The Player and the Bet: An Enemies-to-Lovers College Sports Romance Page 8

  Out on the field, Kevin seems to have recovered and is ready for another round. We take our spots. I crouch down again and size him up. The assistant coach overseeing the drill raises his whistle to his lips. After a few seconds, he blows.

  I take off just as fast as the first time and run towards Kevin. I’m happy to see he’s taken my advice and is angling his shoulder lower—but I’m going even lower than that.

  At the last second, Kevin tries to drop his shoulder, but he doesn’t get the chance because I’m already there. I hit him hard again, and he stumbles backwards.

  “Damn,” he wheezes out and puts his hands on his knees again to catch his breath. “I thought I’d get you that time.”

  “You did better. It was closer for sure.”

  I walk over and give him another fist bump, then head to the bench for some water. I glance over at Sadie and finally catch her looking my way. When she notices I’ve seen her, she quickly goes back to reading her book.

  I remove my helmet and take a big gulp of water, a smug smile on my face. She can pretend she’s above this all she wants, but I know she can’t help watching me in action. I’m good.

  Getting drafted by the NFL is pretty much a sure thing for me. I’ve had scouts sniffing around me since I got to Winterford. The last ten quarterbacks here were drafted and went on to play for the best teams in the league. We have the highest percentage of drafted players in all the schools in the USA.

  That’s why I sold my soul to the Org to be here.

  They control everything one way or another. You can’t get to the top of society without their help, no matter how much money and privilege you have. I never would have made quarterback in my freshman year without them—or at all, for that matter. If I didn’t sign their deal, they would have blocked me from playing at any of the major schools, and I wouldn’t have a shot in hell of getting drafted. Besides, I’m not the only one. Most of the guys on this team made deals too.

  And if all I have to do in exchange is get an annoyingly stuck-up girl to drop out of school, then the deal was definitely worth it.

  The sun has already set behind the mountains by the time we’re done practice. We head inside, and it gives me great pleasure to leave Miss Goody Two-Shoes out in the cold and go somewhere where she can’t watch me with her annoyingly green eyes.

  I head to my locker and start to get changed. Holden and Knox come in after me. They are arguing about something that happened on the field. Camden comes in shortly after them, and he has a cut on one of his sharp cheekbones and looks annoyed.

  I suddenly realize I haven’t told them about what happened to me last night. I was too busy partying to even think about it, but now that I’m sober, the seriousness of it is starting to sink in.

  “There’s no way you could be so thick—” Holden says.

  Knox cuts him off, “—I don’t give a fuck, but if you’re wrong, you’re wrong. And you. Are. Wrong.”

  “There’s no way I could be wrong about something so obvious that even a blind guy could see it! Are you blind, Knox? Is that it? Have you been blind this whole time and we just never realized?” Holden says with sarcastic fake concern. “Would explain some of the girls you’ve dated.”

  “I wish I was blind so I didn’t have to see your ugly, annoying face,” Knox grumbles.

  “What are you guys arguing about?” I ask.

  They both look at me and then I watch their faces as realization about just what exactly they were arguing so passionately about sinks in.

  Knox dismisses it with a wave of his hand and says, “Nothing.”

  He goes over to his locker and starts taking off his gear. Holden considers things for a second, but I can tell he can’t let it go, no matter how stupid it is.

  “Okay, who would win in a fight, a blue whale or a T. rex?” he finally asks.

  Knox pretends not to pay attention, but he turns slightly so he can hear my answer. I let out a big laugh.

  “Are you serious? This is what you’re fighting about?”

  “Yeah! We know it’s stupid so tell us who’s right so we can move on,” Holden says impatiently.

  I think about it for a moment.

  “Are they fighting in water or on land?” I ask.

  “That’s what we couldn’t agree on,” Holden says sheepishly.

  I laugh again. “Okay, guys, moving on, I have something to tell you. Cam, come over.”

  The three of them gather around me, and I move in closer because I don’t want anyone to overhear us. Most of the guys in this locker room already know about the Org, but I don’t want to take any chances. I don’t want word to get back to the Org that I’m gossiping about them or something. I can’t take the risk of pissing them off. They are the last enemy in the world you’d want to have.

  “The Org came to talk to me last night,” I start.

  All of their faces immediately shift from annoyed to seriously concerned. I love these guys. We may fight like brothers, but we have each other’s backs when it really counts. They huddle in closer.

  “When?” Camden asks.

  “When I went outside to see Miss Goody Two-Shoes off. They came and picked me up in a car, and we drove around the block.”

  “Who’s ‘we’? How many guys did they send?” Holden asks.

  “Just one. A smoking hot chick named Delilah.”

  “Not fair,” Camden says. “The guy I signed my Org contract with looked like the devil’s undertaker. Wasn’t a hot chick.”

  “What did she want?” Knox cuts in.

  “They are calling in my favor.”

  Their eyes widen. All of them—even Knox—look scared.

