“I wish you would let me tell Xander that I know about Aiden.” She made a face and I squeezed her arm hard.
“No, you can’t tell him that I told you. He’ll never trust me again.”
“Trust you with what?”
“Anything.” I moaned. “I don’t want him to think I have a big mouth.”
“He has to know you’d tell me.” Liv frowned. “I can’t even believe that he wants to keep this a secret from me.”
“He doesn’t want to scar you.”
“I am a big girl. It will take more than finding out my brother is a freak in the bedroom to scar me.”
“He’s not a freak.”
“I don’t mean freak freak.” She laughed. “I meant freaky freak.”
“Haha, so are you going to call me freaky as well?” I questioned her with a smile.
“Why would I call you freaky?”
“If I became Aiden’s sub?”
“Number one, I can’t see you as a sub, but whatever floats your boat. Just don’t wear a choker, please.” She groaned. “No chokers with studs, they look so tacky.”
“What looks tacky?” Henry ran over to us with a big smile and lifted his hand up so I could high-five him.
“Choker necklaces,” Liv said and made a face.
“Oh, I haven’t seen a woman in one of those since …” His voice trailed off and he winked at us. “Well, since a fun night I had a few years ago.”
“What sort of fun night?” I asked curiously and I watched as Henry licked his lips and laughed.
“Trust me, girls, you don’t want to know.”
“Everyone gather around, please.” Aiden’s voice was loud and booming, and I noticed that he didn’t even glance in my direction as he spoke.
“Someone’s upset the bear,” Henry said with a laugh and looked at me.
“Not me,” I said and made a face.
“It’s always you, Alice,” Liv said with a grin. “It’s always you.”
***
“Run Alice, run!” Liv screamed as I ran down the field with the ball in my hands. I was in shock as I held it close to my body and continued dashing down the field. I could see the marking lines that Aiden had spray painted in the grass, even though I was pretty sure that they were against the rules of the park. That had shocked me because Aiden was someone who never broke the rules.
“Keep going, Alice!” Liv screamed, and I made the mistake of looking back. Scott was a few feet away from me, and Henry was close behind him. I was praying that Henry got to Scott before Scott got to me. I could also see Aiden coming up fast behind Henry, and Elizabeth was farther back on the field near Xander and Liv. I gasped for air as I turned back around. I could see one of the guys on my team signaling to me to throw him the ball, but I didn’t want to pass the game-winning touchdown to some guy whose name I didn’t even know. I wanted to be the MVP of the game. I didn’t want the guys to just look at Liv and me as two silly girls with no business being on the field. We weren’t like Elizabeth: we didn’t run marathons; we didn’t play pickup basketball at the Y; and we weren’t hiking up mountains or surfing in the Pacific Ocean along the coast of one of the Hawaiian Islands. We were just average, regular girls who liked to have fun and played sports for some excitement in our lives. I knew the guys thought we were pretty worthless on the field, especially me. I mean, I couldn’t blame them. I wasn’t in the best shape, but I knew if I scored this touchdown and scored the winning points, I’d be looked at with new eyes. This was about the game. In this moment, I didn’t care about Aiden or Scott or Henry or whatever other guy might be interested in me. I didn’t care about looking pretty or sexy. I didn’t care about being witty. I didn’t care about making Aiden jealous. All I cared about was winning. And I knew that in this moment, for the first time in my life, I was a sportswoman. A true, dedicated and fearless sportswoman. I kept my head down and ignored the pain in my stomach and the cramps in my legs. I was not going to slow down. I was not going to let the pain win. I was nearly there.
“You’ve nearly got it, Alice!” Liv screamed, and I charged forward. I felt a hand grazing my back and I knew that Scott nearly had me.
“Oh no you don’t!” I screamed and threw my body forward as I saw the line Aiden had made right in front of me. “Touchdown!” I screamed as I fell to the ground and hit the ball against the grass. “Touchdown!” I screamed again in excitement, tears and sweat pouring down my face.
“Move over, Alice!” Scott groaned as he came charging towards me.
“What?” My body was frozen in shock as he came crashing down on me, his body feeling like a ton of bricks as he fell forward. “Ow!” I cried out, as my already aching bones screamed out in pain. His knees nudged my stomach painfully, and I cried out again. “Ooww!” I moaned as he looked over at me.
“Nice touchdown.” He grinned down at me, his blue eyes sparkling as he wiped mud off of his face.
“Thank you,” I said lightly and tried to push him off of me.
“Oh, sorry.” He laughed and jumped up. “I guess you can say you’re a seasoned player now.”
“I guess so.” I groaned as I tried to stand up. “Ugh.” I moaned and grabbed my knee. “I think I cut myself.”
“We won! We won!” Liv screamed and grinned as she came running towards me. “We’re the champions, Alice!”