Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 38804 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38804 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
She looked back, frowning too. “What do you mean?”
I laughed abruptly, then quieted because it looked like she really hadn’t thought of it that way. “Rispins. What she did. It was because of Cahill, because of the team. Because of Ryan’s life, how it’s going to be for him. How it already is. Fame. Popularity. Press. Girls. I know there was stuff that happened in high school. He’s not even in the NBA yet. It’s going to get bigger. He’s going to get bigger and you’re going to be at his side, dealing with your share of it. There’s collateral damage both ways, on both parties. You deal with his stuff too.”
Her eyebrows pulled together. “You’re right. I never thought of it that way.”
I reached for her hand, squeezing it, and wrapped my arm around her shoulders. I just wanted my friend next to me. “I want to help, in whatever way you need me to help. If you’re willing to talk about it, I’d like to understand.”
She stiffened before lifting her head up.
I couldn’t identify the look on her face, as she blinked a few times.
I frowned. “What?”
“Ryan’s the only one who’s asked to understand it.”
Oh. Oh no. “Is that—wrong?” I began to pull my hand away.
“No.” She grabbed my hand. “It would mean the world to me, for you to want to understand.”
“Well, yeah. I mean, if someone gets an injury and you’re a part of their wellness team, you need to understand the injury to know how to help. I just think of it in those terms.”
A tear rose up, resting on the bottom of her one eyelid, and she gave me another one of those smiles, the ones that yanked on my heartstrings. “I’d love to tell you.” Her tear fell, right as she laughed lightly. “But we should schedule that because that could get heavy. Schedule that with maybe wine and we could dress in yeti costumes.”
“Yeti costumes?”
“Yeah. So we can scare people on campus right after because that shit would be fun.”
I laughed, thinking about it. “We should start with Kellie Rispins first.”
She barked out a laugh. “Can you imagine us driving in the car there?”
“We’d get pulled over.”
“The dogs in the cars next to us at stoplights. They’ll go crazy.”
“Right. The person driving needs to take the head off.”
I started giggling at that statement itself.
Mac began laughing along with me, and we started to talk about if both of us should do yeti costumes or if one should do a unicorn costume.
I voted for yeti.
Mac voted to be the unicorn.
It felt appropriate.
“I’m sorry I went away,” I murmured when the laughter faded.
She murmured right back, “I’m sorry I let you go away.”
I rested my head against hers. “That’s never going to happen again.”
I meant it.
16
MAREN
Things were heavy when Ryan and Cris got out of their practice.
I knew Ryan was heading to our dorm room to check on Mac, but Cris sent me a text.
Cris: Where are you?
Me: At my room with Mac. I think Ryan’s heading over.
Cris: He is. I’m not far behind him. I want to see you.
Me: Okay.
There were conversations to have. Things to talk about. He needed to know about the article and about what all was going to be in there, and why it was coming out, but in all honesty, I knew Mackenzie would fill Ryan in and Ryan would fill Cris in. It’s how their dynamic worked.
I wasn’t sure what I was reeling about the most. About what happened to Cris, about Mackenzie, or how I could’ve been with Cris the entire time if I hadn’t buckled under Kellie Rispins’ threats.
It wasn’t long until Ryan showed up, told me that Cris was waiting in the parking lot, and when I got out there, he was leaning against the outside of his truck. More than a few girls were watching him. A couple basketball groupies were heading his way, eyes on their target, so I intercepted them, getting in front and Cris pushed off from the truck, his eyes darkening on me.
“Hey,” he said as I got closer, stopping with a few inches between us. We almost looked ridiculous, but I didn’t care. If I leaned forward, my front would be touching his and so forth. Right now, we were both waiting. Holding back. His hands were inside his pockets.
I tipped my head back, my body buzzing from being so close to him. “Hey.”
His eyes flashed. One of his hands lifted, touching my chin before he sighed and shook his head, stepping back. “Come on.” He gestured to the truck. “I want to feed you.”
My stomach growled, and I realized I hadn’t eaten at all today.
Then again, I started the day hung over so I hadn’t wanted to eat.
Cris watched as I got in and clicked my seat belt, and then we were off.