Playing the Enemy: The Trouble With Tomboys #1

by Dallen, Maggie

  No, it wasn’t the teammates who weirded me out—it wasn’t even Caleb, who didn’t seem to notice that I’d arrived.

  It was the blonde chick standing on the sidelines. She’d been eyeing me like I was a rodent or a wild animal or something. Her sneer was mixed with wariness like she wasn’t sure whether she should cover her nose to smother my scent or run in the opposite direction.

  I tried to ignore her but I was aware of her and her two friends who crowded around her. It was hard not to notice them since they so clearly did not belong. They weren’t dressed in the practice uniform and their hair and makeup were way too nice for drills and sprints.

  The weird sensation that something was off grew exponentially worse when Caleb lifted his head and spotted the blonde. His face…lit up. I didn’t even know how else to put it. He freakin’ glowed.

  My heart plummeted into my belly as my body and heart registered what my head had yet to name.

  He likes her.

  There it was. The sad, tragic truth. He liked her, and he was with her.

  Okay, that second part was a guess, but I knew it in my gut. I knew it just like I knew when Bentley was trying to cheat at Monopoly.

  I knew it the way I’d known Caleb had come over to tell me something today and had chickened out.

  He came over to tell me about her.

  Oh no. Tears were threatening to choke me as this realization took a battering ram to my pride. My throat grew way too tight as it dawned on me just how stupid I’d been.

  How naïve.

  I’d believed him. I’d trusted him. He’d said he’d wanted space, but he hadn’t just wanted space…he’d wanted space from me. He’d wanted independence…from me.

  It wasn’t that he hadn’t wanted to be in a relationship. He hadn’t wanted a relationship with me.

  Blood rushed to my head making me lightheaded, the only sound I could hear was the roar of it in my ears. I stood there frozen in the middle of the soccer field for who knew how long until finally Caleb seemed to sense my stare. I hadn’t been able to tear my eyes away from the sight of him flirting with the blonde.

  And make no mistake—he was flirting. I knew it by the way he smiled, the way he leaned in toward her, the way he tilted his head ever so slightly to whisper in her ear.

  I knew because it was so familiar and yet so foreign.

  Had he ever looked at me like that? Had he ever given me that flirty smile or looked at me like…like that? No. Not that I could recall. We’d skipped right past flirting in our timeline. We’d gone from backyard besties to boyfriend and girlfriend without any of the romance or the wooing. There had been no flirtatious smiles and awkward giggling, just a quick easy slide into coupledom.

  And that was fine by me. It always had been. What we had might not have been glamorous or romantic or some epic love story—Romeo and Juliet we were not—but it had been enough. For me.

  It had been enough for me. Apparently, not for him.

  He walked over to me, and as he did, I honestly racked my brain for a time when he’d ever looked at me like he’d looked at this stranger…like she was the sun and he was a planet in her orbit.

  That weird glow of his diminished big time as he met my gaze and headed in my direction. My heart sank as his expression grew grim. He looked weary, exhausted.

  I wrapped my arms around my waist as if that could help the cold sensation that was seeping into my bones. When he stopped in front of me, just a little too far away—close enough to have a private conversation but not so close that I could reach out to him.

  Not touchable.

  I meant to stay quiet, to hear what he had to say…what he’d most likely tried to tell me earlier before he’d wussed out. I tried, but I failed.

  “So that’s why...?” I waved a hand toward the blonde who wasn’t even trying to hide the fact that she was watching us closely. “She’s why…” I swallowed when my voice broke. I looked away from her only to see that all of our teammates were starting to take notice. Conversations were stopping as they turned to face us.

  I wondered how much they knew…if they’d all known before I had.

  I bit my lip and turned back to face him. “How could you do this to me?” It came out as a whisper but I might as well have shouted in his face by the way he flinched.

  “Hannah, I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you—”

  “But you did,” I said. Drawing in a deep breath I tried to focus on words rather than the churning pit in my stomach. “Did you cheat on me?”

