Page 136 of The Casualty of Us
“O?”
Ollie’s shoulder bumps mine, and I jerk my head up, staring at him before realization has me snapping. “I’ll be right back.”
I shoot out of my seat, head already turning as I look for the little herd of forest green and white. My eyes slitting the second they land on her and leaving me momentarily fighting the urge to take a different object to another cheerleader’s face. I grasp the tablet in my hand and remind myself with each step over there that she did hold my hair.
She held my hair. She held my hair. She held—
“What the fuck is this?” I slide the tablet down the table to where Lisette is sitting at its head, pointing at the schedule on it as she lifts her gaze to me expectantly. “That. Right there.”
She heaves a sigh worthy of her new queendom, looking down as we both pointedly ignore the other sycophants. “I don’t see a problem.”
“It’s saying that my athletics credit has been filled with cheerleading!”
“Again.” She waves a hand at me like I need to hurry it up. “What’s the big deal?” I narrow my eyes at her, opening my mouth to snap that this is a very big and incorrect deal, when she shrugs innocently. “I mean, you do owe me a favor.”
No.
I clench my jaw at her implications, hissing out between my teeth, “No way.”
She pauses at that, holding my gaze for a moment before looking me up and down with a slow perusal. “You got great bones, Fitzroy, but you need to learn how to play well with others if you ever want to make it to the big leagues.” Her eyes come back to mine with amusement. “I’ve taken a personal interest in flushing you out, so you’ll be my little this year as well.”
Shit.
Shit. Shit. Shit. I never should have let her hold my hair.
Maybe if she realizes what a cluster this will be. “I’ve never even been a—”
“And this way, neither of us has to deal with Josey moping around during practices.” She lifts a brow at me in challenge. “Or was I wrong about all this, and you don’t owe me a favor?”
Any hope I had of escaping this somehow flees me at that, leaving me glaring at her while accepting that apparently there’s going to be a whole lot this year I didn’t count on. Because I made the deal and…she was right, which she clearly knows by the smirk on her face, but I didn’t think she’d make me dothis.
“Fine,” I snap, trying to retain at least some of my dignity while whispering loudly, “But I’m not sitting here every day.”
I spin around as her laughter fills the air behind me, and she calls out. “See you at practice on Friday!”
Fuck.
I inhale sharply through my nose while heading back to the table, noticing the way everyone’s wide eyes are on me, and retaking my seat silently.
“Um,” Ollie snorts next to me. “Care to share with the rest of class?”
“I’m guessing this has something to do with your newfound friendship?” Hayes lifts his brows.
“You could say that.”
“Wait,” Marley interrupts for a second time. “You became friends with the devil this summer?”
I roll my eyes, mumbling while looking over my schedule again. “She held my hair.”
“So what’s the deal?”
Ollie bumps my shoulder again, and I finally click the side of my tablet, turning it off and picking a strawberry off Hayes’s plate while informing them casually. “I owe her a favor, and she needs a new cheerleader this year.” I catch the way Hayes’s eyes flare wide at the news before telling Marley, “Also, I have poli sci first thing too.”
Ollie and Marley just stare at me, though, shock running through both of their faces before Marley loses it first.
“Oh my god,” she gasps on a laugh. “You’re going to be a cheerleader? Y–you—”
Her words dissolve into a fit of giggles that have me smacking her arm before turning to Ollie with a glare ready to go. “Not a word.”
