Page 174 of Out of Bounds

"You’ve got to be shitting me." Kassie cursed under her breath and when the elevator doors opened, she scurried inside and pulled her hoodie over as much as she could.

“Evening,” I called to my teammates.

Half of them stiffened when they spotted me, a couple tried to turn around.

“Nope, you were coming this way,” I told them. “I want to make sure you’re walking in a straight line.”

“Oh my god, Ryan.” Kassie sighed, her voice low.

Where they’d been hobbling before, all my teammates behind King and Adam took slow, measured steps to the elevator, doing their best to look sober.

"Captain!" Adam grinned. He could handle his liquor better than the rest of them and his eyes were still glazed over. “Captain. Boss. Boss captain—no—captain boss? Fuck.”

King kept quiet until he walked into the elevator. “Hey…captain.”

“My teammates wouldn’t be drinking tonight because they know how close playoffs are,” I said as they filed in, all guilty faces. “But I don’t have to worry about that. Because theyaretaking this seriously. And if anyone wants to avoid bear crawls tomorrow to testoutthat sobriety, I suggest they take the stairs.”

Most of them avoided looking at me entirely.

On the third floor, almost all of the football players stepped out. The only ones left were King and Adam before a few other non-football athletes walked inside.

“Goddamn, captain.” Adam snickered. “Some of those guys live on the seventeenth floor.”

“I didn’t tell them to get out of the elevator.”

King shot me a long look.

“Look, you two can handle your liquor, they can’t,” I pointed out. “You won’t throw up on the field. They will. And they better learn not to fuck around like that. If this is that lesson, this is that lesson—”

“Where’s Kassie?” King frowned and stopped himself, blinking slowly.

"Holy shit, you’re right." Adam whistled. "Somebody call animal control, Ryan’s lost his owner."

Oh, man. I took another glance at Kassie in the corner, quiet because of the other people in the elevator, but I could practically feel her eyes flash. She shifted from the wall. Kassie was irritated as hell.

This was a perfect opportunity. My girlfriend got to hang out with my friends more than I did this semester but she only got to see them when they were on their best behavior in front of her. Without them seeing her, and them shitfaced, I knew they’d say some shit they’d never want to in front of her. And I knew exactly how Kassie would respond.

My mouthy art girl would show her claws.

Hot.

I grinned. "Uh-huh. Why do you think Kassie would be here?"

“Are you serious?” King snorted.

He is drunk.

"Because you’re pussywhipped, dude." Adam chortled, wiggling his eyebrows at me. "He’s a few weeks away from drinking her bathwater…" He stopped himself just as quickly, too drunk, and frowned, trying to get his head back. "Fuck. I drank too much."

There were other people in the elevator, glancing back at us, but all my focus was on the girl in the corner.

I nodded. "Anything else you want to say?"

“If you…fucked enough bleacher bunnies, you…wouldn’t be acting like this,” Adam slurred. “That’s what I’m doing. Marrs fucking Manwhore. If you come on enough faces, you calm the hell down.”

"We should have Kassie run the drills," King joked, taking a deep breath. "So we can see what the captain can really do." His voice dropped comically low. “Make himjumpfor thatpussy.”

I said nothing. I just grinned.

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