  His eyes widened in horror. I guessed that was my answer. “No,” he said quickly. “No, of course not. That’s why I—” He cleared his throat. “That’s why I—”

  “That’s why you broke up with me in a text while I was out of town?” I finished for him, a world of derision in my voice. He cringed.

  Good.

  “Hannah, I’m so sorry,” he said. I waited for him to continue.

  “That’s it? You’re sorry?” I shook my head, a hysterical laugh threatening to spill out of me. “No explanations, no rationalizations?”

  He threw his hands up in a helpless gesture. “I can’t explain it. I met Val at a party while you were away and…”

  “And?” I repeated, my voice growing higher and harsher with every second. “And what? You fell in love at first sight?”

  He opened his mouth and made a weird squeaking noise before clamping his jaw shut again.

  My own lips parted on a quick inhale. He had. Or at least he thought he had. He’d fallen in love with a stranger. At a party. While I was away.

  My brain was processing this news in fits and starts.

  He glanced over his shoulder at the girl in question before turning back to me with a pleading look. Don’t make a scene, his look seemed to say.

  I swallowed down the urge to scream. I wouldn’t make a scene—but not for him, and certainly not for her—some chick I’d never even seen before.

  No, I wouldn’t make a scene because my pride was hurting enough as it was. I was painfully aware of all the eyes on us. I knew if I met the eyes of my friends from our team I’d see it—pity.

  I sucked in a deep breath and held it until this wave of emotion passed. I would not cry in front of the entire team. I would not do it.

  “I can’t believe you’re telling me this here…now.”

  I swear, if he cringes one more time…

  He was looking at me like he was the injured party, like I was the bad guy because I was upset. “I’m not the bad guy here, Caleb.”

  “I know.” His voice had this soothing edge to it, like he was dealing with an unpredictable crazyface. He took a step closer and lowered his voice. “I should have told you earlier. I meant to, I…” He trailed off with a sigh.

  “You were a coward.”

  He didn’t deny it but being right didn’t make me feel any better. I clenched my hands until I could feel my fingernails digging into my palms. “So, this was why you came over to my house earlier? You were going to tell me about…Val?” Ugh, I hated her name. I hated everything about her. I knew it wasn’t her fault, logically, and at some point the feminist in me would tell me not to blame the other woman for my ex-boyfriends cowardice, but for right now…?

  Right now I hated her.

  I hated him.

  I hated them both.

  I had enough hate to go around. Equal-opportunity hater, that was me.

  He shifted in front of me. “Actually…”

  I stiffened at the word. My stomach took a nosedive at his tone. The only word I could use to describe it was…terrified. I’d known this guy forever, and I knew the look in his eyes. It was the look he got before he went to the dentist. The look he got before his Trig exam last semester.

  The look of dread that said he’d give everything he had to avoid whatever it was he was about to do.

  The silence that stretched between us was wreaking havoc on my nerves. “What?” I snapped.

  He swallowed. “I came o
ver because…” He cleared his throat. If he didn’t spit it out soon, I was going to reach over and wring his neck. He met my gaze evenly. “I was coming over to tell you I think you should drop the team.”

  I stared.

  I blinked.

  I opened my mouth and then shut it.

  Throughout it all, I forgot to breathe. After what felt like an endless moment, I had to gasp for much-needed oxygen.

  Caleb’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he fidgeted, crossing his arms and then uncrossing them, then shoving his hands in the pockets of his shorts.

  “What?” That was all I could manage. I think a little part of me hoped I’d misheard him.

  He winced.

  I hadn’t misheard. My stomach was somewhere in the vicinity of my toes, and my heart…oh my heart.

  It had a knife in it, of that I was sure.

  “I’m sorry, Hannah, but you’ve got to admit, this is awkward.” He looked around pointedly at the people who were staring.

