Page 80 of The Game Plan

“If you wanted to…”

“I don’t,” she tells me. “I have absolutely no interest in him. I just wish he would leave you alone. I wish he wasn’t targeting you because of me.”

“I can handle it.” I can handle him. We just have to get through tomorrow.

“Then what’s your game plan?” she pushes. “What are you going to say?”

“I’ll figure it out.”

“Miles…” She reaches out for my arm.

“I don’t want to talk about it, not with you, not right now.”

She frowns.

“I just need some space. I’ll catch you later, babe.” I lean down and kiss her temple. I can’t be around her right now. I can’t do anything right now.

Chapter thirty

Sam

Riverstaresatmedisapprovingly from over their tortoiseshell glasses. “You didn’t.”

I sigh. “I did.”

“Sam…”

“I know. Iknow,” I tell them. “It’s not like I set out deliberately to defy your advice. It just kind of… happened.”

“It happened,” they repeat. “You tripped and fell into a relationship with your statistics tutor.”

“We’re still studying?”

“Studying statistics? Or studying biology?”

My cheeks flush. I can’t deny that we’ve definitely spent some time studying one another…

“I feel confident about my test this morning,” I say instead. “I think I’ve got this.”

“No,” River says. “Iknowyou’ve got this.”

“I do. I know the material backwards and mostly forwards. I’m confident. No last minute cramming, no frantic studying… we’ve reviewed everything until I know what I’m doing.”

“Good. That’s exactly what I want for you.”

The real test will be this afternoon, at Miles’s honor code board hearing. I hope the work I’ve done will be enough.

I can’t tell River about that, though; I know they will be less than supportive. Technically I shouldn’t be involved at all. Really I shouldn’t know anything about the details. In reality, Miles has told me pretty much everything—except how he plans on defending himself. He’s said it himself, he’s not sorry he did it; he’s sorry he got caught. He’s not a fighter… except when he is.

And today, he needs to fight. He might not be willing to stand up for himself, so it will fall to me to stand up for him. He’s being stubborn. I have video proof of O’Rourke threatening him. That has to be enough to get him off the hook. Right?

But the altercation with O’Rourke happened before Miles and I ever got together. He’s been targeting Miles for ages. Whatever his issue with me is, it can’t be what’s driving this.

O’Rourke is just an asshole. He’s slimy. He goes after anyone he perceives to be weak enough to tolerate his bullshit. I know he’s made comments to Greg and Tucker. He’s gone after some of the baseball guys. He doesn’t discriminate in who he discriminates against. He’s an equal opportunity bully.

Jake and I might not have gotten to the bottom of this new weirdness between us, but he was happy enough to help me out. He knows how important this is to me. He knows how important Miles is to me.

We’ve only been dating for a few weeks. We’ve been friends scarcely longer. There’s something about him, something that makes him different than any other guy I know. He’s not an alpha male asshole, and he’s not a beta roll over and show his belly kind of dude. He just… he’s calm and confident and composed, except when something triggers him. And only one thing seems to trigger him.

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