Semua Bab Falling for My Best Friend's Brother: Bab 41 - Bab 50

Liam's POV"Deal," I said.Colton's smile came back fast. Too fast. It was the smile of a man who thought he had just gotten exactly what he wanted and was already enjoying the version of events he had written in his head.The team reorganised itself without being asked. Players pulled back to give us room, forming a loose half circle around the space between the hash marks, the way a crowd always arranged itself around something it expected to be worth watching. The squad on the track had stopped pretending to run formations. Everyone was watching now and nobody was hiding it.Tate fell in beside me while I pulled on my gloves."You know you did not have to say yes," he said quietly."I know," I said."He is trying to humiliate you in front of both groups.""Let him try," I said.Tate looked at me for a second and then stepped back without another word. He understood that I knew exactly what I had gotten myself into. Colton was already talking to two of the other receivers, loose an

Avery's POVPriya did not step forward dramatically. She did not raise her voice or make a show of it. She just turned to Brianna and spoke like the answer was obvious and she was mildly surprised nobody had said it yet."Her man?" Priya said. "He cheated. For two months. On a girl who gave him seven months and never once embarrassed him publicly, even when she had every reason to." She looked at Brianna steadily. "And you are standing here calling her the problem?"Brianna blinked. It was fast but everyone around them caught it."I am just saying what people are thinking," Brianna said."No," Priya said. "You are saying what Colton needed someone to say because he just got embarrassed on his own challenge and needed the attention somewhere else. And you volunteered for that." She glanced at Colton briefly and then looked back at Brianna. "So congratulations on that."A few people nearby made sounds that they quickly turned into coughs. Someone at the back of the squad actually laughe

Avery's POVPractice restarted and I ran it, taking over from Priya.I put myself together and I walked back across the boundary line with my chin held high. I called the first count and the squad moved to my commands. I focused on the formations and I did not let my eyes drift to the main field more than twice in the remaining forty minutes. Coach Vega ran the session alongside me without saying a word about what had just happened, which was either professional grace or the understanding that there was nothing useful to say about it, and either way I was grateful.Besides going to the club and becoming Scarlett, running cheerleading practice sessions help me destress. It always did. When everything else was loud and messy, the counts and the formations gave me something concrete to hold onto. Point, correct, reset, run it again. There was no room in that for anything else and I used every bit of it. By the last rotation the girls were sharp and the energy had lifted and I felt almost

Avery's POVI was honestly shocked that Liam didn't say anything to me after I rejected his offer to have drinks with him for the second time. He didn't even try to convince me. He just left me standing there, wondering if I should have said yes instead.We had a meeting the next day for our project. The meeting was at a café this time around. He was already at the table when I got there. He was already seated with two coffees on the table, his laptop open and a relaxed expression that looked too at ease for someone who came here to study.I sat down across from him."You ordered for me," I said."Oat milk flat white," he said. "I asked the girl at the counter. She knew your order.""I come here a lot," I said."I know," he said. "She also told me you always sit at this table and tip well and sometimes bring your own highlighters."I looked at him. "You asked her all of that?""She offered most of it," he said. "People who like someone tend to volunteer information about them."I pull

Avery's POVI stopped packing and looked at him.He had asked me to go out with him and he was sitting there across the table, completely still, watching my face and waiting. He was not pushing. He was not filling the silence with more words to tip me toward an answer. He was just waiting, like he had all the patience in the world and genuinely meant it when he said he was fine with whatever I said. That in itself was unusual. Most people did not know how to wait for things. Most people needed to help the situation along.I thought about Scarlett first, because Scarlett always came first in these calculations. That secret life I had couldn't afford to clash with my everyday life, and hanging out with him on both fronts was a risk.Even though I was starting to like him, Scarlett would have looked at this situation and handled it cleanly and without hesitation. She would have smiled and said no and meant it and walked out of this café without giving it another thought, because Scarlett