Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 137433 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 550(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137433 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 550(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
By trying to please everyone, I end up pleasing no one, so maybe the answer is doing what’s right for myself.
Maybe being authentically yourself spares everyone else around you a whole bunch of pain.
The next person on my to-do good list is Grim Kwon.
He wants to be captain. And I want to…be left the fuck alone. And that includes never playing football again after high school.
This is the one resolution I decided to do for myself. Grim is right—I’m not the right man for the job. I never was. Passion is merit.
Maybe I can’t follow my dream of becoming a fighter pilot, but I’m also not going to break my back playing football just so Dad can have something to talk about with his buddies at his country club.
And I’m certainly not going to cock-block Grim’s actual dream to do it.
So here I am, in the locker room after practice, ready to corner Coach Taylor and tell him I’m stepping down as captain but will still fulfill my commitments as a player for the remainder of the year.
Everyone is still in the showers.
“Dude, personal space,” I hear Mac telling Ballsy in the showers while soaping his own ass. I’m clean, dressed, and ready to leave.
My duffel bag is hung over my shoulder. Bet they all think I’ve already left. “If I can see each individual hair on your ball sack, that means you’re too close.”
“Or in Ballsy’s case, in the same town,” Finn quips.
I should probably give them one more warning about being assholes to Todd before I pass the captain title along.
I’m about to walk from behind the row of lockers and do just that when Austin’s voice makes me freeze in my spot.
“Seen Bailey Followhill at the beach yesterday.”
What was she doing at the beach? Who was she with? How did she find her way out of her house?
“Yeah?” Finn asks. “Is she still hot?”
“Bro, flammable is an understatement. Bitch must be pissing lava or somethin’, she’s so hot. She wore a tiny yellow bikini and looked like she ran out of a Victoria’s Secret catalog. She’s more bangin’ than ever.”
“And just as unattainable, I’m sure,” Grim drawls. Atta boy. “She didn’t notice your existence when you both attended the same school for three years. Doubt she changed her mind now that she’s in college and you still look like what happens when steroids and my left nut decide to procreate.”
I’d make him captain of the Miami Dolphins if I could right now.
“Au contradictoriany.” Austin takes a stab at French…and murders the entire language in the process. “I’m hearing she is, indeed, a tweaker, so there’s a lot of room for error on her part. Easy prey.”
The only thing stopping me from popping his kneecap off with my Swiss army knife right now is that I want to hear more about their meeting.
“For real? She gave you tweaker vibes?” Ballsy gasps.
“She isn’t a tweaker,” Mac grunts. “Her rich parents would detox her ass in some 5k-a-night Swiss village if she was doing anything harder than weed.”
“She’s on something, all right,” Austin snorts out, stepping out of the stream of water, toweling himself. “Apparently, she’s been grounded or some shit until a couple days ago. Her parents are now testing her for drugs, and as long as she’s clean, she’s allowed to go out. That’s what she told me anyway.” She confided in him? Why? “Needless to say, I invited her to all of the parties this weekend.” Austin flashes a shit-eating grin of the douchebag variety. “Including the one going on in my pants.”
My head feels woozy. Are Mel and Jaime kidding me? They’re making her piss into a cup and letting her do her thing?
Yeah, why not, asshole? Because you love the idea of Bailey locked up where no one can reach her or hit on her? a voice inside my head scoffs.
It’s been real easy for me not to pretend Thalia and I are still an item since I knew Bailey wasn’t in a position to revenge-fuck someone else.
But that’s no longer the case, and Bailey has never been more volatile and vindictive in her entire life.
“Mark my words.” Austin steps into his chino pants and J.Crew shirt—the international I am a mediocre white man uniform. “By the end of this week, I’m going to be balls deep inside Bail—”
“Shut the fuck up, Austin.” My tone is acerbic enough to cut his face to shreds. “Or I’ll fuck you up and finish the job Grim started last year.”
We don’t talk about it, but last year Austin called some freshman a slur for holding hands with his boyfriend or whatever, and Grim went so batshit crazy on his face, it took three of us to unplaster him from Austin.
We only did it because we didn’t want Grim to get arrested. I’ve met STDs more lovable than Austin.