“Ava!”
I spot Beck standing at the fence line, a giant smile on his face. There’s a dark-haired boy standing right next to him, and they’re both staring at me with eager expectance in their gazes.
Maybe it was my brother and his little friend who I felt studying me?
I approach the waist high fence, curling my hands around the top of it. “What’s up?”
“You throwing candy tonight?” Beck asks.
Most of the time we toss candy into the stands during home games. “Maybe.” I know for a fact the athletic director gave Brandy a giant sack of candy when we first got here. It’s currently sitting in the wagon Brandy always brings to games to carry our pom poms.
“If you do, make sure you throw some our way, okay? We’ll be sitting right over there.” Beck turns his head and points to the mostly empty bleachers near the bottom left of the stands. “Throw us extra.”
“Okay, we will,” I tell Beck. “Just make sure you stay out of trouble, okay?”
“You sound like Mom,” he says grumpily before his friend whispers something in his ear. They laugh and take off.
“Your brother is so cute.”
I glance to my right to find Cami standing next to me.
“Do you mean Beck?” I ask her, figuring that’ll probably piss her off. I already assume she thinks Jake is attractive. Hello, she dated him for a while.
“Of course, I mean Beck.” She scowls at me. I remain calm. Emotionless. I’m sure she’s trying to rile me up. I just don’t know why. “Someday he’ll be on this campus. He might be even more popular than Jake.”
I say nothing. There is no reason for her to act buddy-buddy with me unless she wants to tell me something shitty and awful. Knowing Cami, that’s her exact plan.
“Every Callahan who’s gone to this school is respected. Popular. An overachiever.” She smirks. “Except you.”
I want to rattle off a list of things I’ve done for this school so far, the top one being part of leadership since I was a freshman, but I remain quiet. My only response is to raise a single brow.
“Autumn was on the cheer team all four years,” Cami says. “Captain during her last year. Like me.” Cami smiles. She has a smear of glittery red lip gloss on her front teeth. I’m not going to tell her. I hope that shit shows up in every photo she’s taken just now. “Your brother is one of the varsity football team captains. He’s respected. Revered.”
Feared, I want to add, but I don’t. Jake’s hot temper gets him in trouble, but never for long.
“From what I hear, Beck is an excellent football player as well. I’m sure he’ll dominate once he gets here.” Her smile is as petty as her words. “And then…there’s little ol’, boring you.”
I keep my gaze steady on hers. What’s her motive? Why is she trying to provoke me now?
“What will be the legacy that you leave behind, hmm? What are you doing for the school? For us?” She tips her head, her voice condescending. “Does anyone even care about you being here? My guess is if you disappeared tomorrow, no one would notice.”
She’s just being a bitch for bitch’s sake, but her words still hurt. “Life isn’t a popularity contest, Cami,” I tell her, trying to keep myself under control. My entire body is shaking, I’m so pissed.
Why did I try out for cheer again? Oh yeah, because Autumn said it was a good idea. That it would be a fun way to get even more involved.
My sister was freaking wrong.
Cami laughs. More like cackles. “You could’ve fooled me. It’s not about what you know in life, it’s all about who you know. And who knows you? Really? You don’t have a big group of friends. You don’t date a lot of boys. You pretty much keep to yourself. The only reason anyone knows who you are is thanks to your brother and sister. Oh, and your dad. Without them…” She leans in close, her voice dropping to a harsh whisper. “You’re nothing.”
I turn my back on her and storm away, hating the things she said to me. Hating that I just stood there and took it for too long.
Worse, I hate the way I now feel because of the things she said to me.
I’m not an underachiever, even compared to my brother and sister. And so what if I don’t have a lot of boyfriends or a giant group of friends? I want real, meaningful relationships. I don’t need to collect people just to look popular. I don’t even care about being popular.
Well, I sort of do. Who doesn’t? I’m sixteen years old, in high school, and of course I want people to like me and know who I am. But I’d rather get by on my own merits than what my last name is.
