Page 15 of Unraveled

“Definitely. I just wish I knew how to get him to open up.”

“Don’t stress about it right now, Izzy. You have enough on your plate. Focus on your audition for now. Worry about my cousinafteryou’ve blown the socks off those judges’ feet.” He grinned, and I couldn’t help but flush. The faith my friends had in me.

“I’ve got to check on my final project before heading to lunch.” Jet stopped at one of the side entrances that I knew led to his mechanics class. “Catch y’all later?”

“Sure.” I smiled. “I’ll let the other’s know.”

TUCKER

“Are youtryingto find more trouble?” I hissed in a whisper as Mateo flipped around and straddled one of the chairs at the library table we’d snagged for lunch, our normal picnic table outside a no-go thanks to the rain. “Emma is going to be pissed if she sees you in here.”

“She’ll deal.”

I looked at Annie, and we shared a‘this will not end well’look while Mateo tore the wrapper off his turkey sandwich. He brought it to his lips, ready for a bite, when Annie said, “You know, for someone who cared enough to make a scene in front of a huge crowd and a racist dad and then got himself locked up by doing drugs, you sure don’t seem to care much anymore.”

Mateo froze as I threw Annie a look. She just shrugged, the look on her face telling me she really didn’t care. She was going to put him in his place and defend her friend. I sighed.Here we go.

Mateo lowered his lunch and glared at her. “I already told y’all I wasn’tdoingdrugs. There’s a drug test that proved that. Do you need to see it?”

“Whatever.” Annie rolled her eyes. “So you were mad andthoughtabout doing them and then got busted because you stillchoseto hang out with the guy you knew had the supply. Yeah, that sounds much better. Genius, in fact. The perfect way to lose the scholarship you’ve been dying to get for years. Colleges don’t give a shit about the wrong place-wrong time bit. You were stupid that night.”

“Fuck, Annie. Did you forget to take your anti-bitch pill today?”

I almost choked on my sports drink before throwing my arm out between my seething friends, warning them with a look. “Knock it off, Annie,” my tone demanded. Her eyes flashed, but I cut her off. “No, you’re pissed and just making things worse. Mateo, you know you’re going to if you don’t leave.”

He glanced at me and then huffed an irritated sigh. “Yeah, I know. Foot in the mouth thing. You’ve told me before.” He waved a sarcastic hand at Annie. “At least, for me, it’s involuntary. What crawled up her ass today?”

I threw a‘don’t even think about it’stare at my friend, and she bit her tongue, looking like it killed her to do it. She took a deep breath and ran her hand over the length of her ponytail before dropping her arm back to the table. “I’m just having a bad…week, Mateo. Okay?”

Mateo looked her over, and after a few tense seconds, they both nodded, coming to an understanding. “Same here.”

What the fuck do you know? They didn’t kill each other.

I went back to eating my lunch, and I’d just shoved the last bite of grilled chicken into my mouth with a large swig of my drink when Mateo muttered, “Damn, y’all almost made me forget why I even came in here.”

“So, it wasn’t to bug Emma?” Annie got in another dig.

“No.” Mateo rolled his eyes at her. “Coach Larson and my dad have been talking with the University coaches,tryingto save my stupid butt from losing the only way I’m going off to school, and they finally worked it out.”

“So, you’re going to UT, after all? That’s great, man.” I clapped him on the back.

Mateo tilted his lips in a half-grin and ran his fingers through his hair. “Maybe. There are alotof conditions I have to meet first.”

“Which is better than you losing your education,” Annie said. “What do you have to do?”

Mateo took a deep breath. “The list could go on forever, but to sum things up, what really saved my ass was that drug test. I’ll have to go to counseling, some anger management classes, and I’ll have both random and scheduled drug tests. That, and I’ve got to come up with a list of at least ten community members or teachers to write letters as character witnesses for me.”

He paused for effect, taking another gulp of air. “IfI can manage to stay on top of all that and get it done, then the coach said they’ll be able to redshirt me. Which means I can’t play but maybe a game or two for my first year. If I get to play at all. But I’ll still get my scholarship. Basically, a whole lot of crap because I let a girl distract me from a goal I’ve been dreaming about for years,” he finally finished, looking strangely depressed and hopeful at the same time.

I blew out a long breath. “And I thought I had restrictions for next year…”

“Tell me about it.”

“You’re still getting off easy,” I reminded him. “They could have easily tossed you aside the second you got locked up.”

“I know,” Mateo stressed. “I’m lucky as hell, but I’m also trying to get some friends to write character witness letters for me, too. Figure it couldn’t hurt, ya know?”

I grinned, feeling like giving him shit. “So, will I be a character witness for you?”

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