Page 42 of Delay of Game
He craned his neck around, as if he hadn’t considered me staying behind before. Then he shook his head. “Not really.”
“You don’t want to go hang out with Mila?” I winced even as the words raced out of my mouth, my heart skipping a beat.
“She’s got…fuck, I don’t know. Some practice. Mom took her. I just need to make it home for dinner. Besides, Mila’s had enough of me.” He chuckled under his breath. “She doesn’t appreciate my music choices during our morning commute to school.”
I smiled. “She mentioned you don’t like Kidz Bop.”
“Kidz Bop is a musical war crime. I won’t have it in my car. I told her she could pick any actual artist and she said Blippi. Who the hell is Blippi?”
“Answering that will just piss you off even more. I’ll let you figure it out on your own.”
He sobered, his eyes locking on mine. “Besides, you don’t seem like your heart is in this project, either. Why’s that?”
My bottom lip slipped into my mouth. “Nothing in particular.”
His eyes stayed glued to my face, a disbelieving frown forming as his brows pulled close together. “Come on. I told you my deep, dark secret, and you don’t want to tell me yours?”
“Your deep dark secret is work sucks and you don’t like Kidz Bop?”
“Okay, maybe not dark, but I sound like a dick when I complain about my job as a highly paid pro football player. Especially to a teacher who’s making an actual difference in the world.”
“Molding young minds,” I laughed with a shake of my head. “I think you’re allowed to complain about your job no matter what. No one loves their job all the time. What’s going on?”
He shrugged. “I’m not really sure. Something just isn’t clicking with the team, and everything feels…off. Maybe it’s just pre-season nerves.”
“But you don’t think it is?” I filled in the rest of the sentence for him. He shook his head. “Sounds stressful. Especially sinceyou can’t do anything about it, football being a team sport and all.”
His face clouded but cleared just as fast. “Yeah. Nothing to do. So, tell me yours.”
My cheeks burned as I leaned against the wall, crossing my arms over my chest. I didn’t want to admit to myself that I was avoiding Aunt Mercy. Admitting to Rob what a shitty niece and person I was almost too much to bear. “You’re going to think I suck.”
His face softened. “I won’t think you suck.”
Tears pricked the corners of my eyes, and I clenched my jaw, forcing them away. “No, it’s pretty sucky.”
“Well, the good news is you’re speaking to one of the suckiest people in the area. You’re in good company.”
I laughed despite myself. “That’s not true.”
“Completely true,” he countered, taking a step closer. “I once spent an entire interview refusing to answer a single question.”
“And why did you do that?”
“The reporter tried to publish a picture of Mila.”
“Sounds like he was the sucky person, not you.”
“Okay,” Rob grinned. “I’ll give you that one. How about I once left a practice mid-drill because I didn’t like the coach’s tone.”
“And are you still on that team?”
He shook his head. “Nah. I left at the end of the season.”
“I still don’t think that sucks.”
“I yell at people all the time.”
“You’ve never yelled at me,” I countered. “And I highly doubt you yell at your mom. Or Mila.”
