Slightly changing the subject, “I meant what I said though.” Maybe it would ease her irritation with him.
Though the room was dark, Kyler could see that her hardened features slightly melted away. “About what?”
“About you keeping it…About it looking good on you.” He swallowed heavily. That was about all the admission he could manage. When she didn’t respond, he took a step closer, but was sure to keep enough distance. If he got too close to her, he wasn’t convinced that he’d be able to keep things completely platonic. “I knew you had it when you left last Sunday. I never asked for it because I didn’t care.”
Lilah scrunched her face. Of course he didn’t care. She was the idiot who made a big deal about it, but to her it was a big deal. Keeping something of his, something that he wore, was a huge deal. She glanced through the window opening of the door into the hall, realizing that the mass of traffic was dwindling, and the warning bell would be going off shortly.
“Well, you have it now, clean and all,” she said flatly, reaching for the door.
Kyler moved to the side and allowed her to open it. They both stepped out into the nook leading to the hall.
“Is that the problem then,” he began to tease.
Lilah turned toward him, not yet venturing into the hall. “Is what the problem?”
Kyler wanted to ask her. It was the same for him. He generally washed his sheets every week, but he had refrained from doing so this past week. The lavender and rosemary scent from her shampoo still hung in the fabric of his pillowcase and he didn’t want to lose that just yet. He also recalled times that night when they sat outside. She had tried to hide it, but he knew that his scent on the fabric did something to her.
Lilah eyed him suspiciously as he leaned down with his backpack and dug around for something. As he was still messing around, she glanced behind her, to the hallway. It was virtually empty now. Just as she turned back to say something about being tardy, a sound of something spraying and an all too familiar smell, although now magnified, hit the small space.
Kyler rose and began backing into the hall with that charming grin on his face that probably got him out of all sorts of trouble. When he was far enough away, he tossed the garment at Lilah, which she caught perfectly.
“There, I made it better,” he said with a teasing wink that shouldn’t have sent her pulse racing, but it did.
The smell of his cologne hit more than just her sense of smell. All of her senses were alive, so much so that she almost missed the ringing of the warning bell.
Kyler pointed up to the ceiling, continuing to walk backwards from her. “You should probably hurry. You don’t want to be late.” He turned from her and walked at a faster pace than normal to class. He bit his lip to keep from smiling from ear to ear. Her wide eyes and stunned look were perfectly singed in his mind. His pulse raced from the adrenaline at being so bold with her. He honestly couldn’t have asked for a better Friday up to that point.
Chapter 27
“What is going on out there,” Coach Turner’s voice boomed throughout the locker room.
All eyes were on the floor, as no one could look up at him. 10 to 24 was not the score they were hoping for when the second quarter ended.
“I’m waiting,” he continued, but still no one spoke. “These last few games have all but taken your chances of going to state. This is it. If you lose this one you can forget it. So again, what is going on out there?!”
Sean was the one to finally speak up. “Maybe you should ask Kyler.”
Kyler was immediately on the defense. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re the one who’s missed the most practices.”
“Not lately, besides, I have my stuff together. Maybe if you could figure out what you’re doing out there.”
“Enough,” Coach Turner interrupted, though that didn’t stop Sean.
“You’re too busy failing classes and messing around with your silly little tutor that you don’t even know which–”
“I said enough,” Coach Turner boomed. “Shut it. No one on this team is failing. In fact, unlike some of you, West has had an A in all his classes. So back off with the accusations.”
Sean sent Kyler a deathly glare and Kyler had to force himself to look away. He preferred it when everyone thought he was an idiot. Someone as vindictive and calculating as Sean would surely overthink Turner’s words.
“I want us to show some teamwork this second half,” Coach Turner began as halftime slowly concluded. “This win keeps us in the running to make state and though it’s not ideal, it’s only a two-touchdown difference.”
