QUINNNate had returned to school about a week before the championship game, and he'd agreed to sit with me at the stadium. I knew Sheri was worried about him being out in the cold, but the day had actually dawned a little more temperate, and although the air was still chilly, the sun was warm. I promised Sheri that I'd keep my eye on Nate and get him home if he began feeling bad. It felt as though the entire school was crowding the stands, but Gia had saved seats for us. The girls greeted Nate as though they were all long-lost friends, although they didn't know each other well."Dude, about time you're here." Gia folded Nate into a hug. At first he stood stiff, but no one was immune to Gia, I'd found, and in a few seconds, he patted her back, smiling faintly.I introduced him to Gia's friends, and then there wasn't time for anything else. We stood for the anthem and stayed on our feet for kickoff. This time, there wasn't any drama on the field. Matt and Leo played the game as t

LEOHer hair was down, spilling around her face. Her arms and legs, still sporting a little leftover tan from the summer, were bare. And on her body, she wore my jersey. It was huge on her, of course. Quinn wasn't tiny, by any means, but I was still half a foot taller than her and outweighed her by almost a hundred pounds, probably. The jersey hung low on her shoulders, dipping enticingly between her breasts.She walked toward me, her eyes glued to mine, and then crawled onto the bed, kneeling at the foot. "Baby." I breathed the word and held out one hand. "Look at you. How did you ...where did you get this?"She smiled and lifted one shoulder. The slippery material slid down one of her arms, baring the top of one gorgeous tit. "I had help. And I wanted to be wearing it tonight. Because like you said . . ." She moved closer to me, until her knees rested next to my legs. "Go big or go home, right?"I couldn't wait another moment. Sitting up, I reached for her, hauling her body

QUINNI kept my phone close to me the rest of the night, but I didn't hear from Leo. My mom hadn't gotten any news from Leo's father, either, and we were all worried. Finally, the next morning, I messaged him.Are you okay? What's going on with your mom?Nearly two hours went by before he responded. Not sure. Call you later.Later turned out to be about seven that night, and when I heard Leo's voice through the phone, I wasn't sure whether to be hurt or furious. "Heyyyyyy, Quinn. Come on over, babe. I'm at Matt's. It's a party."I had been sitting at the dinner table with my parents when the call came in, and I marched out of the kitchen and up to my bedroom."Leo, what the hell? Are you drunk?""Maybe a leeetle bit." He laughed, and in the background, I heard the sound of music and other people talking. "I thought you were with your mom. I've been worried about her. And you.""Ah, no, babe. She's gonna be okay. But I miss you. Come on over here, 'kay? Guess what, Matt's

QUINNOnce upon a time, I'd thought that if Leo and I ever got together, if he ever admitted to loving me like I loved him, life would be perfect. We would never fight, and everything would be sunshine and roses. We'd live happily ever after.The last two months had opened my eyes to the absolute absurdity of that way of thinking. Leo loved me, I didn't doubt that. I loved him, more now than I had ever thought possible. Most of the time, he was sweet to me, funny and protective. Before spring football season began, I'd had no doubt that I was Leo's top priority. But lately, I felt like I'd been slipping down that list, until I fell somewhere below football and his friends. And today? Well, today I was furious. I'd already been a little worried about the bullying series, for the very reason Leo had listed. But it was actually going well so far, and our local newspaper had even picked up one of my articles, highlighting a problem in the schools that most people preferred to ignore. I

LEOI didn't sleep well that night. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Quinn's face. I heard her voice. I felt her body under mine. And then I heard Nate's words, and my father's, too. I wanted to stop hearing them. I wanted to forget what they'd said. They were both wrong, I knew they were. They had to be. Quinn and I were right together. We belonged with each other. We'd both made that clear. But I thought about what my dad had said. College was going to be hard. College football was going to be a full-time job, if I wanted to get into the pros. How would I juggle that along with making Quinn happy, if I couldn't even manage to do that when we were only in high school?And Quinn wanted to be a writer, wanted to be a journalist. Was I justified in denying her that chance, just because I needed to go to a college that would help funnel me into the pros? She could still study journalism wherever we went to school, and I was sure that was what she'd tell me if I brought up the sc