And that’s the problem. That’s why Cami’s words linger in my brain and make me feel like crap. I know she’s just trying to get under my skin.
It’s working.
“Hey.” Coach Brandy stops me as I pass by her. “You okay? Saw you were talking to Cami just now.”
I refuse to get that bitch in trouble by ratting her out. It’ll only cause more drama on the team, and I don’t want to deal. Besides what can I say? She said mean stuff and hurt my feelings? I’m not a little baby. “It’s fine,” I tell Brandy, putting on a fake smile. “We’re just—working out our differences.”
The skeptical look Brandy has on her face tells me she thinks I’m full of it. “You can come to me if she gives you any problems, you hear me?”
This is what I love about Brandy. She always keeps it real. She takes care of all of us, and she doesn’t play favorites. “I hear you,” I say with a nod.
We have another fifteen minutes to kill before kickoff, so there are more photos taken. A big discussion about the halftime routine and how we have to absolutely nail it, according to Cami. Mom comes by and talks to me for a few minutes, and so does Ellie.
“Did you see all those Mustang boys that showed up?” she asks me.
“I thought I saw them in the line to get in,” I say as I look around, trying to spot a certain someone.
Still haven’t seen him, but he has to be here.
“Yeah, pretty much their entire varsity team is here tonight. I guess they have a bye week,” Ellie says. “So they’ve got nothing better to do than crash our game.”
“Lame,” I mutter with a shake of my head.
“Right? I think they look pathetic. Why come to our game? Stay home and relax,” Ellie says.
They’re here to spy on us. To watch our team play, to see them live and in action versus watching them via a few video clips. They want to pick our offense and defense apart and plot total domination. I’d bet their coaches are here too.
I know how they think. Our team does the same thing. Our bye week is the week before homecoming, and I’m sure our boys will go watch them if it’s a home game.
“I saw Jackson,” I tease, deciding to put the focus on her.
Ellie’s cheeks turn pink. “I’m sure he’s surrounded by girls.”
“Have you talked to him lately?”
She shakes her head. “Pretty sure that was a one-time deal for us. He has plenty of fan girls who chase after him. I’m just that girl he talked to at a party. I’m guessing he doesn’t even remember my name.”
“Aw, don’t give up. Maybe you should go approach him.” I want to be the encouraging friend, but I don’t want to be a part of the encouragement. Meaning if Ellie is going to try and talk to Jackson, I’m sure Eli will be nearby.
And I don’t want to deal with him. Not tonight.
Maybe not ever again.
“Hey girls! Head out to the field!” Brandy suddenly yells.
“Gotta go,” I tell Ellie before I grab my poms and run out with the rest of the team onto the football field. We line up on either side of the giant inflatable football helmet that’s by the goal post, and Dakota sits on top of my shoulders, shaking her poms while mine rest at my feet as I hold onto Dakota’s knees.
This is our ritual for every home game. Music starts playing, people start cheering as the team bursts out of the giant helmet and runs through tear away signs as they come onto
the field. The people in the stands love it.
I have to admit it fills me with pride, watching it unfold week after week. It never gets old. Seeing my brother run out with his friends and teammates. Hearing the roar of approval from the crowd. Knowing my dad is standing on the sidelines, watching it all happen and cheering the team on.
Once we’re done, we head back to where we cheer for the duration of the game. It’s when we’re all facing the flag and the band starts playing the “Star Spangled Banner” that I feel someone watching me again. Intently. I keep my focus trained on the flag, as it ripples with the breeze for a few seconds longer before I slowly turn my head and look into the crowd.
To find Eli Bennett’s gaze locked on me.
Twenty-Two
Eli
Ava is so fucking beautiful. Just watching her makes my chest hurt. She’s practically right in front of me, but the distance between us looms, reminding me that she’s not mine.
Worse?
She’s completely untouchable.