As much as Kyler wanted to be hopeful, his hope was slowly fading. He was giving it his all, but it seemed like half the team had already given up on any chances of going to state.
“You know what I can’t figure out,” a sickly sinister voice whispered from nearby as they made their way back to the field. “If your grades are so good across the board, why do you still need a tutor?”
Kyler spun to face Sean head on, now more than a little annoyed with his constant mentioning of Lilah. “Maybe the reason my grades are so good is because I have a tutor.”
“I call bull.”
Kyler shook his head in disbelief. “What is your obsession with Lilah being my tutor?”
Sean’s face turned red from embarrassment. “I’m not obsessed with…” His words drifted off as Kyler took an imposing step forward, closing their gap. Though he was much bigger than Kyler, it didn’t seem to stir Kyler one bit.
“I think you’re jealous,” Kyler began, his voice deep and low. “Not of the fact that I have a tutor and awesome grades, but of the fact that it’s her.”
Sean tried to laugh it off as absurd, but Kyler knew it was fake, all an act.
“You’re still harboring some ill feelings from what, like five years ago?”
Sean’s face went white. “You don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“I do know she rejected you, quite publicly from what I heard.” Kyler was poking the sleeping bear at this point.
Sean shoved his helmet into Kyler’s chest. “You should learn when to shut up,” he growled.
He yanked his helmet away and roughly placed it on his head as he made his way into the lights leading onto the field.
Miles caught up to Kyler as they returned to the field. “Do I want to know what that was about?”
“Sean is just a jerk.”
“Yeah, we know that, but right now, he looks insane. If looks could kill, someone would be dead by now,” Miles pointed out, gesturing toward Sean.
Kyler laughed it off. “Then it’s a good thing that he’s on our team and not theirs.
✽ ✽ ✽
Once the cheerleaders finished another routine, they broke for a water break.
“Is everything okay today,” Britt asked, sipping a blue sports drink with a straw to avoid staining her lips.
“Yeah,” Sarah answered with confusion.
“You just seem…quiet,” Abby added.
Sarah looked at the two girls nodding before her in unison. She inhaled and exhaled deeply and distracted herself by playing with the ribbons in her ponytail.
“I just have a lot on my mind,” she admitted, secretly wanting her friends to dote on her.
Britt and Abby seemed unable to function without one another and had an identical thought process. They looked to each other before Britt, the vaguely smarter of the two decided to bring it up. “Is this about lunch?”
Sarah spun back toward them, her long blonde ponytail flopping. “What about lunch?” She knew what they were referring to but didn’t want to be the one to state the obvious.
Just then a few of the junior cheerleaders came up to get beverages and the three of them attempted to quiet their conversation.
“Is this about Kyler and that dork,” Abby asked.
Sarah was pleased that Abby at least referred to Lilah as such, but it didn’t help that Lilah d
idn’t wear frumpy dresses, glasses, and matted hair. No, instead she had to be one of the richest and most beautiful nerds around.
“I’m not sure what’s going on between them,” Sarah began, focusing her attention to Kyler on the field. “But it’s not going to last. Besides, Kyler and I are perfect for each other. He’s just a guy, and you know how they are. He’s focused on football right now, but once the season is over, things with us are definitely on,” Sarah giggled, trying to convince both her friends, and maybe even herself.
Britt attempted to change the subject that was now taking a strange and awkward turn. “So, are any of the juniors showing potential for your replacement next year?”
“I think Emory Parker shows–”
“Ugh, shut up,” Sarah scoffed, cutting Abby off. “You only like her because you want to hook up with her brother. Need I remind you, he’s a junior.”
“Yeah,” Britt chimed in. “And her twin. Kissing him would be like kissing her.”
Abby’s look immediately went from hopeful to pensive, now thinking Britt’s theory over in her head.
“I like Rachel,” Sarah finally answered. “I think she has the same leadership potential that I showed back then.”
