First and Goal (Moving the Chains #1) (47 page)

“Oh, he doesn’t mind quite so much now.” She pats my chest and saunters off down the hallway. Probably to find Ash.

“What’s up with the shoes thing?” I lean against Jess’ closed locker, waiting for Evie to finish up.

She pops her head out and glances over at me, smiling. “She bet me at the game on Friday that I was Dream Girl even before she found out from Jeremy.”

“Great. Now I’m responsible for you losing a bet too. I bet Jess has really expensive taste.” My foul mood is getting worse.

Evie closes her locker, slinging her bag over her shoulder and fixing me with a questioning glare. “Why are you being so weird?”

I glance around her at Kerri, who is still packing her things. I lower my voice so that no one else will hear. “I know you said you forgive me for everything, and you don’t blame me for last year. But I blame myself, Evie. My God, you thought I was fucking Sabrina on the worst night of your life! It’s no wonder you hated me!”

There’s more to say, but I’m not about to have this conversation in the crowded hallway.

She cocks her head to the side and regards me coolly. “Okay, then. I blame myself for you turning into a raging asshole last year. I destroyed one of the nicest guys I knew by letting some asshole kiss me right in front of you.”

“That was not your fault. That was my own stupid doing. Not only did I make you feel like you had no other option, but I didn’t have to react the way I did.” I’m slouched against Jess’ locker, pretty much pouting.

Evie steps up to my chest. She’s much closer to my eye level than when we’re both standing up straight.

“If that’s
really
the way you feel, then you need to accept that what happened with me and Eddie was my own doing. I should never have been trying to make you jealous by dating him, and I certainly shouldn’t have been making out with him while I was imagining it was you.”

Holy fuck. Did I hear her right? I don’t have time to think about what she said. Her hands wrap around the back of my neck. She pulls me down to her lips, and oh my God. Evie Papageorgiou is sticking her tongue down my throat in the hallway in front of everyone.

I clamp my hands around her waist and pull her into me, kissing her back with as much force as I dare use on her in public. I’m vaguely aware of whistles and cheers from our classmates in the background. I could fucking care less right now. My girl is the only thing permeating my senses. All I know is the feel of her arms locked behind my neck, her muscles dancing under my fingers, her tits pressed against my chest, her tongue moving with mine, her lips soft as velvet, and her taste. Oh God, the taste of her in my mouth. I’ll never get enough.

Thank you, God, for this girl that you made just for me.

She finally releases me from her hold. I’m dizzy with the lack of oxygen, but I would never have broken that off for anything. I’m grateful that she had enough brains left to do it for both of us.

From somewhere to my right, I hear Kerri’s voice. “Rob, you’re going to be late for football practice.”

My eyes never leave Evie’s beautiful, smiling face. “Football? What’s football?”

Evie smacks my chest playfully. She pulls herself out of my grasp and holds her hand out. “Where’s my chocolate, Falls? You’re not off the hook yet.”

I hand over the bar wordlessly.

Kerri sidles up beside Evie. “Eva, what exactly do you think you’re doing?”

Evie’s already tearing the wrapper open. Shit, she’s going to punish me even worse than
not
watching her eat it.

“Eating the chocolate my boyfriend gave me.” The evil grin that Evie shoots her is obvious even to me. I don’t get the weirdness between these two.

Kerri’s eyes practically pop out of her head, and she stalks away with a huff. Maybe she lost money on the bet. She wouldn’t have had any insider information. I made Rachel promise not to tell her anything. Oh, well. Those bets are stupid in the first place.

I can’t take my gaze off Evie. “Say it again.”

“What?” She’s sucking artfully on her first square of chocolate.

“That last thing you said.”

She fixes me with a curious look. Her eyes tell me that she’s actually thinking about what she just said. “Eating the chocolate my boyfriend gave me?”

I’m
her boyfriend. I am. Me. Skipped right over the dating and went straight to boyfriend. My God, am I okay with that. “No, just the good part.”

“Chocolate?”

She’s so deliciously evil sometimes.

“You’re just messing with me now. The other part.”

She stands on her tiptoes to get closer to my face. “My boyfriend?”

There are still some people milling around the hall. At the risk of getting busted by a teacher, I tip my face down to meet hers for another kiss. I’m definitely gonna be late for football. I rest my hands on her shoulders and look down at her face, still unconvinced that I’m not dreaming all of this. Surely, I’ll wake up any minute.

“Evie, are you really mine?”

She smirks up at me. “What kind of lousy gender equalist are you? You’re mine.”

And yeah. I’m okay with that too.

I wrap my arm around her shoulders and steer her towards the direction we should’ve gone fifteen or so minutes ago. “At the risk of sounding sexist and controlling, please tell me you brought a change of clothes for practice.”

She’s still in her tight black skirt, nearly see-through navy blouse, and killer heels that she wore for inductions this morning. “I really don’t like sharing.”