  “It’s only awkward because you didn’t tell me about…about her until right now.” My voice was so high-pitched, I hated it. I hated how close I sounded to tears.

  I hated that I was close to tears.

  I hadn’t cried over our breakup, not once. And now…

  Oh crap, I had to get out of here before I lost it.

  “Please don’t make this any harder,” he said.

  “I’m making this hard?” I let out a huff of air that was part shocked laughter part sob. “I can’t believe you’re kicking me off the team.”

  “I’m not kicking you off—”

  “You’re the captain, Caleb,” I said. “And you don’t want me here. What would you call it?”

  “I’m just saying it would be the best for the team—”

  “To lose their best striker?” I shook my head. “Don’t start lying to me now, Caleb. You’re doing this for you….you’re doing this for her. Not for the team.”

  He shoved a hand through his short hair, making it stick up in a way I used to love. It was so at odds with his normal put together look that I used to love seeing him like this…now, it left me cold. He was ruffled, sure, but it wasn’t over some Trig test. He was all off-kilter because of me.

  Because he wanted me off the team.

  Tears stung the back of my eyes. “Whatever happened to friends first?” I said. “Wasn’t that what we always said? We swore we wouldn’t be like those other couples—”

  “And we don’t have to be,” he said. I saw the anger replacing his shame. I watched as he latched onto irritation rather than deal with the guilt over what he was doing to me.

  To us.

  “You’re the one who’s being dramatic,” he said. “I’m just asking you to do the right thing and step aside for the sake of the team.”

  I blinked rapidly to keep the tears at bay. Frustration alone made me want to weep. This wasn’t fair. Why should I have to give up the team I love just because he broke up with me?

  But his eyes were cold, and I could feel the stares.

  We were causing a scene. For the first time ever, we were that couple.

  And we weren’t even a couple.

  Ha! Hilarious, right?

  I stumbled back a step, horrified by the harsh look in his eyes. He’d shut down on me. He’d grown cold.

  I might not have seen him look at me the way he’d looked at his new girlfriend, but he’d never looked at me like this before either. And this…this hurt.

  Friends first? What a joke.

  We weren’t friends, not anymore.

  He’d made sure of that.

  Chapter Four

  River

  I cupped Allison’s face in my hands as I looked down at her. “I love you, you know that, right?”

  She laughed and swatted my hands away. “Yeah, yeah. Bet you say that to all your strikers.”

  I grinned as she ran off to the field again. Seriously, her last score had been epic. The girl wasn’t a soccer phenom, but she was good. Really good. She’d come a long way since she’d first joined the team.

  “Better be careful,” Tristan said as he joined me on the sidelines. “She has a thing for you.”

  I shook my head. “Allison knows I don’t date teammates.”

  “Yeah, but I’m just saying…” He took a bite of the candy bar he was holding. “Don’t flirt with her. She’ll get hurt.”

  I looked over in surprise at his serious tone. Tristan didn’t do serious. Tristan also didn’t play for the team but he hung out with us when he wasn’t working. Like me, he was always up for an excuse to get out of his house and, as he put it, there were worse ways to spend a summer afternoon.

  But now I was starting to wonder if there wasn’t another reason for his interest in my team. Tristan watched Allison as she jogged back over to her friends near the goal.

  “Dude, if you like her—”

  “Pshh, I didn’t say that.” His face said ‘do not go there’ so I kept my mouth shut.

  But I did add, “I was just kidding. She knows that.”

  Tristan acted like he didn’t hear me. “How’d your dad take it when he found out you’re playing in this league again?”

  I shot him a sidelong look. “How do you think?”

  He let out a huff of laughter. “Your old man need to chillax.”

  I laughed. “Yeah, you try telling him that. I’d love to see how that works out for you.”

