Page 29 of Out of Bounds

No, WHO the fuck?

"Hey, Cross!" someone shouted.

I offered a curt nod and continued through the crowd.

"Cross! A picture—"

Get the fuck out of my way.

I ignored whoever the hell was trying to get my attention while I kept on the path toward Kassie and the fucking guy with cargo shorts.

Kassie sighed when she saw me and the random jackass turned around too. I recognized him. One of the Marrs baseball players. He froze to the ground when he registered that I was heading right up to him.

"Cross." His eyes darted back to Kassie.

I didn’t say anything. I just stood next to her.

He tried to smile. "We’re having a conversation."

"Great." I nodded back to the rest of the party. "And now you’re getting out of my way."

For a moment, he grinned at Kassie, but she just raised her eyebrows at him. It was a simple question. All three of us knew that. He had to decide how much he wanted to argue over this.But I wasn’t in the mood to argue. If he wanted to test that, he’d regret the decision.

The baseball player shuffled away.

"Love-love-loverboy." Kassie turned in slow motion to face me, one hand holding the underside of the counter. "Welcome to the party."

"Who’s that?"

She shrugged. "I don’t know. A hot and bothered guy at a frat party? They’re in abundance here."

The realization hit me hard. "You’re drunk."

"And you’re late."

"Late?" I frowned, taking a look at the frat party in full swing. "I texted you ten minutes ago."

"Ryan, you told meeight. I’ve been here for two hours."

Two hours?

The flush in her cheeks, her braids coming undone, she was absolutely drunk. And she’d beenhere?I took stock of the frat party, at the people dancing to the music and the guys leering at the edge of the groups. A deep sense of unease took hold of me.

"We had game reruns at the training center," I told her. "The emails say if I don’t show up within a twenty-minute period, you’re supposed to contact me or Cleo. Eight o’clock was just the party’s timing. This isn’t how this is supposed to go. This isn’t the plan."

A new song started from the speakers and some girls tried to pull Kassie towards the dance floor.

She urged them to go instead and turned back to me. "Isn’t part of the plan? Ryan? Do you hear yourself?"

"And you’ve been drinking." I picked up the glass next to her and dumped it out to a nearby plant. "We need to redo the introduction."

Kassie stared at me, dumbfounded. "How are we redoing it?"

"You come when I call. Wearingmyjersey."

"There’s no way you hear yourself." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Cleo wanted this natural. So, in your perfect scenario, you stroll up to find me stone cold sober at a frat party, searching you out, wearing your merchandise? That’s some weird shit."

I brushed the comment aside. "Girls do it all the time."

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