5

He chuckled. “We’re not all assholes. So long as you don’t come looking for trouble.”

“I can’t make any promises.” If Monroe kept pushing, eventually I’d snap. But I was hoping to avoid that.

“You can do it.” Aaron clapped me on the shoulder before moving around me. “Come on,” he said, and I followed him inside.

It wasn’t like I had much choice.

“WELL, will you take a look at that.” Bryan let out a low whistle. “It’s like a fresh pussy buffet.” “Dude, I’m eating,” I quipped, stuffing another fry into my mouth.

“Yeah, and hopefully I will be later.” He grinned, sticking his fingers up to his mouth in a V and licking.

“Fucking idiot,” Gav said. “But he’s not wrong about the pussy. Case in point.” He pointed over to a group of girls in the lunch line.

I recognized them from this morning in the hall.

“The blonde is hot. Hey, Thatch, isn’t that the girl who called after you this morning?”

“Dunno, is it?” I shrugged. She was a cute thing, sure. In that obvious hot girl kinda way. But it wasn’t her that had caught my eye. It was her dark-haired friend that hid behind her.

“Seriously, do you have eyes? Look at her rack. What I wouldn’t give to see what she’s hiding underneath her clothes.”

I barely contained the growl vibrating in my chest when Jenson Monroe strolled up to her and slapped her ass. She pressed a hand to his chest, laughing at something he said. They looked over at us and she frowned.

“Yeah, Casanova, let me know how that works out for you.” “Fuck,” he hissed, scrubbing a hand down his face.

“Anyone give you any shit in second or third period?” I asked them.

“Nothing we couldn’t handle.”

“They’ll get used to us,” I said, swallowing my doubts.

I didn’t like it any more than they did, but it was the hand we’d been dealt. The Raiders were the team to beat, one of the most successful high school teams in the state, even the country. If we wanted to impress scouts and showcase ourselves as the best, we had to play with the best.

“Ooh burn.” Bryan hissed and I looked up to find Blondie giving Monroe a piece of her mind. “Maybe my luck is changing.” He stood up and cupped his hands around his mouth. “Hey, Blondie, there’s room at our table.”

“Sit down, asshole.” I grabbed his t-shirt and yanked. He plopped down in his chair, laughter rumbling in his chest. Bryan was a defensive tackle, and a good one at that. But he was also a fucking idiot, too interested in getting his dick wet than the future.

She smirked in our direction, flicking her long blonde hair over her shoulder. “Fuck, I think I just came in my pants.”

“Jesus, you need to get laid,” Gav chuckled.

She blew him a kiss before grabbing her friend’s hand and tugging her along the lunch line. There was something about her, the dark-haired one. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it though. She looked like a fish out of water standing there while her friend chatted to everyone who came and went. Another girl joined them, and the guys started taking bets on who could bed the blonde first.

“If you worked this hard on the field, maybe we would have gotten to the championship last year,” I mumbled.

I loved my team, I did, but they were too easily distracted. Girls, parties, the attention and fan worship. They wanted it, sure… they just didn’t want it enough. Not the way I did.

Football was everything to me. Every-fucking-thing. It was my ticket out of Rixon. Away from my family. The pressure. The constant shadow of my father.

It was my shot at freedom.

“Hey, you must be Thatcher.” A pretty thing perched her ass on the edge of our table. “I’m Lindsey, the cheer captain.”

“What’s up?”

“Party at my house Friday. You should totally come.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that, hot stuff. We don’t party with Raiders,” Bryan said.

“But aren’t you… Raiders, I mean?” Her perfectly plucked brow arched. “Come. It’ll go a long way to breaking the ice with the team. They’re not all assholes like Jenson.”

I wasn’t sure about that, but she had a point. If we wanted to assimilate with the team, we had to at least try to make the effort.

“We’ll think about it,” I said.

“Good.” She made a show of licking her lips, her eyes fixed right on mine. “I’ll see you around, Thatcher. Guys.” Hopping down off the table, she spun on her heel and sauntered away, her itty-bitty cheer skirt riding up the backs of her thighs and giving us a peek of her ass.

“Fuck, I’m in heaven.” Bryan slammed his hand down on the table. “Tell me we’re going to the party?”

“Maybe. She has a point. We might need to be the ones to try to break the ice.”

“I don’t like it, Thatch,” Gav said. “It has setup written all over it.” His eyes went to where Monroe was sitting with the rest of the football team. They weren’t paying us any attention, laughing at some joke one of them was telling.

“He won’t want us there,” he added.

“Yeah…” I nodded, my lips curving a fraction, “but maybe that’s all the more reason to go.”

Lily “SO?” Mom asked the second I sat at the counter watching her tend to an abandoned kitten. It was a scrawny little thing with matted fur and cloudy eyes, but it was still one of the cutest things I’d ever seen. “How was it?”

“It was fine, Mom.”

“You’re sure?” Concern glittered in her eyes.

“Yep.”

It had been fine. No one bothered me or tried to talk to me. Except for Ashleigh and Peyton, it was almost like I wasn’t there.

Usually, I took comfort in feeling so invisible. Being invisible meant being off people’s radars.

But something felt different about it today.