FRAMED BY THE COACH I WANT AND MY BEST FRIEND
Naomi Cole has always played by the rules, a good girl, a virgin, until everyone she knows turns against her.
At twenty-one, she's the fastest swimmer Maristen College has ever seen, disciplined, driven, and quietly consumed by a crush she confided in exactly one person: her best friend, Octavia, the only one who knew how badly she wanted Coach Murphy Reyes.
When a positive drug test destroys her name in front of the entire school, she loses everything in a single afternoon, her spot, her reputation, and the friendship she thought nothing could touch. Desperate to clear her name, she turns to the only person left who seems to be on her side: her coach.
What starts as quiet gratitude spirals into something neither of them can control. But Naomi isn't just fighting to prove her innocence. She's caught in a blackmail scheme that threatens to expose very dangerous secrets.
The people she believes to be on her side are the ones whom she should fear the most. Will she find out soon enough or after it’s too later and her reputation has been damaged forever?
읽기
Chapter: Chapter SevenNaomi's POVMarcus was still talking when I stopped hearing him."You had to be, what, fifteen? Sixteen?" he said, watching the swim team run their sets below us. "I remember the whole gym losing it when you touched the wall first. My cousin still brings it up.""Mm-hmm," I said."You don't even remember, do you.""Mm-hmm.""That's criminal. That was the biggest thing to happen to this town in a decade and you're out here mm-hmming me."I wasn't ignoring him on purpose. My mind had gone somewhere else entirely, circling the same three sentences Marcus had said fifteen minutes earlier until they'd worn a groove into me.“He's not staying quiet. He's got proof. He's planning something big.”I stood up so fast the bleacher shook under both of us."I need to make a call," I said, already moving."Wait, seriously?" Marcus said behind me. "We were literally in the middle of something.""I'll catch up with you later," I said, not turning around, already three steps down toward the exit."Yea
최신 업데이트: 2026-10-14
Chapter: Chapter SixNaomi's POVTwo days had passed since the boathouse, and I still hadn't slept through a single night.I wasn't suspended. I wasn't expelled. I was just suspended in the space between those two words, pending an investigation nobody had given me a timeline for.My mom was already at the kitchen table when I came downstairs that morning, phone in her hand, jaw tight in a way I recognized."Someone painted the shop window last night," she said, before I'd even sat down. "I already had it cleaned before opening.""What did it say?""It doesn't matter what it said." She set her phone face down on the table, which was how I knew it mattered plenty. "I handled it."I found out later from a screenshot a customer had sent her, still open on the shop computer when I stopped by after school. Your daughter is a fake, painted in red across the front glass, gone before most of Main Street woke up but not before three regulars had already seen it.She never brought it up again after that morning. Ne
최신 업데이트: 2026-10-14
Chapter: Chapter Five: 9pmNaomi's POVCoach Reyes cut the engine in the lot behind the athletic complex and didn't move to get out."Listen to me," he said. "If he sees me with you, he or she'll run, or they get dangerous. I'm going to stay back, out of sight. Let him believe you're alone. I'll be close enough to hear everything.""What if something goes wrong?" I asked. I was panicking terribly."Nothing's going to go wrong," he said. "Just stall if you can. Get him or her talking. I need to hear who this is."I nodded, even though my legs felt like they belonged to someone else.The boathouse sat at the edge of the river, a long wooden building smelling of algae and old rope.Coach Reyes slipped in ahead of me and disappeared into the shadows near a stack of aluminum barricades before I'd even crossed the threshold.I couldn't see him anymore. I had to trust he was still there."Hello?" I called out, my voice bouncing strangely off the water lapping somewhere below the floorboards.A shape shifted near the f
최신 업데이트: 2026-10-13
Chapter: Chapter Four: Dope QueenNaomi's POVI left Coach Reyes's office with several hours still standing betweenme and nine o'clock.For me, hours always feel worse than minutes. At least, minutes force you to move because you know time will soon be up. But hours just make you sit there.My phone buzzed twice on the walk to my next class. Both texts were from my mom.Mrs. Delgado came into the shop today asking questions. I handled it. Don't worry about us.I knew exactly what kind of questions Mrs. Delgado asked. The whole town was asking it. My mom ran her flower shop out of a converted garage two blocks from Main Street, and half her regulars had probably heard about the incident by now.I typed back a short reply and put the phone away before I could read anything worse.By third period I had stopped hearing anything the teachers said. I sat in the back of chemistry, staring at a periodic table I had memorized in tenth grade. That's what it looked like I was doing anyway. Actually, I was thinking about the boa
최신 업데이트: 2026-10-13
Chapter: Chapter Three: Morning AfterNaomi's POVThe house was dark except for the kitchen light when I got home.My mom was waiting up anyway, still in the same clothes she wore to the competition. A cup of tea gone cold in front of her.She didn't ask me if it was true or not because she knew there was no truth in it. But she didn't know what to tell me either so she just drew me into a bear hug. Even at 21, I still melted whenever my Mum hugged me."We'll figure it out tomorrow," she said, pulling me tighter. She smelled like home. "Right now you need sleep."I didn't tell her about the call. I didn't know how to explain two thousand dollars to her and have her start worrying on top of everything else.We didn't have that kind of cash sitting anywhere and that reality kept me awake most of the night doing math that never worked out the same way twice.By morning I'd slept maybe two hours, and none of it felt like rest.School that day was its own kind of exhausting.People went quiet when I walked past. Conversations
최신 업데이트: 2026-10-13
Chapter: Chapter Two: BlackmailNaomi's POVThe locker room was empty except for the sound of my own hands moving through my bag.I kept checking all the compartments and smaller purses in my bag over and over, like it would explain itself if I looked hard enough. I kept hoping I'd find any clues that could explain what exactly was happening to me.Teammates drifted in and out to grab their things. Nobody said a word to me. A few of them wouldn't even look up.I didn't blame them. I was suddenly the black sheep and I didn't know what I would say to me either.The door opened again and I didn't bother looking up this time."Nana."Only one person called me that.Octavia stood in the doorway, still in her Maristen jacket, medal nowhere in sight even though it should have been around her neck by now."I'm so sorry this happened to you," she said, crossing the room fast, like she needed to reach me before I could tell her not to.She pulled me into a hug before I could answer.I let her. I needed it more than I wanted t
최신 업데이트: 2026-10-13
로그인