  “What do they want you to do?” Holden asks in a whisper.

  “Do you have to kill someone?” Camden asks, then he looks around nervously. “Is it one of us?”

  “No, no, luckily nothing like that. They want me to get TP to drop out of school,” I say in a low voice.

  The looks on their faces quickly turn from worry to confusion, then they all burst out laughing.

  Knox slaps me hard on the back and goes back to getting undressed. Camden is laughing so hard he has tears coming out of his eyes.

  “Good one, Mace,” he says, then goes back to his locker.

  “Guys, I’m serious!”

  “This is a pretty creative way to get out of a bet. I’ll give you that,” Holden says with a grin.

  “No, that’s not what I’m doing. I’m serious. The Org called in their favor, and they are making me get Sadie Edwards to drop out of school permanently.”

  “What would they ever want with her?” Knox asks. “She’s nobody.”

  “I know. And I don’t know what they want with her. I just know I have to do it unless I want to lose my collateral.”

  “You’re serious?” Holden asks.

  “Yes!” I practically yell in exasperation.

  He regards me for a long moment until he’s finally satisfied I’m not lying.

  “If that’s really your favor, then you got off easy.”

  “I know,” I answer.

  “Shouldn’t be too hard considering she already has one foot out the door.”

  “I know. It’ll be easy to get her to drop out, but I just have to find a way to keep her from ever enrolling in a different school. That’s going to be the hard part.”

  Holden goes back to his locker. “We’ll help, of course. And I guess this one time we can make an exception and call off the bet.”

  “Why would the bet be off?” I ask.

  “You’re going to try to sleep with her while also getting her to drop out of school?” he asks.

  “They aren’t mutually exclusive,” I say with a smile.

  The three of them give me a look.

  “You should be careful. You don’t want to fuck with the Org,” Camden says.

  “They can have your life destroyed as easily as a phone call, or even have you killed. And remember what you put up for collateral,” Holden rem
inds me.

  I shrug. I’ve always been a rule breaker. I can’t help it. If someone tells me not to do something, I immediately want to do it. It’s like a compulsion. Besides, I figure I can do both. I can seduce her while secretly ruining her life. No biggie.

  “We aren’t calling off the bet,” I say. “I’m not going to be the first one to do that in the history of our friendship.”

  “Good, because we were going to call you a pussy if you did,” Knox says.

  The other two laugh, but I can tell all three of them are still concerned for me.

  “It’ll be fine,” I tell them and turn back to getting undressed.

  It’ll be fine. What’s the worst that can happen? That I can have my legs broken and ruin my chance of playing in the NFL? Oh, right…

  13

  Sadie

  “Where are we going?” I ask. “This isn’t the way to your class.”

  “I switched classes,” Mace says with a grin.

  I eye him warily. I don’t like the look on his face. There’s something sinister about it, and I know he’s up to something.

  We walk into the classroom and take a seat near the middle. There are only a handful of students, and it’s a small room, so I know this is going to be some obscure, unpopular course.

  A few minutes later, the professor walks in and I groan internally. It’s Professor Garcia. He’s one of the hardest professors at Winterford. His courses are legendary—for all the wrong reasons. They are insanely difficult, and he’s an extremely strict marker. It’s next to impossible to get over 60% in his course. This is going to bring down my average for sure.

  I look over at Mace, who’s watching my reaction. The smug look on his face tells me he knows exactly what he’s doing. The insufferable jerk.

  “You said my courses were too easy,” he whispers. “Said they were ‘bird courses’, so I thought you’d like something more challenging. The least you can do is thank me.”

  I press my lips together in a hard line to stop myself from saying anything. I turn back to the front of the class and try to ignore the pain-in-my-ass next to me.

  “You’re welcome,” he whispers in my ear.

  His breath on my skin sends an unexpected shiver through me. I quickly elbow him to get him away.

  14

  Mace

  After Professor Garcia’s class, we head to the next one—which I’ve also switched. This course is just as insanely hard as the last. I see the disbelief in her eyes that quickly turns to anger, and I relish it. That’s right, TP Princess, I’ve switched all my courses to impossibly difficult ones. There’s no way you’re going to do well this semester, so you should just drop out now and save us all the trouble.

  I don’t care about my marks. I know Coach Hill and the dean told me I need to straighten up, but the school will pass me no matter what because they need me on the field, and if I fail, then I can’t play. TP, on the other hand, won’t be so lucky. Hopefully, all these courses will lower her average so much she’ll be forced to drop out.

  She storms into the classroom, and I cheerily walk in behind her. She slams her books down on one of the tables and sits. She crosses her arms angrily and avoids looking at me. She’s fuming, and I love it.

  I happily sit down next to her. She smells so good I want to reach out and run my fingers through her dyed hair and—whoa, where the hell did that thought come from??

  I shake my head to clear it and turn away from her, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. I need to cut back on the booze and the partying because I think I’m starting to go crazy.

