Page 94 of Fair Catch
“Liar.”
“Just nervous.”
“Liar.”
I frowned at him. “Don’t be mean.”
“I’m not, just calling you out for what you are.”
“Gav—”
“I know about you and Zeke.”
My mouth hung open, and then I slowly closed it, swallowing and considering my next words carefully. “What about us?”
“Everything.”
Panic lodged in my throat, but it was erased quickly, washed away by fury as I gritted my teeth. “He told you.”
“I pried it out of him,” Gavin clarified. “And only because I told him I could handle you lying to me, but not him.”
“I wasn’t lying,” I started, but then I sighed, noting Gavin’s expression. “I didn’t mean to lie. I just… we weren’t sure what it all was. And when we figured it out…”
“Everything blew up. Yeah, I know the whole story, so spare me.”
I crossed my arms. “Okay, well, if you’re not going to yell at me for… whatevering with your best friend, then why are you attacking me like I’m on trial?”
“Because I’m sick of seeing you mope around. You and Zeke, both.”
I rolled my eyes. “Sorry my mood offends you.”
“It’s not your mood. It’s your attitude, and your stubbornness, and the fact that you could both put this behind you and be happy the way you wanted to if you’d just sit down and talk. And listen.”
“We’ve talked,” I said. “And it doesn’t change what he did.”
“And what exactly did he do?”
“He—”
“Before you say he stole my paper, I want you to think really hard on that and consider if it’s true.”
I sighed. “Gavin, I don’t want to do this. Especially not now.”
“Too bad. I do.”
“I have a big game tomorrow.”
“And you have a conversation with your twin brother tonight.”
I fumed. “He was careless. And selfish. And lazy. I showed him my paper to give him a place to start, to give him ideas, and instead he abused my trust and copied enough to warrant both of us getting suspended from the team and almost from school.” I threw my hands up before letting them smack against my thighs. “Like — what are you missing here?”
“Do you really think he meant to do it? That he did it to hurt you?”
“No,” I said instantly. “I think he did it to help himself. He wasn’t thinking of anyone else.”
“Sure about that?”
The way Gavin asked that question, one brow arching into his hairline, it made me flush so hard I unzipped my midwear jacket. I knew there was no way Zeke would have told him about that particular part of that day, how Zeke was rushing through that paper so he could have time with me before a long day.
But it made me think of it, of the role I played, of how I might have acted if he was teasing me like that.
I shook my head. “Zeke and I are fine,” I lied. “Okay? We’ve come to an understanding. He gives me my space, I give him his, we’re teammates. That’s it.”
“That’s not it. Not for either of you. And you’re both making yourself sick trying to convince yourself otherwise.”
Any attempt at an argument died in my throat at his words, at the memory of Zeke holding me under that cloudy sky as I clung to him just as much.
“Riley, I want you to think about it — really think about it. You know Zeke. You know his family, and ours, how different they are. Think about how he cared for both of us growing up, how he treats our parents like they’re his own, how he did everything to help me adjust to life after the accident.”
“That he was responsible for.”
“And he wasn’t the only one!” Gavin shook his head, exhausted. “I was just as much at fault as he was.”
My stomach turned, the memory of my birthday flashing in my mind. But Gavin didn’t know about that, didn’t know what Zeke had told me.
“I got in the driver’s seat hammered that night,” Gavin continued.
Hearing it from him struck me even harder than when Zeke had told me, and I closed my eyes on a hot exhale.
“I damn near crashed the car myself. And Zeke stepped up because he figured out of the two of us, he was the most sober.” Gavin’s nose flared. “It was a stop sign hidden behind a low-hanging tree, Riley. Even in broad daylight, it’s hard to see. Car accidents can happen to anyone, at any time, regardless of intoxication. Zeke didn’t even have enough booze in his system to blow above the legal limit. Did you ever think of that? He’d have been in jail or juvie, at best, if he had, would have had to pay off a D.U.I. in more ways than one.”
I sobered at that, a thought I hadn’t even considered — likely because I’d been so caught up in what had happened to Gavin that I couldn’t think straight. I never stopped to sift through the details of everything, to think about the intersection and how it was known for being dangerous.
