Page 146 of Saving the Halfback

Ethan squeezed my thigh without seeming to realize he did it. Chase held out his last pancake to Nolan. “Take it, the carbs taste good, and Bail’s mom puts maple syrup in them. It’s the shit.”

“Yeah, maple syrup is like all natural, so the sugar doesn’t count,” Lachlan said.

Nolan barely managed a smile as he took the pancake and ate it, relaxing into the seat and leaning a little on Lachlan.

Practice was smooth, which meant we were absolutely beat and sweaty afterward. I wasn’t sure how Nolan pushed himself, after what happened this morning. He was good at hiding his limp with the coaches as well, throwing in a skip now and then to make it look more intentional. It bothered me.

I may have lingered in the shower a little longer than necessary, trying to figure out what I could do. How could I help him? Nolan liked his father—it was obvious he would do anything for the man—and he’d even said pretending to be Nick made him feel closer to the brother he lost. But pretending was hurting him. Did he not see that?

When I walked out of the girls' change room, Nolan stood, leaning with his back against the wall, arms crossed in front of him. Hadley and Katie were on either side of him, talking while leaning close, Hadley’s hand touching his bicep.

Nolan shook his head at whatever she’d said, but his smile was tight and awkward, and he made like he was stretching, but it was obvious he was just moving to get her hand off him. It didn’t work the way he planned as Hadley slid her hand down his chest, almost to the waistline of his jeans. Nolan jumped and stepped through the two of them.

I could feel the anger building up inside of me, my vision tunneling. It wasn’t so much that I felt she was touching what was mine—because Nolan wasn’t exactly mine. It was that he was obviously uncomfortable, but she ignored that.

“Waiting for me?” I asked.

“Yes!” Poor guy was distressed. As much as Nolan pretended to be Nick, these interactions were hard for him. “The others already headed down for breakfast.”

“Noley!” Hadley whined. “What about homecoming?” she asked as we’d already started to walk away from them.

“Sorry, already have plans.” Nolan gave an apologetic smile that was still sweet, and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

“Is it really homecoming already?” I never partook in the event, but the student council went all in, so it was hard to ignore.

“Yes. This weekend, we have the two away games in the next county. So, next weekend's game will be homecoming. Did you ever go to homecoming before?”

“No. The school usually does a half day for those wanting to go to the prep rally, so I always just went home to work.”

Nolan grinned. “It can be a lot of fun. After the prep rally, game, and dance, someone normally hosts a party after.”

“I’m out. I’m done with parties.” I held up my hand. “I don’t care that Ethan and Lachlan will likely never let me out of their sight at one again. I’d rather skip all that drama.”

Nolan chuckled. “For the record, I wouldn’t let you out of my sight, either.”

I stopped walking just outside the cafeteria. “How do you say those things but don’t mean anything deeper?” I asked. “It just seems more intimate than platonic friends.”

“No matter what I choose, I will always care about you. Maybe the problem is, Ed forced you into something you were too young to handle. Maybe you just don’t know how a friend can be caring, and love you, without being romantically intimate.”

I thought about it for a moment and shrugged. “That’s plausible. One more question before we go in there. Why not just be you all the time? This Nolan? Why not tell Hadley and Katie to leave you alone without having to cover your rejection with a smile to ease it?”

“I’m the quarterback,” he said, as if it were obvious. “I have a role to play. They are head cheerleaders. I may have to do somethings at the prep rally with them. I did say no to stripping, for the record. Apparently, my bodywill be sure to rile them up.”

“You can be Nolananda quarterback. You don’t have to fake it and be Nick in order to be a quarterback.”

“It’s what people expect.”

“Is it, though? Or is it what Nick’s old friends and Nick’s old school expected? You have friends of your own now, Noley.” I wrinkled my nose at him in a cutesy way and reached up to ruffle his hair playfully.

Nolan laughed. “Don’t say it like that.”

As Nolan and I grabbed our food, I tossed a couple of sausages onto his plate, and he rolled his eyes at me but didn’t take them off. Then I buttered up a piece of toast and said nothing as I stuck it on the plate and turned around to head to the table.

The guys were deep in a conversation about this weekend's game. We would be staying at a hotel, having a late game on Friday and an afternoon game on Saturday in the same county. Driving arrangements were discussed, including whether we should drive ourselves or take the charter bus the school had rented. Coach sent an email saying we had to let him know by the end of today. We had a late game on Friday, and it was a long drive, so in the end, we voted on taking the charter so we could rest before the game.

“Hey, Bailey.” Sam was only a couple of spots down from me. “Are you going to the homecoming dance next week?”

“I haven’t decided yet,” I answered truthfully. “I might just go home after the game.”

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