Page 17 of Come As You Are

“Because he’s your brother and I loathe him and want to watch him fall on his ass.”

“Got it.”

Tryouts are already in full swing by the time we arrive, but Salem immediately spots us anyway, his groan audible. Sabrina and I both wave and flash back huge smiles, and I even shake imaginary pom-poms. “I burned incense for luck!” Sabrina calls to him, and watching him attempt to melt into the floor is really gratifying. I’m positive he’s going to accidentally let a basketball go flying out of his fingers and directly toward our faces, but then a guy who must be the coach barks his name and off he goes.

“Why exactly are your parents making him do this?” I ask Sabrina as we make ourselves comfortable in the bleachers with a few other scattered spectators.

“Are they?” She snorts. “Probably trying to make him more social. They tried the same thing on me with the tennis team in junior high.”

“Did it work?”

One of her thin eyebrows arches delicately. “Do you think it worked?”

“I do not.”

“And that is why you are in honors classes.” Suddenly, her eyebrows crash down to earth. “Uh, is it just me, or is Salem not horrifically bad?”

Honestly, I hadn’t really been paying much attention, but now that I am, I’m borderline horrified to see that Salem is… pretty damn good. He ambles around the court like he has nowhere in particular to be, but his ballhandling is surprisingly artful, thanks to those long fingers, and when he gets a clear shot, he’s got some killer aim. Plus, he’s like six foot thirty, so he gets some blocks in by default.

I’d planned to obnoxiously cheer Salem on through every dribble off his foot and wild airball, but as usual, he simply refuses to cooperate. Instead, Sabrina and I watch in stunned silence as Salem makes not one but two NBA-worthy steals, then crushes all the other guys in a free throw competition. “What the fuck?” she whispers, taking the words right out of my mouth. Just the fact of Salem having biceps is confusing and strange.

The only thing making his competence slightly more bearable is that Lucas isalsotrying out, and Salem is absolutely destroying him.

Finally, the coach blows the whistle and sends them for a water break. As a sweat-drenched Salem chugs an entire Nalgene’s worth in one go, I’m pretty sure he’s smirking at us.

I stomp down the bleachers until I’m sitting a couple of feet away. “Well aren’t you the little jock in hiding?”

He waggles his eyebrows and continues to drink, his gaze flickering over my cheerleading outfit without betraying a single emotion.

“Seriously, Salem, what the fuck?” Sabrina demands. “When did you learn how to shoot like that?”

He finally tears himself away from the water and wipes his face on his shirt. “When Mom and Dad said they’d add two hundred bucks to my car fund if I made the team.”

“Fucker!” Sabrina’s mouth drops open. “God, they’re not even hiding that you’re the favorite.”

“How could anyone possibly hide that I’m the favorite?”

Matt walks up and holds up his hand for a high five, which I’m pretty sure Salem only gives him to drown out Sabrina’s retort. “Way to go, Gray. There’s still one more round of guys, but Coach is already glowing about you.”

Salem just nods, his eyes on the floor, but he’s so obviously beaming on the inside, biting his usual pout so it won’t blossom into a proud smile. It would almost be cute, if it weren’t… Salem.

“So what’s next, brother dear?” Sabrina asks. “Gonna surprise us all with a hot cheerleader girlfriend?”

“Careful,” Matt warns, gesturing toward me. “You don’t wanna make this one jealous.”

God, so predictably annoying. “But… but I thought I wasyourgirlfriend!” I say to Matt with just the right amount of lip wobble. “Are you telling me our love has been in my head this whole time?”

“See? I’m telling you,” Matt says knowingly to Salem. “Trouble.”

Salem rolls his eyes. “Aren’t you late for an unprotected orgy under the bleachers?”

Matt starts to reply, and is immediately cut off by a stunning blonde who bounces right up to him and kisses him full on the mouth. “Matty, you promised to…” She trails off and whispers the rest in his ear, for which I am extremely grateful. Next thing I know, she’s leading him—where else?—under the bleachers.

“Not unprotected!” he calls back. “Never unprotected.”

“Gross,” Salem and Sabrina say simultaneously, but before I can respond, the door flies open and in walks Isabel with three similarly stunning friends. They promptly take up residence in the back row of the bleachers, as if hoping not to draw attention, but there isn’t an eye in the room that isn’t sparing them at least one lingering glance.

Well, other than Salem’s. He’s pretending to be immune, but I’ve already seen him preening in front of Isabel, and when he excuses himself back to the court, he is definitely puffing out his chest a little. I can’t really blame him—they do look like one of thoseVanity Fairspreads on Young Hollywood—but I wish he’d just own it.

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