Page 40 of Hate the Game (Playing Dirty #1)

***Cole***

“What’s to tell? They’re tattoos and they’re there.

” I almost laughed at the way her lip stuck out in a pout that I doubted she knew she was making.

“Okay, okay. AJ and I had a small group of guys we hung with. One of the guys, this kid we called Ink for obvious reasons, was into tattoos. We were around fifteen and I’d just had this fucking awful fight with my mom.

Ink had been practicing on anyone who’d let him so when he asked me, I just went with it. ”

“You were fifteen?!” Her fingers tightened on my thigh. “Cole!”

I grinned, happy to reestablish myself as a badass. “I was so pissed at my mom and I clearly was not handling puberty very well because my emotions were all over the place. My whole idea was so fucking stupid. My mom loved her art enough to be sober for it? I’d give her art.”

She sat up and moved closer so she could inspect the tattoos marking my right arm. She traced the lines with her fingertip. “What were your thoughts when you chose this?”

I looked down at the mass of lines that wrapped all around my arm, tangling and twisting themselves together and apart again.

“I think it was how I viewed her art at the time. Just a bunch of random ass lines that meant more to her than me. I mean, I can say that now. Back then I told myself I was mimicking her, showing her what I thought of her work.”

“What’d she say when she saw it?”

I blew out a sigh and stared up at the deep purple sky. “She didn’t come back for a week from that fall off the wagon. When she did come back she felt guilty enough to not mention it. Of course, now she’s over the moon with it. She decided that it’s a work of art that shows my depth or some shit.”

Savannah leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss over one of the tangles. “I like it.”

Chills erupted up my arm and I had to pretend like I was getting cold. “Are you cold, too?”

She rolled her eyes and sat back again, letting her hand drop away. “A little. Will you tell me about something else?”

I ignored the way my skin felt without her touching it. “Name it and we’ll see.”

“Cass.” Even in the shadows of dusk I could see her cheeks turn red. “I just don’t understand why she hates me. No. That’s not true. I do understand why she hates me. I just don’t know if her reasons are valid. Am I encroaching into her space, Cole?”

“No.”

She snorted and stretched out again, all long legs and curves as she folded her arms behind her head and stared at the sky. “No, I’m not? Or no, you won’t talk about it?”

“No, you aren’t encroaching, Sav. Cass and I dated a few years ago.

It’s been over for more than two years and we’ve both dated other people since then.

There’s nothing between us but friendship.

” I would’ve been lying if I said talking about it didn’t make me itchy, though.

Cass had been acting stranger and stranger and I’d been worried.

“Does she know that? She’s being very territorial for someone without a horse in the race.

” Slowly looking over at me, Savannah frowned.

“I just don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.

Even if she’d been a jerk to me. I would feel like shit to know that you two had lingering feelings and I stomped all over them in my boots for a few kisses and tacos. ”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “For a few kisses and tacos?”

“Fine. For a few kisses, tacos, and more fun than I’ve had in a while.” She smirked at me, clearly teasing me. “Except for when Jax took me to the bar that had line dancing. I fucking love line dancing.”

“Shut up, woman.”

Her laughter twinkled in the night like a shooting star, bright and beautiful but gone too fast. “Tell me about dating Cass.”

I sighed and stretched out next to her. We were close enough that the warmth of her body mingled with mine. I folded my arms behind my head, mimicking her pose, and we struggled over whose elbow would end up on top since there wasn’t enough space for them both to be stretched out.

“Cole.”

I turned my head to look at her and found her watching me.

“She was Jax’s neighbor and I knew Jax through a football camp Coach Carrington ran.

They always held a few spots for poor kids who would never have been able to afford it otherwise.

Coach even picked me up every morning and dropped me off at night.

I ended up spending a lot of time at Jax’s and Cass was always around. We were all close.”

“Now fast forward to the dating part. And maybe include why you called her just a childhood friend when I asked if you two were together.”

I groaned. “There are a million other things we could talk about.”

“And there are a million other people you could be here with. You chose me and I chose this topic.” She’d grown serious. “I really don’t like having people hate me for reasons that I don’t understand, Cole.”

I swore and sat up. “The summer before freshman year here we started dating. It was just supposed to be two old friends having fun. At least for me. I liked her but we were about to go to college. I thought of it more like we were scratching an itch. Then she decided to go to USC with us. I realized she was thinking things were way more serious than I was ready for. I don’t do relationships like that.

I just… It’s too much. Especially when I was eighteen and attending college on a scholarship that I couldn’t afford to lose. ”

Savannah didn’t move but I could tell by her body language that she didn’t like what I was saying.

“I broke up with her after a few months of dating at USC and seeing how unhappy we both were. She wanted more. I wanted less. She’s amazing and beautiful and I guess I could’ve stayed with her and made it work but why?

When we’re such good friends and so young, why struggle to make something work when it’s not absolutely necessary?

” I stared down at my hands, tracing the scars on my knuckles in the fading light.

“I don’t know. It’s hard to have a lot of faith in relationships when you’ve never really had a role model of a healthy one.

I preferred having her as a friend. And it’s been good. ”

“Has it?” Savannah sat up and hugged her knees to her chest, ignoring the way her thighs were exposed in that position. “I saw her face when you introduced her as a childhood friend. You hurt her feelings.”