Page 60 of Fraternizing with the Enemy
As soon as the words came out, I regretted them. Had I really just said a Bulldog was better than a Bobcat? I waited for Jade to jump me, to tell me that Kyle was in the Top Tier and Logan was a nobody from Jefferson, but she didn’t.
Instead, she almost looked like she was fighting a smile. “Wow, really?”
My mind worked overtime to come up with something believable. “I mean, if I say Kyle is better just because Logan is from Jefferson, doesn’t that make him right?”
Jade’s head tilted ever so slightly. “Makes him right?”
“About girls like us peaking in high school.”
It was funny how that phrase almost tasted like a declaration of… something. I didn’t want to be this way—I didn’t want to feel like I was torn between being silent and picking fights with Jade—but I couldn’t figure out how to get my feet underneath me. I couldn’t find ournormal.
And I wasn’t totally sure why.
All at once, Jade’s expression cleared like storm clouds rolling out of the way of the sun. The foreignhardness in her gaze dissipated, softening, as if that were some test I had passed. Which didn’t make any sense—if that’d been a test, I would’ve thought she’d deem me a failure. But her expression seemed too pleased to have disappointed her.
“I didn’t think of it that way,” she told me, flipping my hair over my shoulder. “But you’re so right, Mads. As always. This is why I say I’ll trust you ’til the end.”
“And I’ll follow you,” I said, throat feeling like it was closing.
“’Til the end?” she prompted, raising the eyeshadow brush once more.
I closed my eyes, but there was no ignoring the sinking feeling in my stomach. “’Til the end.”
The Brentwood Bobcats ended up crushing the Chesterville High Vikings with a six-point lead, effectively ending the other school’s winning streak. Cheering at away games always felt more crucial; our student section was smaller, since fewer people came out to games, which meant the Brentwood Babes had to be on their A-game.
And, of course, we were.
We rallied our student section like no other, totally out-cheering the Vikings and their pitiful stunts. Coach Chelsea had beamed at us, and before we broke after the game, she gave us our reward—a weekend free of cheer practice. “Your focus was incredible,” she’d said. “Great job, Babes!”
Except my focus hadn’t been there at all, because Icouldn’t help but think about Logan. He’d be on the field of his own tonight, calling a play and drawing his arm back to throw the ball. How far could he throw? If he ever had to run the ball, how fast was he? I was suddenly overwhelmed by the idea of watching him play, my mind’s eye filling in a picture that had me biting down on my lip.
No. No more.
Connor had driven to the game, so instead of taking the bus back to Brentwood, Jade and I just rode with him. I leaned my head against the glass of the window, the bumps in the road keeping me from falling asleep entirely. Well, that, and the fact that Kyle was sitting on the other side of the bench seat in the back with me. I didn’t trust him to keep his hands to himself.
“Connor, drivefaster,” Jade insisted from the passenger seat, arms crossed over her chest in a way that channeled a pouty toddler. “If Jefferson gets there first, I’m going to wring your neck.”
Beside me, Kyle muttered, “Bet you two like that, anyway.”
My reaction was instinctual—I slapped his arm. Hard.
“What was that for?” he asked begrudgingly.
“Don’t be disgusting.” I leaned forward, poking my head up between the front seats. “We’re going tonight?”
It wasn’t totally a tradition to stop at the Wallflower after a game, but more of ahere-and-theresort of thing. It was the only diner within the county that stayed open lateandhad amazing milkshakes. The diner, sitting squarely in Jefferson territory, was on the way back from Chesterville, but I wanted nothing more than to skip ittonight. Milkshakes with the Bickering Duo and Kyle? Pass.
“We didn’t go last week,” Jade said to me. “Can’t let Jefferson thinking we’ve given up on the territory war.”
“We can’t?” I turned my phone over in my lap, looking at my lock screen. It was ridiculous—even now, I found myself still holding onto my phone tightly when ten o’clock came around. The time we always used to call each other.
The time on my phone tipped to 10:01.
“Look,” Connor said as he slowed down at Wallflower’s entrance. He hit the button to pop the locks undone. “It’s not even that busy. The Jefferson game probably isn’t even over yet.”
Kyle opened his car door before Connor came to a complete stop, hopping out and stretching his arms. I left my varsity jacket in the backseat, still warm from the night of bouncing around in the grass, and the cool breeze felt nice on my skin.
“You should put your hair up,” Jade told me as Connor drove off to find a parking spot. “It’s all knotted.”