There was a fine line between leadership and whatever Sarah was, but watching Rachel chastise a good bunch of her junior equals, Rachel most definitely could be a dead ringer for Sarah’s replacement.
✽ ✽ ✽
The pain was instant.
His legs. His back. His shoulder. God did his shoulder hurt most of all. Thankfully it was his left. In his mind, he could still play.
“No, don’t even think about moving,” Coach Turner insisted, hovering nearby, when Kyler tried to get up from his back.
As he looked up to the darkness of the night, void of any stars because of the stadium lights, all he could think of was how much he did not want to be carried off the field.
Any protests fell on deaf ears when he tried to tell them that he was fine. Deep down he knew that he was, but that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t feel the pain for days to come. To his left he heard a commotion. It was Miles.
“What were you thinking,” Miles screamed, shoving at Sean’s chest.
The smirk of Sean’s face had Miles seething. “I must have thought we were doing a different play.”
“That’s crap and you know it! You didn’t block for him on purpose!”
Sean puffed his chest out, stepping closer to Miles, now looking for a fight. “Oh, so because the perfect star quarterback messes up, it’s my fault?”
Coach Turner broke it up before it could get started by yanking Sean by his facemask. “It is your fault,” he screamed, pulling Sean in a manner not suitable for a high school coach. “That’s your job as left tackle! Get to the bench, but don’t think that’s the last of this conversation.” Coach Turner all but threw Sean forward toward Raymere Grove’s sidelines.
“We’re going to check him for a concussion,” one of the paramedics began, while two others allowed Kyler to lean on them as he walked off the field. “Nothing looks broken, but we’ll check him out fully when he’s off the field.”
Coach Turner groaned. When he neared the sidelines, “Ellis, you’re in!” Some of the other players looked at each other in confusion. Cash was next in line for the quarterback position.
“Uh, Coach,” Cash began, tapping him on the shoulder cautiously.
Coach Turner ignored the players. “Ellis Parker will be starting next year,” he announced. “Since we haven’t got a chance in hell of going to state at this point, I’m putting him in.” There were a few murmurs, but no one dared say a word about the fact that Ellis Parker just so happened to be Coach Turner’s nephew. “Let’s change it up a little bit. Since Sean is obviously out,” he began, glaring at the most hated person on the bench. “Byron, you’re in as left tackle. Miles, take a seat,”
“Wait, what did I do,” Miles gasped, shocked that he was being taken out of the game.
“Nothing, but I’m putting in a couple juniors that I expect to do a lot better for the school next year after this year’s miserable season.”
Miles rolled his eyes. Coach Turner often went on tangents. He hadn’t in a while, but that last play, and Kyler’s uncertainty in the locker room, wasn’t doing him any favors.
“Deacon Garrett, you’re up,” he exclaimed.
Miles gave Deacon a low high five as he left the field and Deacon prepared himself to go on. Miles had watched the junior enough. He knew without a doubt that he would be a killer wide receiver next year. Maybe, just maybe, if they kept girls out of the mix, they’d actually stand a chance of going to state.
✽ ✽ ✽
“Why are we stopping here,” Rover asked with a mouthful of cookie when Antonio stopped the car.
Lilah gripped the box of cookies from Petal Pastries tightly, feeling a combination of anxious, nervous, apprehensive, and excited all at once. “My friend got hurt a little yesterday, and I wanted to do something nice.”
She wasn’t sure how badly Kyler had gotten hurt. Social media was nothing more than gossip and exaggerated stories; however, after looking at Raymere Grove’s online edition of the paper this morning, she knew that it had to be something for them to send a replacement in.
“Boy or girl,” Rover asked, and Lilah could already see the wheels turning in his head.
“Does it matter?”
Rover shrugged and continued stuffing his face with another cookie while the game on his phone loaded. Lilah hated that he was becoming so addicted to those things. Perhaps today would change that. It was a beautifully cool and crisp fall weekend, and she had promised Rover the park for long enough.
