forty-minute drive.
Coach put his hands on his hips and glanced around. “Good job. Shower up and get out of here. We’ll see you guys again on Monday.”
I walked toward the field, stopping only to pick up my water bottle and towel. Basketball season would be starting soon, and Micah would be in his element. He was the shortest guy on the team but one of the best damn point guards in New England. His dreams of going to the NBA seemed very doable from my seat in the stands.
“Hey. You ready?”
He stopped and turned to face me, panting loudly. “You guys done already? I was just getting warmed up.”
“Yeah, you beast. Let’s go. We’ll grab something to eat on our way back to Providence.”
“I had oatmeal this morning.” He brushed the back of his arm across his head and walked toward me. “You didn’t eat, did you?”
“No. Lay off me, mother.” I smiled and turned to walk with him toward the car. “Thanks for letting me sleep this morning.”
He snorted. “As if I had much of a choice. You tossed the keys at me and said, ‘here fucker. You drive.’”
I smiled and shook my head. “Never. I wouldn’t force you to do anything.”
“Yeah right.” He took the keys from me and got into the car as I glanced around. Clint was watching me from the field where I left everyone. “Weird.”
“What?” Micah started the car and glanced over at me. “What’s up?”
“Just that guy over there. He did a great job of setting me up to score all day, but almost too good of a job.” I rolled my shoulders. “I’m being paranoid. After spending half my evening in coach’s office last night, trying to explain that I didn’t rape anyone, nor was it me that spiked the beers, I just feel like everyone is out to get me.”
“They called me in too. I was going to tell you this morning, but you weren’t exactly in the mood to chat.” He backed the car up and turned on the air conditioner. “You heard about what Emily did, right?”
“What do you mean?” I took a long sip from my water bottle and glanced over at him.
“She told Coach Diaz that she was with you all night.”
“Oh shit. Was that what happened? He asked me if we were dating, and I told him no.” I turned back toward the front of the car and let my head drop back. “Why would she do that?”
“Because she’s a good woman, I guess. Maybe they said something to her about you getting hit with a rape charge?”
“I didn’t rape this bitch,” I barked as anger rolled through me. “She sucked me off and was mad when I wouldn’t fuck her against the wall.”
“Yeah, that’s really tough.” He was being a dick.
“It is.” I closed my eyes and tried to shake the heavy emotion that accompanied knowing that Emily had stepped up and practically fixed the situation for me. They would still be investigating everything, but her alibi was going to help. “You need to set us up.”
“Never. She’s a great girl. You need to prove to her and yourself that you’re not the whore you’ve been pretending to be all these years.”
“How do you know it’s a facade? It might be the real me.”
“Nope. I’ve seen the real you, and that jackass ain’t him.” He pulled down his visor and turned up the radio, cutting off the conversation and leaving me to stew in the truth of his words.
“Well? How was practice?” My father walked back to the dishwashing room in the back of the pizza parlor and stuck his head in. The smile on his face pulled me out of my funk as it always did.
“It was good. Nice to get back on the field for sure.”
“Why are you back here? I thought you were going to be in the kitchen.” He put his hands on his portly waist and gave me a knowing look.
“I was scheduled to be, but Gino hates washing dishes, and he’s been with you a year, Dad. He needs a chance to prove to you that he can work with the pizza.”
“He put sugar instead of salt in a batch of dough last week and ruined the whole damn thing. I’m not a thriving business that can sustain those kinds of losses. We’re going broke, remember?”
“Yep, and if you have someone spend some more time with him and teach him how to do his job better, he’s going to be a great employee for you. He respects you a lot. Give him another chance.”
“Where is my son? What have you done with him?” He walked in and patted me on the back as I sank my hands down into the warm suds in the sink. Part of me wanted to rebel at having to work at all, but it would have been a shitty thing to do. My father had been killing himself all my life to provide for me. It was time to start doing my part, no matter how uncool it felt to have to do it.
; “How are you doing on hiring people? Anyone new?”
“No, not yet. Do you have any friends that are looking for a job?”
“You don’t want my friends up here.” I chuckled. “Well, Micah might be good, but I’m pretty sure his basketball scholarship has him set.”
“No pretty girls that could help wait tables and host for us?” He lifted an eyebrow.
“None that wouldn’t have two-thirds of their tits showing.”
“Watch your language.” He shook his head and walked to the door. “Keep your eyes open for the right person, please. We need at least one more person to come help us, and I would prefer she was a she.”
“Most she’s are a she, Dad.”
“Smart ass.” He chuckled and turned to walk out.
“Watch your language, old man. We’re trying to run a business here.”
“What is this we?” He walked down the hall, leaving a smile on my face. The idea of Emily getting a job at DeAngelo’s was enough to leave me in a good mood for the rest of my shift. I owed her a thank you and wanted to whisper it against her hair as I held her next to me in bed later that night, but it was a pipe dream and a stupid one at that.
Not only was she tucked up Brody Jackson’s ass, but she was hellbent on not giving me the time of day. Why would she stick up for me when it counted most? That had to say something that she’d not given words to yet, right?
“What are you up to, pretty girl?” I mumbled softly as my thoughts faded back to the place they always did. In the dark of my room where the sound of her moans and the smell of her skin left me aching and needy. I needed to let the shit go. Nothing was going to happen between us. She seemed determined to make sure of that.
Chapter 11
Emily
“So help me pull apart the bed.” Natasha walked across the vibrantly decorated dorm room and dropped her backpack down on the floor by the door.
“Are you sure about this? You know I can’t pay rent for a while, right?” I felt like shit, but my options were limited. I could stay with Tasha in my old dorm room or take turns sleeping in Aubrey and Layla’s beds.