Page 49 of Untouchable Player

“Or a hot sauce brand.” She winks and I sink down in my chair with a groan.

“Come on Nate, spill. He told me he took you home that night. I did wonder whether I should be a better friend and not let you get a drunken ride home with a jock, it’s like an after-school special on date rape, but he obviously hadn’t been drinking, and you know how suspicious I am of literally anyone, and he didn’t set my alarm bells off so…”

“We kissed.”

Katie stops talking immediately. She leans forward in her chair and fixes me in an intense stare. In a calm, but slightly menacing tone, she says, “tell me everything.”

She listens, not with the intent of a good psychiatrist, but with the excited glee of a friend who’s waited a long time for her friend to finally put themselves out there.

When I’m finished talking, she leans back in her chair and shakes her head.

“I can’t believe it, you were right.”

“Actually,” my face flushes, “I saw him on a gay dating app, but I didn’t want to…”

Katie holds her hand up, “I get it, don’t worry. I’m not a gay guy, it would be like ratting him out to the cops.”

I snort, “not quite, but… yeah.”

“So are you gonna… you know.”

My whole body floods with warmth when I think about that kiss – the one where I wasn’t drunk – though the other one was pretty hot too.

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“It’s…you-know-who.” I look around but no one’s listening.

“So?”

“It could cause a lot of trouble.”

“But it’s just sex. That’s what you want right? To ‘get it out of the way’ – that’s your words, not mine. I think you should wait as long as you need to.”

“I do want to get it out of the way.”

“And if you’re both into it… he seems like he’d be nice about it, and if you both know the score.”

I do want to sleep with Jesse. When he was on top of me on the couch, I’ve never felt that good. Feeling him hard against me. I wanted him to take my pants off and… okay, so the other stuff kind of scares me, but that’s why I need to do it. To ‘get it out ofthe way’. I don’t want the thought of sex to scare me anymore. I want to have the experiences other people around me are already enjoying. I don’t want to miss out just because of fear.

“I don’tknowhe’s into it.”

“He sounds pretty into it to me.”

My face flushes and I have to stifle a smile.

“If this is what you want, then stop talking yourself out of it and go get it.”

Jesse

Practise kicks my ass. Coach must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed this morning and has us doing bag skates. Nine out of ten times, someone pukes. Usually me.

That Five Guys didn’t help, but not drinking at the last party probably did more for my stamina than switching my grilled cheese sandwiches for a salad ever could.

At least my aching body and the exhaustion of practise takes my mind off the conversation I had with Nate yesterday. That and our upcoming pre-season scrimmage against Denver on Friday.

I have two missed calls from my dad when I get out of practise and tell Jones I’m heading over to the library. He looks at me like he doesn’t believe me, and I don’t hang around for him to ask if I’m still getting tutored by Nate. What if he reads:no but Nate wants me to tutor him in something else,all over my face? No thanks. I might be bigger and stronger than Jones, but the rules against hitting your captain are kind of like the rules against hitting your sister – you don’t do it.

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