Somethin' About That Boy

And it was really hard to be supportive the more I saw Slone and the baby interact.

“Ready?” I asked, watching as Banner finally made his way over the fence.

“Ready,” Blue confirmed.

I shoved my headphones in and started off, loving the burn that overtook my body as I did.

I was on my fourth set of bleachers when I felt the pounding beside me.

I moved over so that I was running up the seats instead of the stairs and kept trucking, unsurprised when Banner was the first person to pass me.

He was stronger and faster than anyone on the team. Even the running backs.

Titus wasn’t far behind, followed by Slone and the rest of the sweatpants gang.

But my eyes had only been for one perfectly formed ass, and that was Banner’s.

Vance, however, stopped to keep pace with me, and I narrowed my eyes and tried to ignore him.

But I couldn’t stop the angry burst of a tirade that left my lips when he wouldn’t leave.

“I guess Banner’s quickness isn’t unusual for y’all’s old school,” I said, leaving the obvious of ‘you’re slow’ for him to come up with on his own.

Vance narrowed his eyes and shoulder-checked me.

I nearly went flying all the way down the stairs.

Would have if there hadn’t been a handicap rail there to keep me from falling.

I stopped and readjusted myself, my eyes automatically going across the bleachers to see if Banner had seen.

Luckily, he hadn’t, and when I started back again, the only thing to show for our encounter was a quickly forming bruise that was taking place on the upper part of my arm.

I didn’t stop for three long laps and only then because I needed to shuck my shirt.

Blue stopped beside me, her hand going to my arm.

“What the fuck was that with Vance?” Blue hissed.

I looked around to see if anybody had heard and was thankful that Banner was nowhere near.

“I don’t know,” I admitted.

And I didn’t.

I was really taking Banner’s warnings to heart.

“Do you want to keep running?” she asked, looking worriedly from my face to my arm and then back to Vance.

I shook off my anger and nodded once.

“Yeah,” I said. “I think I still hate Symphony more than Vance.”

She made a disgusted face. “You want to know what would happen if those two got together?”

Horror washed over my face. “Bite your tongue!”

She snickered and gestured for me to keep going.

I did, focusing on the burn in my lungs and not the ache in my arm.

I was on my second to last lap when I’d had enough.

The ache in my arm had gone from a dull throb to a sharp ache somewhere between the lap I was on and the one before it.

And when I looked back at Blue, she was once again caught up in all of the football guys. Meaning that I would be soon, too.

Ducking out of the way before Banner reached me—because yes, he was still in first place as he took the bleachers two and three at a time—I ducked down low beside the water table and took a seat on the ground.

Blue would know where to find me, which was why I wasn’t worried about not being seen.

The huge fuckin’ water jug and table blocked my view, and barely anyone ventured beyond the table because the water was on the front of the table, not the back.

But Blue knew where I liked to sit.

This was one of the only spots on the field that was shaded and I was currently dying. The heat of the sun was so strong that I felt like I could literally feel it burning into my skin.

Blue rounded the table and plopped down beside me, two cups of water in her hand.

“I stole these,” she said. “Straight out of your boyfriend’s hand.”

“He’s not my boyfriend.” I smiled as I took a sip. “You didn’t want to keep going?”

She snorted. “I didn’t want to do it in the first place.”

“Touché,” I snickered.

The boys started to gather around the table and soon I heard the unmistakable sound of the fucker’s voice who’d nearly pushed me down the bleachers earlier.

“Hey, Banner,” Vance called. “Who’s the Chinese chick?”

Banner didn’t answer.

But it was okay.

Somebody else did for him.

“You mean the one that you almost knocked down the bleachers when you shoulder-checked her?” someone called out.

I froze, looking at Blue with wide eyes.

“What the fuck is he talking about?” Banner’s cold, dark voice asked.

Vance laughed. “He’s not talking about anything.”

“Bullshit,” another voice called out. “I was looking back at you because I could hear you two yelling. You hit her so hard that she fell into that guardrail. If that guardrail wasn’t there, she would’ve tumbled all the way down the bleachers with how fuckin’ hard you hit her.”

I winced, looking at Blue as if she could help what was about to happen.