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“It is,” I tell her, stomach squeezing.
“Oh.” She stumbles forward, catching herself on the door and the side of the truck. “What are you doing in here, then?”
“Um, riding with him?”
“But I don’t know you,” she slurs.
“I don’t know you either.” It’s a lie. I recognize her from always being around one of the football players.
“Do you go here?” she asks.
“Yeah.”
Behind her, West comes out with a drunk Cade who keeps shrugging off West’s attempt to help him walk.
“Dude, we got a game tomorrow,” West implores.
“I’ll be fine.”
Once she hears their voices, the girl turns. “There you are.”
West’s jaw hardens as he peers between me and her. Cade has a completely different reaction, though. “Hey, baby. You’re looking good.”
“You said that to me already.”
He shrugs, catching his balance. “I guess I really mean it.”
When he gets to the truck, he finally sees me. Cade lifts his brows. “It’s warrior woman! Hey, warrior woman.”
“Um, hey.” My stomach does a flip. I don’t know why he’s calling me that. Is he picking on me?
“Get your ass in the truck, Cade.”
“Ooh, I’m coming,” the girl coos.
“Sure,” Cade says, at the same time, West says, “No.”
“Aw, come on,” Cade calls out good-naturedly.
West hovers at the side of the truck as Cade opens the back door. He gets in, and the girl tries to follow, but West pulls her back. “Listen, we got a game tomorrow. You don’t want to be the reason why we single-handedly lose the first game of the season, do you?” He talks to her like he’s reasoning with a child.
“You didn’t used to go celibate the day before a game.” She grins.
I turn in my seat. Jealousy hits me like a battering ram, but I squash it. It’s not like I thought West was a virgin or anything.
He closes Cade’s door, and somehow, he evades the girl while getting in the truck. I stare straight ahead. Cade’s laughing in the back. “I’m glad you guys finally got together. Maybe Hulk won’t be so mopey now.”
“I’m not mopey.”
“You’re mopey.”
I listen to Cade’s drunk banter for a while until the truck stops again. When I peer around, I realize we’re outside my place. West is already out of the car before I can say anything, and then he’s opening my door, helping me out.
“Give it to her!” Cade yells out as I step down.
“Sorry,” West says after sending Cade a hard look. “He’s worse than I thought. I need him back in his room to sober up, get him good for tomorrow.” He quiets my fears at being dropped off early in a moment. It was an abrupt end to our date, but Cade is really out of it. “Also, I don’t know what that girl said to you, if anything, but…”
“She didn’t say anything,” I tell him. “She was just drunk.”