  15

  Sadie

  I slam my book closed in frustration when I suddenly realize I’ve been reading the same sentence over and over for the past twenty minutes. The noise coming through my closed window is making it impossible to concentrate.

  This is unbelievable. Are they even allowed to do construction at this time of the day?? This is the one night I get off, and I desperately need this time to study. Mace screwed me over with those hard classes, and I need to catch up. I hate him.

  Spending time with him for the last two weeks has been infuriating. The whole experience feels like some sort of cosmic joke. It’s like I’m being tortured to see how much I can take before I crack. He gets under my skin like no one else.

  He’s still the exact same cocky asshole I met back in high school. The one who loved to talk about nothing but partying and football. The one who didn’t care about anyone but himself. The one who I couldn’t stand. What are the odds I’d now be stuck with him?

  I finally accept the fact I’m not going to get any more studying done here and get up. I head into the living room to see what the others are up to. The three of them are sitting on the couch looking annoyed. The construction noise is just as loud in here.

  “Having trouble studying?” Marty asks.

  “Yeah,” I answer.

  “Us too,” he says.

  “Are they even allowed to do construction at this time of the night?” I ask.

  “Luna and I went out to talk to them. They said it’s an emergency and they are repairing a water pipe or something,” Jess says.

  “Great,” I mumble. “I really needed to use tonight to study.”

  “Should we head into town? We can study in our coffee shop,” Marty suggests. “It’ll be open.”

  “That’s a great idea!” I say excitedly. “Marty, you’re a genius. I’ll go get my stuff!”

  I run into my room, grab my books and shove them into my backpack. I race back out into the living room before the others can even get up off the couch.

  Eventually, they are ready to go too, and we head out. Going into town is either a short drive or a long walk. None of the four of us have cars so we usually catch the bus if it’s running, but being a small town the local bus stops at 7:30 p.m. Most of the students at Winterford come from money so a small car service exists in town where drivers will pick up students at anytime of the night with just a text. We don’t have that kind of money though, so we walk.

  The path into town curves through the woods and roughly follows the highway. There aren’t any lights along it so it gets spooky in the dark, but there are four of us so I feel safe. It’s a cold night, and I lost my winter jacket, but laughing and joking with my friends helps keep me feeling warm.

  When we get to town, there’s only one place still open besides the bars, and that’s our favorite coffee shop. The four of us settle into a booth with sugary coffees and massive brownies and for the next three hours we study together.

  I get a good chunk of my work done and when the shop finally closes at midnight, I’m ready to head home. We walk along the dark path with our arms linked so none of us trip on the unseen rocks. It’s almost pitch black, and the only sounds are the wind in the trees and our giggling.

  I’ve been so preoccupied lately that I haven’t gotten the chance to spend a lot of time with my friends. Tonight made me realize just how much I missed them. The evening started out so crappy, but the three of them transformed it into a great night. I feel renewed. Tonight reminded me that with their help I can survive anything—even Mace Law.

  16

  Sadie

  October 31st. It’s the night of the big Halloween party at Mace’s frat house. I don’t want to go—obviously—but I have to.

  A couple of days ago, the dean called me into his office to talk. He beat around the bush for a while, but I could tell he had bad news and didn’t like having to be the bad guy. I finally got it out of him that Coach Hill was pissed at me, and I needed to do a better job of keeping Mace in line.

  What prompted this scolding was a picture posted online showing Mace surrounded by topless girls in a hot tub. After the dean finally told me about the photo, I quickly took out my phone and with a quick search I was able to find it. I stared down at the image, growing angrier and angrier.

  The idiot had a huge smile on his face and his arms draped casually over the shoulders of the two clo
sest girls. Why would he post this? Like how dumb could he be? Also, when had he taken this picture? I’d been around him constantly for the last couple of weeks.

  I looked at the timestamp and grew even more furious when I saw the date. It was from two days before. The one night off I’d gotten since we started this stupid arrangement. It was the night he’d promised me he was just going to crash because he needed to recharge. It was the night I’d gotten to have some much needed fun with my friends by studying in town.

  He lied to me. He hadn’t spent a quiet night alone. He’d gone out partying. Of course. Of course he’d lied to me. How could I have been so stupid?

  I promised the dean I would do better, and he seemed relieved he didn’t have to be more confrontational with me. I marched out of his office with my hands in fists, practically shaking.

  That’s why I’m walking across campus right now, dressed like a zombie. The meeting with the dean was a reminder of just how thin the ice I’m on is. I need to be even more careful.

  Mace isn’t really holding up his end of the deal. I’m keeping myself out of trouble, so he’s doing nothing for me except being a pain in my ass. I even offered to help him study, but he’s not interested.

  I round a corner, and some guy lets out a loud scream. I jump and then quickly look around for the danger.

  “Holy shit. You scared me,” he says, and I realize the danger is my costume.