Page 18 of Safe (King’s Heart #1)

Grant

Cranston Prep just fucking scored.

Coach says nothing, but I can feel the rage radiating off of him. I shake my head and put my helmet back on as their kicker runs up to the ball. They get the extra point.

Everything is just off about tonight. We aren’t playing how we have been, and even though I’m trying my hardest, I feel like I can’t gain any ground. Like I’m playing underwater. A force holding me back from my full potential.

I usually love games. But tonight I just want to crawl in my cave and hide. But I can’t even hide there anymore.

He’s there.

I’ve done my best to ignore him in the two days since he barrelled into my space.

I take as long as I can at practice, showering and fucking around with the guys so that by the time I get back to my room, he’s already passed out.

Then I wake up even earlier than before so I don’t have to watch him stretch awake and walk to the shower in his boxer briefs.

I need to figure out my next move.

The mugshot wasn’t enough. It needs to be something more. Something to make him run away without ever looking back.

It’s not like he has nowhere to go. Not like me.

I saw his little cheering section when we first ran out on the field.

A guy in his late twenties and a boy and girl. All yelling his name and waving.

He turned and smiled so brightly for them, jogging over and hugging each one.

Then, they did the whole thing again during halftime when they had to leave.

No one cheers for me.

But that’s not the point.

The point is, he has people who care for him. He has somewhere to go when I drive him away.

“Water?”

Trevor’s voice interrupts my thoughts. I look down at him, unable and unwilling to keep the irritation out of my eyes as he holds a water bottle up to me.

He’s been making eyes at me the entire game, and even though it’s been kind of annoying, I’m considering fucking him again.

Now that I have a goddamn roommate, I haven’t been able to come as much as I’d like to.

But I’m really not sure if I want to open that door with Trevor again. I don’t want him getting too comfortable with me.

I grab the water from him but say nothing, squirting it in my mouth without looking at him again.

The rest of the team jogs in from the field to do the same while we rotate players.

They all go to the water cart while also trying to steal glances at the cheerleaders on the track behind us.

Because King’s Heart is an all-boys school, we’ve had a deal from ages ago that the Westfield Academy for Girls will cheer for us.

At games, when the cheerleaders are around, the guys get a little… stupid, for lack of a better term.

Not me. I’m completely gay. Never been interested in girls at all. So if anything, I just find the cheers annoying and distracting.

I watch as all the guys try to look really cool while squirting water in their mouths, attempting to keep eye contact with the girls while doing so, which just makes them squirt water in their eyes.

I snort while the girls giggle, then take another drink of water until I realize that the girls aren’t even looking at them.

They’re looking a little to the left. All of them . Right where Landon is standing, pulling up his jersey to get some air on his sweat-slicked abs.

The girls stare even harder, doing stupid shit like whispering to each other and biting their fingers, hoping he will look in their direction.

Something hot and uncomfortable squeezes my chest.

“Hey, Caldwell! Get out on the field!” Coach bellows.

I shake my head, attempting to snap out of it while I jog out onto the field and take my position.

Landon stays on the sideline, being subbed out for another player since he’s been playing for most of the game. He lifts his water bottle and sprays it into his curls, shaking some of the water out before running his hand through it.

The girls go fucking crazy, jumping and cheering, which finally makes him notice that he has an audience. He gives them his big-ass smile. So fucking happy.

“Bro, let’s go,” someone says around me.

I again pull my gaze from him, calling the play and catching the ball when it’s hiked to me.

I run back a few steps into the pocket, looking for where to throw the ball.

My eyes fucking move without my permission. Taking one last glance at him before I make my pass.

He’s still looking at them, but now one of them has decided to try harder to grab his attention. She waves excitedly, jumping up and down so her huge tits bounce in her tight cheerleading uniform. He’s completely engulfed in the show. He can’t fucking take his eyes off of?—

“Oof.”

I look up at the night sky from the ground, trying my best to breathe when it feels like my lungs are fucking collapsed.

Damn. I just got sacked.

I got fucking distracted. Again. By him.

Fuck.

I sit up, shaking my head to try and get rid of the dazed feeling.

Javi comes jogging up, offering a hand and pulling me up from the ground. “Man, you good? What the hell happened? We tried to hold them off as much as we could, but you were just standing there. We had everything lined up perfectly for you.”

I grunt at him as an answer because I can’t tell him the truth—that I couldn’t stop fucking staring at Landon. That I was feeling… unsettled by the attention he was getting.

For the rest of the game, I try my best to ignore Landon’s presence, but it barely works, and I end up playing the worst game of my life.

When the game ends and we lose by twenty-one points, I’m in a terrible fucking mood.

But it plummets all the way to hell when Landon jogs over to the track, smiling and talking with the big-titted cheerleader.

He takes her phone when she hands it to him and puts his number in before handing it back, and then he fucking winks at her.

I throw my helmet on the ground and head for the locker room, ignoring all the calls of my teammates. I grab my bag out of my locker, quickly stripping out of my pads and throwing them down for someone else to deal with, and leave for my dorm.

He better not show up in my room anytime soon. I don’t know what I’ll do to him right now.