Page 20 of How to Lose at Love

“He paid me to break up with this girl he’s been datin’.”

Drake sits up quicker than a rattler gettin’ snuck up on in the desert. “You’re fucking with me right now.”

“Dead serious.”

“Shut up.”

I shake my head. “Nope. Not kidding.”

“Stop.”

“Gave me fifty to tell this chick he doesn’t want to see her anymore.”

Now my brother is up off the bed, pacing. “Don’t tell me you took the money and did it.”

I nod. “Yeah. Did it this afternoon.”

“Shut the fuck up. For fifty bucks?”

I nod again.

“Fifty bucks?” He pauses in the middle of the floor. “What the hell were you thinking? What did she say? How did you find her? Did she cry?” His rapid-fire questions have me scowling, glancing out the window at the yard below.

“The kid wouldn’t let up. Figured if I agreed to do it, he’d shut up about it, and he’s my teammate, so I wanted to help him out.”

“Bullshit!” my brother shouts. “Bull. SHIT. You did it because you’re bored and had nothing better to do.”

“Oh, I have nothing better to do? I just signed with an agent and I’m going to the Combine, then I’m entering the draft, not to mention practice and games and working out and I have nothing to do? Fuck you.”

Drake only laughs. “You love shock value.”

“So?”

“That’s the real reason you did it. You’re taking your frustration out on some clueless chick because you’re spiteful.”

Spiteful? I’ve been called a lot of things, but spiteful has never been one of them.

Dickhead, yes.

Mean, yes.

Arrogant, yes.

“Why would I take my frustration out on some chick I barely know?” I pause. “And for your information, Ryann Winters is far from clueless.” She didn’t even seem to give a shit that her boyfriend was dumping her.

In fact, she seemed more pissed at me for breathing in her precious airspace than the fact that I’d just dumped her.

“Her name is Ryann? That’s a dude’s name.”

“But also a girl’s name.”

He rolls his eyes. Such an idiot. “And she didn’t deck you?”

“No.” I lean into the conversation as my brother plops back down on my bed. “I gave her a ride home.”

“What? Dude. Why?”

“It’s cold as balls, bro. I’d just given her bad news. Couldn’t let her freeze to death.”

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