Page 87 of Topping the Jock

“You can be a pessimistic butthole at times, but I love you.”

I went to argue, then stopped myself. Pessimistic butthole was a pretty good description of me.

“Hey, Quinn!” Zane said, waving an arm in the air. “You and Reed wanna play?”

“Absolutely not,” I responded.

The four of them booed. Monty put his hands on either side of his mouth and booed the loudest of them all.

“You can boo all you want,” I said, fighting a smile. “I don’t cave to peer pressure.”

“Come on, Specks,” Monty said, curling his nose in an adorable way. “I’ll go easy on ya.”

“The day you get me to play football is the day Hell freezes over.”

Tyler laughed, tossing the ball in the air and catching it. Neil snatched it from him when he threw it in the air a second time, then the two of them wrestled for it. Neil had the advantage, being way taller with longer arms. Poor Tyler didn’t have a chance.

“You guys should probably come inside for a bit,” I said, standing from the bench. My ass was frozen and numb. “You’ll catch cold.”

“One more game,” Monty said, diving for the ball and taking it from Neil. “Then we’ll be inside.”

“Fine. Whatever. But if you get sick, I don’t wanna hear any whining.”

I opened the sliding glass door and went inside with Reed close on my heels.

“You know if he gets sick, you’ll be at his beck and call,” Reed pointed out. “All he’ll have to do is look at you with those big brown eyes and you’ll bend to his will.”

“Probably.”

Reed laughed and walked over to the coffee machine, refilling his cup.

“Have you texted Christian back yet?” I asked.

Christian had contacted Reed earlier that week, apologizing for how he’d treated him months ago. Turned out, Chad had cheated on him, then dumped his ass. So he was crawling back to Reed like a lost puppy.

“Nope,” Reed answered. “I left his message onread, and it’s going to stay that way. I think it’s harsher than if I would’ve replied and told him to kiss my ass.”

“You can do better than him anyway.”

“Damn right I can.” He held his cup to his lips, his brow crinkled. “Plus, I might be crushing on someone else.”

“Who?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Reed smirked.

“The guy you went out with on Halloween?”

“Nope,” he responded. “I haven’t talked to him in weeks. This guy… he’s someone I can’t have, so it doesn’t matter.”

Before I could ask him about it more, the door opened, and the four jocks barreled into the house, their loud voices booming in the kitchen.

“Losers buy dinner,” Zane said to Tyler and Neil.

“Not fair,” Tyler countered. “You had Monty on your team. Even with his injury, he’s still uncatchable, the bastard.”

Monty laughed and slid his arm around my waist. “I’m not totally uncatchable.”

My heart pounded harder.