Page 43 of Shutout
He blinks hard. “Always?”
“It was much worse in high school, trust me.” I shrug, but I don’t plan on telling him the worst of it. Or that the worst of all was one of his ex girlfriends.
“I—I’ll tell them something to leave you alone.”
“No.” I put my hand on his chest to stop him before he walks over to our group mates. “That would make it worse.”
“What? How?” Brook frowns.
“This is why I’ve never told you about this. Most girls would think I ran to you and pit you against them.” Slowly, I drop my hand back down. “I don’t think that’d be the case with these girls, anyway. I don’t get mean girl vibes.”
“I did.” If anything his expression’s darker. “They could’ve come straight to me and asked if I was single. Instead they tried to drill you. That’s not cool.”
I tilt my head. “Or they’re just nervous.”
“Why are you defending them?”
Because I know what it feels like to have a hopeless crush on him. I saw myself in every single girl who approached me asking for some in with Brooklyn, because who wouldn’t possibly fall for him?
“Just pretend like you didn’t hear anything. Let me handle it as usual.”
“As usual.” Brooke mutters in a dark way, staring at me with his intense game face. “How many times has this happened?” I bite my lips so I don’t laugh at his sweet, naiveass. “How bad did it ever get? Did someone ever bully you because of me?”
“Weren’t you going to the restroom?”
“Olivia, don’t change the topic.”
I tilt my head back, closing my eyes as I sigh in defeat. “Anywhere from a mild chat like this one to hair pulling.”
“What?” he hisses in horror. Next thing, he digs his fingers into my hair and massages my scalp as if the hair pulling had just happened. “Who the hell hurt you?”
“I’m not hurt now, you dork.” I grab his wrists and push his hands away before he can give me even more tingles. “That was like four years ago.”
He does the math quickly. “When I was dating Jenna?”
Oops, getting too close to the truth. I turn around to head to the restrooms.
“So, it was Jenna,” he mumbles behind me and I stay quiet.
Down the stairs, I veer left for the women’s restroom and he follows. I give him a look. “Drop it, before you walk into the wrong restroom.”
“Fine, we’ll talk about this another time. But promise me something.” He takes a step closer to speak lower as a girl walks out of the restroom and gives us a funny look.
“What?”
“If someone else gives you any shit because of me, you’ll give me the chance to intervene.”
“Why?” I wrinkle my nose. “I’ve been able to take care of myself just fine.”
“And it’s killing me to find out I put you in that position more than once.” He tugs at a strand of my hair, which makes the back of his fingers brush against my cheek accidentally. “Promise me.”
Before I shudder, I say, “Fine.” I rush into the restroom before he can see how much he’s affecting me.
CHAPTER 17
BROOKLYN
We lose the first game of the season, 6-5, against the Falcons. They were last year’s champ and some of the seniors are happy that it wasn’t a total embarrassment.
