Page 18 of Broken Ties (Rixon High 4)

“Would you stop with that shit?” I moaned.

“What is going on there?” Ezra asked. “The two of you hooking up?”

“It’s not serious.”

“Looked pretty serious from where I was standing at lunch.” He smirked and I flipped him off as we entered the locker room.

It was already emptying out but I soaked up the noise. Damn, I’d miss this next year but hopefully I’d be playing for the Pittsburgh Panthers or the Connecticut Huskies.

If the call ever came.

I shoved away the sinking feeling in my chest. I had three colleges on my list: Pittsburgh, Connecticut, and Iowa. But things had moved slow last year. Coach Ford and Dad constantly reassured me not to worry, that I still had time. But how could I not? I wasn’t like Sofia. I didn’t have my future all mapped out or a 4.0 GPA. I was an average student with average life goals. Except for football.

Football was my shot at being something, at making my mark.

“Hey, you okay?” Ezra noticed my sullen expression.

“Yeah.” I gave him an easy smile. Because that’s what people expected of me. I was the laid-back one, the joker, the good guy. I didn’t take myself—or life—too seriously.

“Hey, you guys want to go to Riverside after we’re done here?”

“No can do, I’m meeting Ashleigh. We’re going out with McKay and Pen,” Ezra said, dragging his jersey over his head.

“Of course you are.” I smiled. He and Ashleigh spent a lot of time with Gavin McKay and his girlfriend Penelope. But McKay was good people.

He’d graduated from Rixon High last year and had helped Ashleigh through a hard time over the summer.

I couldn’t resent Ezra or Ashleigh for wanting to do their own thing occasionally, they’d been through too much. And the fact he was here, talking to me and playing for the team was more than I ever dreamed of.

“Cole?”

“Yeah, why not. Beats going home and listening to my dad remind me of the important things in life.”

“He still giving you shit?”

“When he’s around, yeah.”

Curtis Kandon was a real piece of work, but thanks to his job as a lawyer in the city, he was rarely around. And Mrs. Kandon was out of town a lot too, so Cole had been raising himself since we met in junior high.

My life was the complete opposite. I had two parents who cared a little too much sometimes. A house full of love and laughter and life. But Cole didn’t complain. He just kept his head down and got on with it. Where football was the goal for me, it was a means to an end for him. If he wanted to go to college for anything besides law he needed a scholarship. I knew it was causing a lot of strain between him and his old man, but Cole being Cole didn’t like to talk about it.

“Shit, man, I’m sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry for. It isn’t your fault I drew the short stick where parents are concerned.”

“Only one more year, man,” I said. “Then you can get out of here and never look back.”

A strange expression washed over him, but he didn’t explain it, and I didn’t ask.

Cole was entitled to his secrets.

Just like we all were.

“And that is how you do it.” I slammed down my paddle and waggled my brows at Cole.

“You’re a dick,” he muttered.

“And air hockey king.” A grin tugged at my mouth. “Want to check out the food trucks? I’m starving.”

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