  Cupping my hands around my mouth, I shouted to the team. “All right, let’s try it again. Remember, our first game is against Lakeview—”

  Groans and curses filled the air. I grinned. Our mutual hatred of all things Lakeview was one of the bonds that made my team great. Everyone on our team went to my school, Fairmont. Lakeview was the snotty prep school on the other side of town. It was the school where all the rich kids went, and as a rule, we despised them.

  In our defense, they gave us every reason to. Spoiled brats, the lot of them. On top of that, they got all the funding, which meant they had all the good athletic programs. They had the best football team, the best basketball team…but soccer. That was one area where we gave them a run for their money.

  “They’re going down!” Allison shouted as she took her place on the field. We were running practice scrimmages today to prepare for the game. We had to be ready because we all knew they would be.

  Their captain was relentless, and he also happened to be my least favorite person on earth. Caleb Everette. Ugh. The guy was a jerk—entitled, conceited, and my main rival in the intramural league and in regular season.

  If there was anyone standing in the way of me and a full scholarship, it was him.

  But the really sucky part was, he didn’t need it. He didn’t need their money, he just wanted to be recruited. He wanted the recognition. As if it wasn’t enough that he’d been born lucky—he had the family, the wealth…the girl.

  He had it all.

  But he wouldn’t win this game.

  I blew my whistle to start the scrimmage. No more than thirty seconds passed before it happened.

  Crunch. Thud.

  Tristan jerked beside me as we heard the collision between Allison and the defender.

  It was a bad hit—unintentional, I was sure, but what did that matter?

  Tristan was off like a shot and he beat me to her side. Before I could say ‘don’t move her’ he had Allison partially in his lap as he fussed over her.

  “Give her air, man,” I said, pulling him back so she could catch her breath. She’d been winded, definitely, but it wasn’t clear if she was seriously hurt.

  I was about to shout for someone to call for an ambulance when she shook her head. “I’m okay,” she wheezed.

  “You sure?”

  She nodded. “Just knocked the wind out of me.”

  Ben, the guy who’d hit her, was on his knees, his apology tumbling out in a torrent of panicked words. “I didn’t mean to…I’m so sorry…”

  She cut him off in the middle with
a wave of her hands and a smile. “It’s all good,” she said. “You were just doing your job.”

  Practice was over after that, and Tristan left to take her home.

  I got the call from Allison as I was cleaning up all the gear and waiting on Tristan to come back and get me. I had a motorcycle, one that had been a total clunker until Paxton had helped me fix it up. It worked just fine to get me to and from school and work, but it was useless when it came to hauling sports equipment.

  “I’m so sorry, River.” Allison sounded close to tears.

  “No, don’t worry about it.” I did my best to be gentle. The last thing I needed was to hear this girl cry. She was a sweetheart and a heck of a player.

  “My mom won’t let me—”

  “I get it,” I said for the tenth time. “Trust me, I totally get it.” I’d like to think my mom wouldn’t let me play anymore if I’d come home with a possible concussion.

  “We’re going to the doctor’s soon,” she said. “I don’t think it’s necessary but—”

  “It is,” I said. “You should go. Make sure you’re okay. You wouldn’t want to miss the regular season, right?”

  She sighed. She knew I was right.

  “Seriously, Allison. You just take care of yourself. Let me worry about the team.”

  “I know, but the first game is next week. Maybe I can talk to my mom and—”

  “No,” I said. “No way. You don’t worry about us; just make sure you’re healthy, okay?”

  She hesitated before giving in with a tired sigh. “Yeah. Okay.”

  “I promise I’ll find someone to fill your spot, and we’ll still manage to kick their butts, even without your mad skills.”

  She laughed as I’d hoped she would. “I can’t wait to watch you take them down.”

  I grinned. “That’s my girl. Now go see that doctor.”

  She hung up and Tristan showed minutes later. “What are you gonna do, man?”

  I shrugged. “Get a new team member, I guess. What else is there to do? I’m not gonna forfeit.” I turned to my lanky friend who’d only ever played sports on X-Box. “You feel like playing some soccer, man?”