Page 36 of The Game Plan

So what if she doesn’t want to be anything other than friends? I can be her friend. I can be there for her. I’ll take whatever scraps of her affection I can get. Because anything is better than nothing. Now that I know her, I don’t think I can go back to not having her in my life again.

I’m not the guy with a big group of friends. I don’t hang out with most of my teammates; we just don’t have much in common. The friends I do have, I keep close. Usually I keep to myself. I don’t talk a lot. I don’t have a lot to say. These aren’t bad things; they’re just facts.

Sam makes me want to be different. She makes me want to be better, to be more social. I wish I could make friends as effortlessly as she does. I wish I could be as open and honest with my thoughts as she is. I wish I could let the insults roll off my back. I wish—

There are a lot of things I want, and a lot more I can’t have. There are things I have the power to change. I can talk more to the other guys on the team, try to forge a friendship outside of us playing the same sport. I can tell people what I’m thinking instead of keeping my thoughts to myself. I can join in on conversations happening around me instead of letting them fly over my head. I can ignore the idiots online.

Chapter thirteen

Sam

Myacademicadvisor,River,is a pretty chill person. Their whole job is to make sure I’m taking the right classes for my double majors—communications and marketing—and that I’m passing my classes. They aren’t afraid to sign me up for tutoring or encourage me to go to office hours for a particularly confusing professor. Basically, they’re on my side… except when they’re on the school administration’s side.

“I’m sorry, Sam,” River says, which makes me frown as they look over my midterm progress report. “One more grade like this and you’ll be academically ineligible for next season.”

“I’m doing my best.”

“I know you are,” they say soothingly.

“I found a tutor!”

“Good. Through the student resource center?”

“A classmate. He got an A on the last exam, though.”

River sighs. “Okay. That’s a start.”

They aren’t a fan—they want me to utilize the university’s free and available resources, the options available to all students.

“I went to the SRC. They don’t have any math majors who have taken statistics already,” I tell them. “I’ve tried to go to the professor’s office hours when they don’t conflict with practice, but he’s rude and condescending.”

“Well, heisa math professor,” River says with a small smile. “It kind of goes with the territory.”

“He doesn’t respond to emails, and when I ask questions in class, he doesn’t actually explain anything in a way that I can understand.”

“So you found yourself a tutor,” they say encouragingly. They make a note on my progress report.

“Yeah. And he’s smart, he’s brilliant, and he explains things in a way that makes sense to me. When he starts talking about football or baseball or softball, it clicks in my brain.”

“That’s great, Sam,” River says. “I’m glad you found someone that helps you.”

“He does.”

Miles is helping me so much, maybe more than he knows. For all the drama that’s come up in my life in the last week or so—the rumors online, the tension with Tamar, the confrontation with Wendy—he’s not actually at fault for any of it. He’s just living his best life, studying, eating dinner, going to frat parties, and it’s like he doesn’t care what anyone says about him. It all rolls off his back like an ineffectual lineman trying to get past him. Like on the football field, he excels at not letting it bother him.

River’s eyes glimmer. “Do I want to know? No, I don’t. Okay, yes, tell me. Tell me everything.”

I laugh. “There’s nothing to tell.”

“He’s cute?”

My face heats, and I look away.

“Oh boy.”

“Yeah, he’s cute,” I allow.

“And you’ll be okay studying with him?”

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