Earlier this evening, there’d been a soccer game. I showed up for half of it and then took off. The girls probably went to grab something to eat afterward or are hanging out at their apartment, chilling and watching a movie. Maybe even cracking the books. I know Sydney has been loaded down with schoolwork.
Instead, I find something all together different. My lips tug down at the corners as I drag the phone closer to my face to get a better look at the screen. And the freshly posted photos that have popped up. In the first one, there’s a group of girls all smashed together in the frame. They’re all wearing sparkly, lowcut dresses.
Are they at a party?
I scroll through a few more shots and realize they’re at one of the clubs downtown.
The last pic has me seeing red. It’s one of Sydney. That hockey playing douche, Ryder McAdams, has his arms wrapped around her while he pretends to bite her neck, and she’s laughing.
What the actual fuck?
Fake girlfriend or not, there’s no way in hell I’ll allow that to happen when she belongs to me. Does Sydney think that it’s okay for some random dude to get handsy with her when I’m in the picture? I thought we had an understanding. What exactly that understanding is, I’m not sure. All I know is that I’m fucking furious.
“Hey,” Carson yells as I stalk toward the entryway, “where are you going?”
Not bothering with a response, I slam through the front door.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Sydney
“Happy birthday, Sasha!” a dozen girls shout before clinking their glasses together and tossing back their shots.
The club is dark with colorful strobe lights that flicker and techno music that pulses in my ears. Not only is this our goalie’s twenty-first birthday, but we won our game earlier this evening. Everyone is in a celebratory mood. They’re cutting loose and getting a little wild. All right, maybe more than a little. What the hell—they deserve it. We deserve it. Without Annica here, we’re like one, big happy family. This is exactly how a team should be.
We’ve been drinking, dancing, and flirting with some of the cute boys that have shown up to party. I’m having a great time. The very last person I should be dwelling on is Brayden. It’s like he’s taken up permanent residence inside my brain and there’s nothing I can do to evict him. Had I suspected it would turn out this way, I never would have agreed to our arrangement in the first place. He was never supposed to burrow beneath my skin. Kind of like an itch I can’t quite scratch.
More frustrating than that, my feelings were actually bruised when he didn’t stick around and wait for me after the game with Rowan and Coach Richards. The reality of the situation is that I shouldn’t have any expectations when it comes to Brayden. But somewhere over the course of the past few weeks, this fictitious relationship has begun to feel like the real deal.
My first mistake was allowing myself to get caught up in playing pretend. The second one was in thinking I could sleep with the guy and not develop feelings for him. Not fall into...
Something with him.
In hindsight, it’s better that this happened before I could become any more entrenched. At this point, I can still pull back. With any luck, we can put an end to this farce sooner rather than later.
Because I’m over it.
It’s the light tap on my shoulder that knocks me from those troubling thoughts. And for that, I’m grateful. Brayden Kendricks is the last person I want to dwell on. Especially when I’m out celebrating with my teammates. I should be carefree and living it up. I swing around, only to find Ethan standing in front of me.
“Hey,” he says, raising his voice in order to be heard over the loud pulse of music.
“Hi.” I’m a little surprised to find him here. He was never one for the clubs, preferring to party near campus or at one of the local dive bars where the beer is cheap.
He leans toward me, swallowing up the distance between us. “Congratulations on your win tonight.”
“Thanks, they were a tough team.” There were definitely a few times when I was afraid the outcome could have gone the other way.
“You were all over number five. You had her locked down tight. She couldn’t make a move without you on top of her.”
I blink, thrown off by the comment. “You were there?”
He nods before sucking the corner of his lower lip into his mouth. “Yeah, I thought I’d show up and support.”
When we were dating, Ethan always made a point of attending my games. It was one of the things I loved about him. He plays baseball and his schedule is just as crammed as mine, so I always appreciated him carving out time for me. I’m a little surprised that he would do that after everything that happened between us.