“Go ahead,” Rover insisted, feeling his sister’s questioning eyes upon him.
Lilah smirked and gave her brother a slight nudge. “They have a dog.”
Rover hit the side button on his screen, darkening the lit up and colorful explosion of magic. “Seriously,” he all but screamed. “Why didn’t you tell me that?”
Lilah didn’t want Rover running up to the door alone. He had no idea who the Wests were; however, before she could tell him to wait, he was already out of the car door.
Lilah realized an even bigger mistake as she stood in the doorway to Kyler’s room. She probably should have let him know that she was coming.
As soon as he saw her, he shot off the bed, immediately wincing in pain, despite his best efforts to conceal it.
Lilah swallowed heavily. Kyler wore nothing but a pair of basketball shorts. His left shoulder was wrapped with some sort of bandage contraption that kept an ice pack in place. She almost dropped the box of cookies as he made his way toward her. Swallowing the lump in her throat was more than she could bear. Despite knowing that Kyler probably felt miserable, she couldn’t get over how good he looked, and when he used his right arm to shift the icepack covering his left shoulder, she noticed something black and delicate etched into his skin that she had only gotten a brief glimpse of before.
Even though he was already eighteen, something about it screamed rebel in her mind, and she couldn’t help but find it attractive on him. Did she just think of a tattoo as attractive? Up until recently, she found tattoos, piercings, and facial hair grotesque and unbecoming, but there was something about Kyler. He could have had all of them and more, and something told her that it would only make him more desirable.
She stopped looking anywhere below Kyler’s neck. If she did, she wouldn’t be able to breathe, and she’d only be in worse shape than he already was.
Kyler narrowed his eyes in skepticism, as he kept several feet between the two of them. “What are you doing here,” he finally asked. He expected Lilah to say something, but she stood there with this awkward deer in the headlights look.
“I heard the game didn’t go so well,” she began. Looking into his eyes was suddenly no easier than looking anywhere else.
Kyler attempted to shrug, but that didn’t go too well either.
“We lost. I have to say some of the juniors really tried. At least we didn’t lose by much in the end.”
It didn’t matter. 27 to 31 was still a loss.
“So are you done now,” Lilah asked.
“Oh, no,” Kyler laughed. He walked back toward his bed and motioned for Lilah to follow. “I was checked out. I’m just a little bruised and that’s about it.”
Lilah sat a full arm’s length from Kyler, still clutching the box. “I meant, if the team isn’t going to state, aren’t you done with the season or whatever?”
Kyler realized that he still had a lot to explain to her, that is, if she wanted. “No. We still have two more games.”
Lilah didn’t understand, but she left it alone. There was a faint uncomfortable silence until she remembered why she had come.
She held out the box of cookies. “Oh, I brought these for you.”
He took the box, but said nothing, waiting for her rambling to begin. She looked uncomfortable and he knew his silence would only worsen that. He watched her carefully until she broke.
“I realize cookies probably don’t have any healing powers for whatever you’re going through. Now thinking about it, you probably don’t even eat much sugar during the season to stay looking like–” She quickly stopped and let her eyes fall to the floor.
“Actually, I eat just about anything. So, thanks for this.”
She couldn’t help it. He looked so incredible that she had to take it all in while she still had the chance. Kyler saw her eyes land for a moment too long on his tattoo and he shifted so that she could have a better look.
“It’s a raven,” he told her. “I honestly didn’t know what I wanted, but I loved that poem.”
“Poe,” Lilah questioned, completely and utterly floored that he chose to permanently put something on his body based on a piece of literature.
Kyler laughed. “I know. It sounds stupid. Don’t tell any of the guys.”
“No, it’s pretty,” Lilah quietly corrected him. She reached out to touch it but quickly pulled her fingertips back after realizing how bad that looked in terms of boundaries. Kyler’s next words then caused her stomach to flip.
Fumbling Perfect (Raymere Grove Series Book 1) Page 19