Cami Lockhart the little try-hard is working it tonight. Unfortunately, I’m sitting right in her line of vision, and she won’t stop trying to catch my attention. Seeing me probably brings back memories of our past hookups. I know it’s making me feel that way, and at the time, when we did hook up, I had nothing against her. She’s pretty, she’s flirty, she was paying attention to me? Hell yeah, I wanted a piece of that. We started up a casual thing, though I had no idea she was with Jake Callahan at the time.
I’m sure no one believes me when I say it, but it’s true.
Once I found out the truth, I broke it off with her quick. I realized she’s not really my type anyway. Too damn bitchy, too possessive, too much in general. She’s hot, though. Girl knows it too. Don’t know why she’s bothering trying to flirt with me tonight. I’ve heard the rumors that she’s banging Diego on the side. I have no interest in her anymore. I haven’t in a long time.
Ava won’t even look in my direction, and that hurts too. She’s cheering her little heart out tonight. Yelling as loud as she can, her movements sharp, her kicks high, that blonde ponytail bouncing. They get into some sort of stunting formation, and I realize she’s strong as hell to be able to throw that little cheerleader up into the air.
I’m impressed. I usually write off all cheer teams as a bunch of jokers who like to pretend they’re athletes, but I guess that’s me just being an asshole. These girls work it.
Brenden leans over at one point during the game to say, “Cami keeps making eyes at you.”
“Been there, done that, not interested,” I respond, my gaze, my interest, my everything only for Ava.
“Really? She’s hot,” Brenden says.
“Too much drama.”
Brenden starts to laugh. “When’s that ever stopped you before? And aren’t you too much drama yourself?”
His words irritate me. “You don’t get it.”
No one does. This is my problem. My life is shit. I may act like I’m sitting on top of the world, but I’m not. I’m one millisecond away from having everything that matters taken away from me, and there’s not a whole lot I can do about it. I’m at the whim of my drunken mother and her volatile moods. After listening to her scream and yell about me on the phone, my father now thinks I’m a deviant piece of shit. My brother barely responds to my texts. His latest reply after I hit him with a barrage of important family information?
We’ll talk later.
That’s it. Oh, and that was two days ago.
FML.
Clearly, he gives zero shits about his little brother and his entire family.
“Damn bro. You’ve been in the worst mood lately,” Brenden says right after the whistle blows and a time out is called. “What crawled up your ass and died?”
“My mom.” After our little incident a few nights ago, she told my dad—during court proceedings so it’s all legally documented, thanks so much Mom—that she wanted him to take full custody of me. That I was abusive and constantly treated her in a threatening manner, and she was afraid of her own child.
Pretty much a direct quote.
I got a call from Dad that evening. He lit into me about treating my mother with respect. What a joke—he has zero respect for her after being married to her for twenty years. I didn’t bother contradicting him or pleading my case, though. There was no point, considering he wasn’t listening. He told me I had to, “straighten up and fly right,” or he’d yank me out of school so fast my “head would spin.”
He knows how devastated I’d be if he pulled me out of school. Away from my team. I’ve already heard that entire conversation full of threats about cutting me off financially too—I’ve heard it more than once. And after dealing with that shit a few times, I realized quickly I’d rather make it on my own. I don’t need his money to survive.
I don’t need my parents to survive either.
“She giving you shit again?” Brenden asks, pulling me from my thoughts.
“She’s threatening to send me to live with my dad,” I mutter.
Brenden actually laughs. “Like that’ll ever happen.”
“Exactly.” Dad doesn’t want to deal with me. I just need to learn how to stay out of my mom’s way and go about my business.
Harder than it sounds.
The first quarter starts back up, and I decide to stop focusing on Ava and concentrate on everything happening on the field. The Badgers look good. Strong. They don’t make too many mistakes. They’re not sloppy. The coaches ride their asses, and Jake is out there commanding his team like a pro.
