Page 59 of Out of Bounds (Even The Score #2)

Ryan

The List Of Weird Shit

We walked to the training field - holding hands .

That’s right. Holding hands . In front of everybody. A deep sense of pleasure took hold of me, rooting in my chest. Fuck yeah, we were holding hands. Because Kassie was mine and if the off-limits tag didn’t say it, everybody needed to know about it.

"They’re doing pictures with the football girlfriends that way," Cleo informed us without looking up from her clipboard. The second she glanced up though, she sucked in a breath. “Good God. That bruise .” A smile crossed her face. “That’s going to look so good on the socials.”

"Have fun." Kassie nudged my shoulder and I grinned, watching her leave.

The first place I walked up to was my spot with the boys.

"Hey, story time." I lifted up my shirt, flashing the bruise on my side. "What’s the story I’m supposed to tell about this?"

Adam whistled. "Goddamn. He got you good."

“I got cocky.”

"You could tell her the truth?" King took a long look between both of us.

"Kassie’s hot when she’s mad but she can’t be mad at me, " I explained and when the photographers motioned us together, I threw my arms around Adam and King, pulling my boys in. "This could be a group project. We can figure out the story together."

"You beat your meat so hard you punched yourself in the side," Adam smiled for the photo. "There. Done."

"Angle-wise, how would you even do that?" King asked. "You’d have to be jerking yourself off like you’re trying to rip off your dick."

I breathed out through the frozen smile. "You both failed the class."

"No offense but it’s not my ass on the line, captain." Adam threw the Marrs hand sign and both of us copied him while the photographer set up the camera from the grass. "You’re the one who could be up shit creek. I’m just an attractive bystander on the riverbank."

An idea struck me and I grinned back at him when the photographer finally moved away. "I got it."

"Don’t do the jerking off thing," King warned.

"Not the jacking off thing. Better." My grin widened. "King and I were trying to teach Adam about blocking—lead, run, reach—because, you know, he needs the extra help, and one thing led to another, this happened."

" You trying to teach me how to fucking block?" Adam demanded but King burst into laughter.

"Oh, man. That’s good. Just put it on Adam."

Adam scoffed. "You asshole, I was blocking before you were learning long fucking divison."

"There’s no shame in needing help," I assured him and King even laughed harder, grabbing his stomach. "Kassie will think so too."

“Don’t even try it, Cross.”

“Already put into motion.”

"I’ll get you back for it," Adam warned.

I raised my eyebrows, leaning back as one of the photographers started shooting random pictures of us. "Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"How? Are you going to be late to practice again?"

Adam rolled his eyes, and I knew he wanted to say some shit to me, but King still laughed, dodging away from Adam when he tried to hit him in the gut. This was exactly what it was like before I got the captain badge. All three of us taunting each other, riling each other up like no other teammates could. And when the photographers gestured for us to get closer, I had no problem with it.

"You haven’t told Kassie everything," Adam warned me.

"Nothing could get me now." I held out my hands and caught a football when Miles chucked it to me. It was just a prop for the cameras, it weighed about half as much as a real one. "Do your worst, Adam. I’d like to see it."

King’s laughter stopped and he gave me a long look of disbelief.

"What? I’ve told her plenty of the weird shit I do," I argued. "She’s rolled with it every time."

"That’s a lot of confidence, dude." Adam snickered. "You’ve done some weird shit over this girl."

"Does she know about the off-limits tag?" King said slowly, with a pointed look my way.

Adam stopped him, grabbing King by the collar of his shirt. “Hold the hell up. We can’t tell her about that. Don’t be stupid, King, use your head. When we go to bars, how do we get drinks?”

“Kassie cuts right through the crowd,” King acknowledged.

“Exactly. Everyone dives out of the way. I’m not giving that up. I’m not going back to waiting an hour for a warm beer. If Kassie finds out, there goes the good service.”

The photographers zeroed in again and the three of us were quiet while they snapped a few more shots. The moment they walked away though, King snapped his fingers.

"The locker."

I glanced back. "The locker?"

Adam grinned. "Holy shit. King, you fucking genius. The locker."

They had me. It was another one of the items on an endless list of weird shit I’d done about Kassie and it wasn’t like I didn’t see the locker every day but it’d completely slipped my mind on something that Kassie didn’t need to find out about. My eyes flashed between Adam and King and both of them looked back at each other, eyebrows raised.

"Do we need the big Marrs banner?" Cleo asked, walking around the field. "The one that stretches out?"

No one answered her but Adam chose the time to strike. "You know, Kassie’s a big artist, Ryan!" He raised his voice. "You should see if she wants to help you out with the collage in your locker!"

Fuck.

One look towards the football girlfriends and any thought I had that Kassie missed the comment, vanished. My girlfriend perked up, curious. Shit . When the photographers pushed Adam and I together, I smacked him on the back of the head, open-palmed.

"Ow—shit—"

King thought he could laugh too. The photographer had us pose again and I passed over the football to King in the best way I could—hitting him in the stomach with it. He wheezed.

"It’s your own fault, cocky asshole," Adam snickered, shoving me to the side.

King gaped. "That was too low. You almost got my nuts."

"What about his locker?"

All three of us stumbled back to position and somehow, Kassie had crossed over to us without me even realizing it. She crossed her arms over her chest, waiting. I didn’t have any time to come up with a good coverup.

“Uh…it’s uh…” I tried to think of something. Anything. “See…”

No reasonable answer came to mind. I shot a look at King and Adam but they found it a convenient time to look away, Adam grinning like an idiot, and King whistling for some goddamn reason, as if that didn’t make me look more guilty.

"Nothing about my locker," I told her.

"Uh-huh. Okay. So what’s up with the locker?"

"Nothing."

Kassie turned her attention to Adam. " Adam? "

The linebacker was supposed to be my friend but he just chortled and walked away with his hands up.

" King? "

But King was already gone, making record time to other side of the field.

"Where are the drones?" Cleo demanded. "Someone needs to get the banner."

Kassie stood in front of me, her dark eyes gazing into my soul, trying to get me to break. But I wasn’t telling her about the locker. Not yet anyway. Her finding out about the locker wasn’t part of the small steps she needed.

Unsatisfied, she shifted back. "Cleo, do you need an extra hand?”

I straightened up. Instantly, I could see the plan formulating in her head. Cleo agreed too quickly and told her three main places the banner could be at, but I shook my head and tried to break up the conversation.

"I’ll go find one of your drones," I said.

"Why would we do that?" Kassie gave me a curious look, trying not to smile. "I can just go get it?"

I’m sure that’s all you’re going to do.

"We’re needed here ."

"The next batch of football players aren’t showing up for another thirty minutes." Cleo shrugged. "We have time."

The one time Cleo gave us some breathing room and it came at my expense. I wanted to argue but Kassie was faster than that. She strode across the grass, off towards the locker rooms.

“Kassie!”

“You can wait behind,” she assured me, waving without glancing back.

I followed after her, swearing under my breath.