Chapter Three: Jacket

LENA

The jacket sat heavy on my shoulders. Too big, sleeves past my knuckles. I stood in the stands and felt every eye that wasn't looking at me.

Landon jogged past the fence before kickoff. He stopped for two seconds. No more. His eyes found mine in the crowd. Then he turned back toward the field.

I told my chest to settle down. It didn't listen right away.

Priya sat beside me, arms crossed against the cold. "He looked at you."

"He looked at the crowd."

"He looked at you." She didn't blink. "I was watching."

The game ran long, into a second overtime. I counted plays instead of feeling anything about them. Westbrook won on a field goal with ten seconds left. The stands emptied around us in a wave of noise.

Landon came straight to me after. Helmet under one arm, jersey dark with sweat. Not to the cluster of teammates by the gate. Not to the girls waiting by the fence. To me.

He reached out and adjusted my collar. One hand, quick. Three seconds, maybe less. His fingers didn't linger.

"Wasn't in the contract." I watched his face for the answer.

"No." He didn't apologize for it. "It wasn't."

Priya went quiet beside me. The kind of quiet that meant she'd noticed everything. She was saving her questions for later. I felt her watching us both without turning her head.

Across the field, near the east stands, a girl stood alone with her arms folded. Dark hair. Expensive coat. Posture too straight for someone just watching a game. She didn't look at Landon. She looked at me, steady, like she was taking notes she'd already half memorized.

"Who is that." I nodded toward her.

"No idea." Priya followed my gaze. "But she's not here for the team."

I didn't ask Landon. I already had a guess. I didn't want him confirming it in front of half the school.

We walked toward the parking lot together after. Close but not touching. The jacket collar still warm where his fingers had been. My phone rang halfway through the corridor by the gym doors. Unknown number again.

I stepped away from Landon to answer it. A man's voice, calm and unfamiliar. "Miss Kato. I represent someone with an interest in your current arrangement."

"I'm not interested in whatever this is."

"You should hear the offer before you decide that."

"My brother's surgery is Wednesday." I kept my voice flat. "I don't have time for people who won't say their own name."

I hung up before he could answer. My hand was steady when I put the phone away. Steadier than I expected.

Landon had stopped a few feet back, watching my face. "Who was that."

"Someone who works for someone." I started walking again. "You'd know better than I would."

He didn't deny it. He fell into step beside me instead. Quiet, the parking lot lights buzzing overhead in the cold.

"The girl in the east stands." I glanced at him sideways. "Was that Cassidy."

"No." His voice went careful again. The way it did whenever a question landed somewhere he hadn't planned for. "That wasn't Cassidy."

"Then who."

He didn't answer right away. The silence told me more than any answer would have. We reached my car before he said anything else.

"I'll find out." He looked at me steadily. "I promise you that."

"Don't promise things you can't check first."

He almost smiled at that. Just the corner of his mouth, gone as fast as it came. "Noted."

I drove home with the jacket still on. The collar loose again where his hand had left it. Leo's surgery was two days away. My mother had the deposit half covered from the first payment. The rest waited on Landon's father not deciding to make trouble before Wednesday.

I thought about the girl in the east stands. About the man on the phone who knew my name and my brother's schedule. Someone on this campus had been paying attention to me long before Landon Cross walked into my practice room.

I just didn't know yet how long. Or how many of them there were.

That night I lay awake counting ceiling tiles instead of sleeping. My thumbnail pressed into my palm out of habit. Waiting for Wednesday, ready or not.

I thought about the coffee cup between us in the library. Two cups, every time, like he'd stopped somewhere close on purpose. It was a small thing. It didn't fit the version of him everyone at school seemed to believe in.

Maybe that was the point. Maybe he wanted me to see the version nobody else got to see. Or maybe it was just another line item, dressed up to look like something warmer than it was.

I couldn't tell yet which one was true. That uncertainty kept me awake longer than the ceiling tiles did.

Somewhere across town, Leo was probably still awake too. Running through his hospital gown jokes for the morning. Bracing the way he always did, by making it funny first. I wished I could borrow some of that.

Instead I lay there and counted. I waited. I hoped Wednesday would be kinder than the week before it had been.

The clock ticked past midnight before I finally closed my eyes. The things I didn't know had outgrown the things I did. That felt like a warning. I couldn't name it yet. I only felt it settle low in my stomach as I finally drifted off.