Offside

Score one for Rumple.

Holy shit.

I looked up from the dirt to her smirk.

“Varsity striker,” she said with a raise of her eyebrows and a thumb pointing back to her chest.

“You bitch!” I yelled out, but I couldn’t stop laughing at the same time. I rolled to a sitting position and reached behind me to grab the ball out of the net. I cringed a little as I stretched to reach for the ball, and my ribs ached from the movement.

Nicole raised her eyebrows at me.

“You conceited little bastard,” she retorted. “Always thinking you’re better than everyone else. It’s about time someone took your ego down a peg.”

I smiled and shook my head at her.

“You did that on purpose,” I accused. “You conned me.”

“And you fell for it.”

I couldn’t argue with her there. I snickered and dribbled the ball between my legs. She continued to stand over me with her hands on her hips and a smirk on her face.

“All right,” I sighed. “What do you want to know?”

I figured it was going to be something about my past conquests with the girls in this school, and I wasn’t looking forward to talking about it with her. I mean…I didn’t see her that way, and I didn’t want her to think I did. Or maybe I was going to have to confess about the flowers—I could cope with that. I kind of wanted her to know.

She hooked her thumbs into the little decorative pockets on her shorts and leaned back on her heels a bit. I looked up to see her biting on her lip, her smile now gone.

“What happened when you went home Sunday?” she said as her eyes grew dark.

“I don’t know what you mean,” I replied, but at the same time, I felt my stomach drop. There was something in her tone…something I didn’t like. Not at all.

“Tell me how your rib got broken,” she said.

My body went cold.

No.

No fucking way.

“I told you,” I said quietly.

“You told me you got it cracked in a scrimmage,” Nicole said. “And that’s bullshit. I want to know what really happened.”

“I told you what happened,” I repeated. I stood up, popped the ball into the air with my toe, and grabbed it before I started heading back to my Jeep, taking long strides through the damp grass.

“Hey!” she called out. “We made a deal!”

“Fuck you!” I yelled back over my shoulder. My hands were shaking, and my breathing was quick, making my side hurt. I tossed the ball to the ground and walked faster.

“Tell me what happened!” she continued from behind me. “Why didn’t you want to go home, Thomas? Why?”

“Shut the fuck up!” I yanked open my car door, fully intending to just fucking leave her there. I didn’t need this bullshit—some bitch conning me and then pulling this kind of shit. No fucking way.

She managed to wrench the passenger door open before I could lock it, and I tossed the ball into the back seat without looking in her direction.

“I won,” she said. “You have to tell me.”

“Shut the fuck up,” I said again, my voice lowered, “or you can fucking walk home.”