4

“Are we really going to class?” Asher asked as we made our way down the deserted hall.

“What do you think?” Jason grumbled. “I can’t believe we’re stuck with Khloe all year.”

“Like you haven’t already banged that.” Asher elbowed Jase who levelled him with a hard look.

“Exactly,” he ground out. “And I’m not looking for a repeat. Ever.” Contempt dripped from his words, as if the idea of being with a girl more than once was crazy. But then, when girls threw themselves at you the way they did Jason, I couldn’t blame him.

Being a Rixon Raider came with a certain set of privileges. We were treated like gods in the halls at school; and outside the school gates, around town, wasn’t much different. It was easy to get swept up in it all. The girls. The attention. The respect. But being the team’s star quarterback was a whole other deal. Jason Ford wasn’t just a Rixon Raider—he was the Rixon Raider. The guy legends were made of, and we all knew he had a one-way ticket straight to the NFL.

“So, what’s the plan?” Joel said and Jason’s head whipped around as if he’d totally forgotten he was with us.

“You should get to class.”

“But—”

“Later, Mackey.” I shoved him toward the stairs, and he walked away, shoulders slumped, dejection burning in his eyes.

“Little fucker’s got balls talking about Hailee like that,” Asher said, and my spine straightened.

“Hailee would eat him alive. But no one will touch her,” Jase grunted. “Everyone knows she’s off-limits.”

Thank fuck.

“Anyone would think you want her, the way you act all—”

“What the fuck did you just say?” Jason had Asher pinned up against the wall before he knew what had hit him.

“Easy, man.” Asher’s eyes were wide, his hands up by his sides in surrender, as I watched on.

Jason and Hailee’s games of push and pull were nothing more than sibling rivalry gone bad. Really fucking bad. Me and Asher had been around long enough to know how it was between them, so why Asher was pushing the issue now was an interesting development.

“I’m just yanking your chain,” he choked out. “I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“So don’t fucking be saying that shit.” He relaxed his hold and Asher slumped down the wall, rubbing his throat. “You know I can barely tolerate her ass and don’t even get me started on Denise. I swear I should have figured out a way to sabotage the wedding before they went through with it. I can’t believe my dad married that smug bitch.”

It was no secret Jason had issues. I would have liked to say his dad’s recent nuptials with Hailee’s mom was the reason for his anger, but he’d always been that way. Ever since we were kids, he’d had giant chip on his shoulder, angry at the world and everyone in it.

“I don’t know,” Asher said. “She’s always been nice when we come over. Offering us cookies and milk, batting her come-fuck-me-eyes in my direction. Hey, if you need me to help throw a wrench in their post-wedding bliss, I’m more than willing to take one for the team.” He grinned, quirking his brows, and Jase tackle hugged him, the two of them falling into the wall again but this time with smiles on their faces.

“Mr. Ford, Mr. Chase, and Mr. Bennet, what a surprise.” Principal Finnigan appeared, hands clasped behind his back, disapproval etched into his expression as he watched my two best friends untangle themselves.

“Good morning, Sir.” Jason swept a hand through his messy hair, laying it on thick. “How are you today?”

“All the better for seeing you.” He deadpanned. “I trust I can expect nothing but hard work and a mature approach to your school experience this semester?”

“Of course, Sir.”

“Glad to hear it. It would be a shame to find yourself on the bench in your senior year.” The principal gave us a scathing look before going about his business.

“Motherfucker...” Asher muttered under his breath. “Like he can actually do that.”

“He’s just pissed the school board overruled him last year.” There had been an incident with our rivals Rixon East High. Our names all got cleared in the end, but Principal Finnigan had made it his mission to see that the reputation of the football team be cleaned up, whatever the fuck that meant.

Finnigan didn’t get it. An out-of-town transfer last year, he didn’t understand what it was like to live in Rixon, to play football in Rixon. He didn’t understand people looked the other way if they saw you up to no good, even if they recognized you as a Raider. Because Rixon, Pennsylvania, was a football town. And it just so happened to have one of the longest standing rivalries in the history of high school football. A rivalry that spilled off the field and into people’s lives. A rivalry so embedded into the history of the town, people accepted it as readily as they accepted Fourth of July or Thanksgiving.

“Coach warned us he could be a problem this year, so we need to try to keep our noses clean.” Jason shouldered the door to the athletics field, and we cut across the grass to the gym.

“Screw that,” Asher said. “Thatcher will be looking to get payback after what you did to Aim…” He backtracked when Jase levelled him with a hard look. “My bad. I’m just saying, after what went down, he’ll be gunning for blood.”

“He can bring it.” Jase growled. “If they come onto our territory, then that’s on them. Finnigan can’t pin anything on us if it’s got their fingerprints all over it.”

“So that’s it? We just roll over and let them come at us?” Asher threw Jase an incredulous look. But Jase’s eyes darkened, a wicked glint in his narrowed gaze as he said, “Who said anything about rolling over?”

 

   

“Hit the showers and get out of here,” Coach Hasson boomed. I was already ass naked, cupping my junk as I ducked into the showers.

“Bell’s tonight?” Asher said from somewhere behind me and Jase grunted, “Yeah.”

Jase didn’t want to talk, he rarely did after running drills out on the field, but Asher talked enough for the three of us put together. When we’d cleaned the dirt off our skin and let the hot jets unknot the muscles in our bodies, we each grabbed our towels and padded back into the changing room. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Jase barked at the few remaining guys who were all staring at us.

“I... hmm, shit...” It was Joel who stepped forward, his eyes avoiding his QB, opting for the floor instead.

“Spit it out, Mackey,” I said, moving to my locker.

“Hailee, she hmm...”

Hailee?

What the fuck?

Then my eyes dropped to the bench in front of Jase’s locker. The bench where his sports bag was. The one that should have been full of his clothes and wasn’t.

“Oh shit...” I whistled between my teeth, unsure whether to be impressed or concerned for her life.

“She wouldn’t fucking dare.” Jase grabbed his bag and turned it upside down. “She took everything.” He sounded calm. Deadly.

Shit. Hailee would pay for this, and there was something very wrong with me, because the idea made my dick twitch to life.

My history with Hailee Raine was complicated. When she and her mom first moved in with Jason and his dad, she’d been nothing more than his annoying step-sister. But I quickly learned Hailee Raine wasn’t annoying at all. She was smart and quick-witted, and she didn’t take Jason’s shit.

From day one, she’d stood up to him; looked him right in the eye as he laid into her, laughing at her pigtails, glasses, and denim overalls smeared with paint. He’d called her Pippi Longstocking and said he didn’t play with girls who looked like thrift store rejects. Hailee had kicked him in the shin and run off. But she hadn’t told on him and she hadn’t cried. That got my attention.

But six years was a long time. Now we were older, and Hailee was a different kind of annoying. All grown up, she’d filled out in all the right places since junior high. I’d noticed. Hell, we’d all noticed. It was why Jason had shut that shit down in ninth grade, the year she grew tits. It had been an unspoken rule before then, but that year Jason officially laid down the law.

Hailee Raine was off-limits to the team.