Page 97 of Blitz'd

Is Kerian even my boyfriend? I fucking know nothing and I need answers.

By the time I finish practice and shower, Meridian is just wrapping up their first half. I sneak down to the sidelines to look for Kerian, but he’s on the field. I look at the game clock and see there’s less than a minute left in the half, so I head to their locker room and wait by the door. It’s stupid, cornering him like this, but I can’t… I’ve been going fucking crazy trying to figure out what’s going on. Three days of radio silence? Yeah, it’s not good for me.

The crowd cheers and I know the half is finished. Hopefully, it also means Kerian got the touchdown. Even when he pisses me off, I still root for him.

Yep, I got it bad.

A minute later, I hear cleats sounding at the end of the tunnel, the clamor getting louder as more players walk down to the locker room.

I push off the wall and take a step or two away from the locker room entrance, giving the players space.

“The fuck are you doing here?” someone on Kerian’s team says when he meets my eyes. I raise an eyebrow, trying to place him. But I’ve never seen this guy in my life. “This ain’t your school, Braithe. So get the fuck?—”

“Finish that sentence and I’ll fucking end you,” Kerian growls, stepping around the guy who was talking shit and standing in front of me. “I’m already sick of your shit, Easton. Back the fuck off.”

The dude—Easton—shoots me a glare before he looks at Kerian. “Whatever.”

After the loud mouthed fucker, Easton, goes into the locker room, Kerian turns around and looks at me. “What are you doing here, Braithe?”

“What the fuck? What do you mean? I need to know what the fuck is going on with you. You need time? Why?” I pause, swallowing past the lump in my throat. “If I did something?—”

Kerian sighs, sounding suddenly exhausted. “You didn’t. Go home, Zander.”

I grab his arm as he turns away, stopping him from walking off before he tells me what the fuck is going on.

“God damn it, Kerian!” I shout, my voice echoing through the tunnel. “I told you, you can’t treat me like shit. You said you wouldn’t! We fucking talked about this!”

He sighs, rubbing his hand through his sweaty hair. “Zander. I’m not?—”

“You are. Three days. Three fucking days, Kerian! I hear nothing. Then you tell me you need time? Time for fucking what? Are you done? Do you… do you want to stop this?”

“When the fuck did I say… No, Zander, it’s not?—”

“It’s not what?” I ask, my breathing coming out hard. “It’s not what? If you’re done, just tell me that!”

Kerian grabs me by the shoulders and pushes me against the wall, his blue eyes burning with anger and… something else. “God damn it, Zander. I never said I wasdone.I’m not trying to treat you like shit. I was trying to figure out how to tell youI fucking love you.”

ChapterThirty-Three

KERIAN

Zander’s eyesgo so wide I’m pretty sure I can see straight into him. His mouth opens and closes.

“I… uh. Oh.” He breathes out, the sound as shaky as I feel on the inside.“Oh.”

“Right then.” I push past him while he’s still stunned and duck into the locker room, hoping he has the sense to go home, or at least go to my apartment and wait for me now that he forced those words out of my mouth.

God damn it.

That wasnothow I wanted to say it.

I’d hadplans…but if I knew anything by now, it was that myplansnever worked out when they were with him.

For fuck’s sake, I’d invited him over to my place—Ithoughthe’d get the idea. But of course that was me assuming Zander wouldn’t be…

Well,Zander.

Soft and sweet and needy as fuck.

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