I would never say this out loud or admit it to anyone, but they’re going to be a formidable opponent. Come practice on Monday, we’ll need to work even harder.
By the end of the first half, the Badgers are leading by three touchdowns and a field goal. They’d have to repeatedly make a ton of mistakes to lose this game. Or the opposing team will have to come out of nowhere and absolutely kick their asses. It’s been known to happen before.
We shall see.
Ava and the rest of her team all form a straight line and link arms before they walk out onto the field, meeting the opposing cheer team halfway. I’m familiar with this ritual. All the cheer teams do it, though I rarely get to see it since I’m off in the locker room getting my ass chewed by the coaches.
Ava’s team is going to perform in about two minutes, and there’s no way in hell I’m going to miss this.
“Hey, we’re all gonna go hit up the snack shack,” Brenden tells me. I glance up to find every single person I came with on their feet and ready to go. “You coming?”
“I’m gonna stay here,” I tell him as I prop my feet on the bench in front of me and lean forward, resting my elbows on my knees. “Grab me a water though, will ya?”
“You don’t want to go?” Brenden frowns.
“No.” My gaze never strays from the field as I watch the girls get into position. Ava’s on the far-right side, pretty much in front of me, but since she’s in the middle of the field, I can’t really see her that well.
It’s all good. I won’t lose track of her thanks to her blonde hair.
Brenden and everyone else keep talking, but I’m not listening. Eventually they leave and I breathe a quiet sigh of relief. The music starts. An older song playing. “Worth It” by Fifth Harmony.
Fitting.
I can’t take my eyes off of her. She moves to the music effortlessly. Every time she spins, her skirt kicks up and I hope for a glimpse of her ass, but it always happens too quickly and I can’t see anything. What I can see is that she’s smiling, but I can also tell she’s concentrating, and it’s the damn cutest thing.
Pride swells in my chest as she makes her way to a stunt group and they throw their flyer up in the air. My girl is damn good at this. Pretty sure this is her first year cheering too.
When it’s over, I can’t help but clap my hands and whistle. This earns a few curious stares from people in the stands, and I’ve already earne
d plenty, thanks to me being from the local rival school. An entire group of girls who look about thirteen, all start giggling and whispering. I could give two shits, though.
I feel like a proud boyfriend right now, and Ava and I aren’t even speaking. I’m an idiot. A complete sucker for this girl.
And she doesn’t have a damn clue.
Once the halftime show is over, I rise to my feet and stretch, holding my arms above my head as I work out all the kinks after sitting on a metal bench for the last hour. Considering no one else is around, I decide to go look for my friends. Maybe I’ll stand in line with them at the snack shack.
On the way to find them, I find trouble instead.
“Hey Eli. What are you doing here tonight?”
It’s Cami and her predator friend, Baylee. I call her the predator because she’s always trying to mack on someone. She’s not one to discriminate.
“Came with the boys to watch your boys.” I smile, shoving my hands into my jeans pockets.
I really don’t want to talk to her right now, but I also don’t want to be a rude motherfucker and cause a scene. Knowing Cami, she’s all about a scene.
“You’re looking good,” Cami says with a warm smile. She takes a couple of steps closer to me, her eyes glowing as she scans me from head to toe. Her voice lowers as she says, “I’ve missed you.”
“Aw, don’t give me that shit, babe. You haven’t missed me at all,” I tell her with a giant grin.
Whoops. There goes my caring about making a scene.
Her expression falters for just a second. “That’s not true.”
“From what I’ve heard, you’ve got a certain someone keeping you warm and toasty at night.” When she doesn’t respond, I raise my brows. “Diego?”
Baylee turns to Cami and smacks her arm. “You told me that wasn’t true.” Her voice is accusatory.
“It’s not,” Cami says out of the side of her mouth. Her smile has cooled by about a hundred degrees. Now, we’re in below freezing territory. “Who the hell told you that?”
Addicted To Him Page 18