She laughs with a mouthful of chocolate. “Well, I had planned on running the trail today after practice in an effort to avoid you and make myself think of something
other
than you, so yes. I have a change of clothes.”

Pressing a kiss to the top of her head, I whisper in her ear. “I’m always thinking of you too, my girl. Still going for that run?”

“Yeah. With all the candy and cupcakes you keep giving me, I’m gonna get fat.”

“You could gain a hundred pounds and still be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

“And you told me you have no idea what to say to girls.” She makes a tsking sound at me, but her voice is definitely playful. Ah, I love playful Evie.

“I will tell you anything you want to hear.” No joke.

She stops in front of the band room. I can already hear the students warming up on their instruments. “How about if you just text me and let me know how long Coach is gonna keep you after practice for being late? I’ll have my phone with me while I’m running. I can’t run without my music.”

She rises on her toes and plants another kiss on my mouth before turning into the band room.

I run my tongue across my lips. They taste like chocolate, Evie, and dreams come true.

With a stupid smile plastered across my face, I jog to the locker room. Who cares that I’m probably in deep shit with Coach? Not this guy. Does it bother me that my teammates are going to spend the next two hours riding my ass about the PDA in the hallway? Not even a little.

Evie Papageorgiou is mine. All mine.

R
ob jogs up to meet us on the field a half hour late for practice. He’s wearing the most stupid, shit-eating grin I’ve ever seen which just fucking irritates me. Mike and I are still working on the burpees that Coach assigned us for being a few minutes late. Sweat drips down my back, and the sun beats me into further submission. Rob joins us in his punishment, but doesn’t seem the least bit pissed off about it. Fuck, he’s tearing it up. Unlike Mike who still won’t speak to me.

Our last block of the day, I texted Mike a picture of the hottie I bagged last weekend. Our teacher busted him with the pic. We were both sent to the Principal’s office, given a slap on the wrist, and forced to clear our phones of all data. Only after reassuring Dr. Filardi that we didn’t have any other copies at home. The girl wasn’t even naked in the picture, Christ. I might love sex more than I love breathing, but I draw the line at sharing the naked pics my girls send me. If they want other guys to see their pussies, then that’s for them to send out to the whole world. What they give to me is just for me.

Mike’s doesn’t care about any of that. He’s beyond pissed. Probably worried that his ball and chain will get wind of it.

This is exactly why girlfriends are not for me. Too much fucking drama just for routine orgasms. I can get the same thing from lots of girls. Why be tied down to one when variety is the spice of life?

Now it seems Rob has joined Mike’s ranks of servitude.

Rob isn’t in our last block. He has some stupid super brain class that neither Mike nor I wanted to deal with at the end of the day. Judging by his good mood now, it’s obvious his little talk with Eva panned out better than expected. Dude looked like he was gonna puke all during lunch and hadn’t said two words to any of us. They must’ve patched things up since this morning.

We’re pulled from football detention to start running plays. There’s no time now for interrogation. Coach is already pissed off that three of his starting players put the team’s practice behind schedule.

Rob’s a great quarterback on an average day. But a few practices this year, those of us who know him really well could see how far out of the game his head really was. Eva’s doing a number on my brother this year. For the life of me, I can’t figure out what pull she has on him to make him willingly sign himself up for that kind of misery.

Today though. Holy shit, today.

Rob’s lobbing them sixty yards down the field without even trying. Pushing through defenders like he’s a running back. Throwing blocks like a lineman. When he feels my eyes on him, he tries to put on his lousy-ass poker face. I’m seriously starting to wonder if, raped or not, Eva didn’t give him a blowjob in the locker room, and that’s why he was so late. No guy is this amped up for no reason.

Even though Rob’s kind of a pussy, finally landing a girlfriend shouldn’t be enough to make him play like this. Only getting off can put this kind of fire in a guy’s veins.

The first water break that’s called, I’m on him faster than a hooker on the street corner. “What are you so happy about, asshole? And why the fuck were you so late?”

Again with the piss-poor poker face. “No reason.”

Even Mike can smell his lies like a coon dog. “Yeah, right. Try again. You and Evie together now or what?”

“Yep.”

That’s it. That’s all he gives us. No play-by-play. No nothing. Simply gulps down some more water and jogs back to the field. Fine. Mike and I’ll just have to force it out of him later. No way he didn’t get some before practice.

And I want the dirty details, dammit. I’ve worked too long to help him to not be rewarded for my efforts.

Coach calls it a half hour late. He had to keep us to make up for Rob’s little stint in quickie locker room heaven. Pissed off as he is, he sends Rob to run five miles as further penance. Rob takes off toward the trail without missing a beat. He turns around when Coach starts yelling at him to go run the track, so he doesn’t screw up his ankle again. The only response any of us gets is a quickly raised eyebrow and that stupid-ass dimpled grin that makes him look like a fucking child. He’s gone a heartbeat later.