Page 73 of Out of Bounds

"Definitely stalking, bro."

"When I talk to her, I feel like I can’t keep up," I admitted. "If I get the bells and whistles, maybe I have something good to mention." When Adam finally picked up my phone, I saw the look on his face. "That’s—uh—not my official account."

Adam breathed out through his nose. "A private account to follow a girl without her knowing about it…yeah. Not stalking at all."

"Called it," a voice said behind us.

Both Adam and I lurched in the chairs and saw King with his arms crossed over his chest. The only other football player awake. I cursed under my breath.

"King," I straightened up. "I thought you were sleeping."

"That ninth tackle got me." He rolled his shoulders. "I can’t sleep. But I called it."

Adam crumpled a piece of paper into a ball. "You didn’t know shit. And if you did, the only reason you called it is because he told you to put the off-limits tag on her."

"Nope." King sidestepped the paper’s trajectory when Adam tossed it at him. "I knew after the dinner."

I dropped my voice. "Were you two shut the hell up? The rest of the team’s going to hear you."

King walked over to Adam and held out his hand. Both Adam and I leaned in while King started typing up Kassie’s accounts, pressing the buttons and clicking things to get the alarms. Not just for our official accounts but the other ones that Kassie had been tagged in too. The art department, Roman Forest, Zariah’s account—

"Cross, Russell, King."

All three of us jerked up to look at Coach Lawson, walking from the front section of the plane. I grabbed my phone out of King’s hand and stuffed it in my back pocket.

"Great game today." He nodded, passing us by. "Good to see you three working hard but you should get some rest."

"That’s us, coach," Adam said, reaffirming the lie that we were doing anything football-related at all.

King grunted in agreement but I couldn’t lie to my coach. In the end, I just gave a firm nod. I couldn’t think of anything else to do.

Our coach picked up a folder off the table. "We’ll be landing in forty minutes. No practice tomorrow. You guys can lay off the game plans. You did good."

Yeah. Game plans.

The moment Coach Lawson walked back, King breathed out in relief and I finally relaxed.

Adam swiveled over to look at me. "So, captain, what are you doing about this?"

"About what?"

"The girl you’re stalking."

"Already figured it out." I dropped my voice, careful not to let anybody else hear. "I’ll wait until December, and then whenthe contract’s up, and before she leaves for Florida, I’ll ask if she wants to go out to dinner with me. Somewhere nice." I nodded, mostly to myself. "I think I have a lot to offer. I’ll be playing professional ball."

Adam nodded too. "And Kassie is a part of the ten-girl demographic that doesn’t give a shit about that."

I gave Adam a hard look.

"What? I’m just saying."

"You’re a good-looking dude," King added. "That’s something."

I reached back and clapped him on the shoulder. "Thanks, man. Yeah. I’m a good-looking guy. That’s on the list. I make good money. Another one. I’ve won a lot of awards. That’s three things off the bat."

"Are we talking about what they’d write in an article about you or shit that Kassie’s interested in?" Adam snorted. "Captain, every guy on Kassie’s roster probably looks like the scarecrow fromWizard of Oz."

"What do you mean?"

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