Page 28 of Home Field Advantage

Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap. “Miguel is going to kill me.”

“I saw them,” she clarifies, putting a calming hand on my arm. “I mean, he said the guy was his cousin, but. Either way, it’s not your fault, and I hope you know I wouldneverout him. Or you.”

Even if I didn’t know, the serious look on her face gives me confidence, and I want—Ineed—Miguel to see it too. It’s time to get at least one part of this right. Even if Miguel might want to kill me for other reasons. “Okay. So now that you know, I want him to know too. And I want you to get to know each other. What do you think of a double date? We can spend time together, you can make a friend on the team, Miguel and Malcolm can actually hang out with other people.…”

“Somehow I don’t think anyone on the Alligators wants to hang out with me socially, whether I’m dating his friend or not.” Her voice is dry, but the drop of hurt that seeps through goes right to my heart.

“This isn’t about football and cheerleading, or the Alligators, or anyone else,” I assure her, knotting my fingers with hers. “Four people, out having fun, getting to know each other. You want to get to know me, right? Miguel is a part of me. Besides, you want an ally on the team? He’s your best bet.”

“And you think he’ll be down for a double date?”

No. Yes. I don’t know.“The only thing I’m better at thancheerleading and kissing is wearing down Miguel Santiago.” That part, at least, I’m confident about. “Leave it to me.”

Even though all we wanna do is skip the rest of the day and spend it at Jack’s house, we manage to convince ourselves to get our asses off the couch and head back to school, separate cars and all. We’re just in time for lunch, where I manage to tug Miguel into a corner of the courtyard where we can speak privately.

“Okay, I have to ask you a favor, but I have to break a few things to you first,” I say before I can lose my nerve.

Miguel eyes me suspiciously, his deeply tanned skin crinkling at the corners of his dark eyes. “Well, considering the way you ran out of here earlier, I’m guessing it has something to do with Walsh. I’m trying not to run wild with what that might mean because I know my best friend andloyal girlfriendwouldn’t be cheating on me without a heads-up.”

Ouch. Okay, I deserve that. And because I have zero poker face, I wince. Miguel visibly tenses up. “It’s not what you think,” I say, because apparently that’s my mantra lately. “I didn’t tell Jack about Mal; she saw you together.”

Miguel mutters something under his breath that he definitely wouldn’t say within a hundred feet of his mother. “But the two of you?”

“Have maybe fooled around a little bit. Just a couple of times,” I add sheepishly, like that makes a difference.

“I cannotbelieveyou didn’t tell me.”

“I didn’t want you to freak out! And I didn’t know how to handle”—I wave my hand back and forth between us—“this. There are reasons I don’t usually mess with Atherton girls, as you know.”

“But you like her.”

“I do, yeah. And I want you to like her too. She could use a friend on the team. And I know you and Malcolm could use some relationship normalcy. So, I was thinking… double date?”

I suppose I should be grateful to finally see an expression on Miguel’s face other than anger, but him cracking up at my proposal isn’t what I had in mind. “You’re joking.”

“Oh, come on—it’ll be fun!”

“And where exactly do you want to go on this magical date?”

The ride to school gave me exactly enough time to plan this, in fact. “Gutter Kittens. You know no one from school would be caught dead there.” For good reason—the decrepit bowling alley is ridiculous and cheesy and somehow looks like a Victorian disco. But my mom and Aunt Lily used to love taking me there when I was little. It’s been years now—Aunt Lily got married and moved to Hilton Head, and now she and my mom drink over video chats rather than bowling lanes, Cyndi Lauper, and watching me struggling to lift a hot-pink glitteryball—but I know it’s still around because I took Miguel once when he needed an extreme injection of goofy fun. “You can’t tell me Mal wouldn’t love it.”

“Of course he would,” Miguel mutters, affection bleeding into his voice. “That dork.”

“So? Saturday night? Eight o’clock?” I don’t even care that I sound too eager; this is far too win-win for everybody for me to have an ounce of shame about it.

He sighs heavily, and I know there’s a yes buried inside that obnoxiously loud breath. “Fabulous!” I say without waiting for him to vocalize it out loud. “Now, let’s go shake on it with some tater tots.”

-JACK-

I can’t believe I’m doing this. I can’t believe I’m going on a date. With a cheerleader. And a teammate. And his boyfriend.

I can’t believe how much I’m looking forward to it.

My leg jiggles in my cutoffs as I wait in the car for Amber to emerge from her apartment, my fingers fiddling with everything they can reach. She told me not to bother coming to the door, to just text her when I was outside, but it still feels wrong, like I gotta prove chivalry isn’t dead.

Then the door opens, and suddenly I’m glad to be whereI am because she steps out looking so cute, I know my knees would’ve weakened if I’d been standing in wait.

It doesn’t hurt that she practically dances to the car I begged my mom to borrow so I could do this properly, every bit as excited for tonight as I am. She’s curled her hair and she’s wearing one of those one-piece things that’s shorts on the bottom and shows off her incredible legs, and her lip gloss makes me ache to know how it tastes.

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