Believe in Spring (Jett #8)(6)

“You were amazing,” she says, her eyes sparkling under the bright stadium lights. “I always love watching you race.”

I bend down and kiss her lightly so that my sweat-drenched body doesn’t touch her.

Zach comes by and shakes my hand. “Dude, good race.”

“Thanks, man.”

“Showers and then dinner?” Aiden says as he rubs a towel over his sweating head. “Shower separately, and then eat together, is what I meant just in case you pervs thought otherwise.”

Clay snorts. “I’m down. I’m starving.”

Keanna shifts on her feet and even though she’s smiling, I get the feeling she feels a little out of place with the guys.

“I think we’re gonna head back to the hotel,” I say, giving her a quick wink when she looks up at me. “You guys go on.”

“Look at him,” Aiden says sarcastically. “Always rubbing it in with the girlfriend.”

I flip him off and he laughs. “See ya’ll in San A?”

“Yeah, man. See you tomorrow.”

After packing up my bike and all my gear, we head back to the hotel. I head straight to the bathroom to rip off my sweaty riding gear, and Keanna calls my name.

“What’s up?” I call back.

“Your phone is ringing. It’s Zach.”

“Let it ring,” I call back.

When I get out of the shower, Keanna is sitting on the hotel’s desk chair, her face tight with worry.

“What is it?”

“Your phone has been ringing like nonstop. All of the guys have called you like twice each, and I wanted to answer it because I thought maybe it’s an emergency but I didn’t want to go through your stuff…”

“Babe,” I say, holding the towel around my waist as I lean over and kiss her. “My stuff is your stuff. I hope the guys are okay.”

I grab my phone off the nightstand and unlock the screen. I have a dozen missed calls and a few text messages.

“What is it?” Keanna asks.

I click on the first message. Shit.

“Well?” Keanna says, her voice growing impatient.

“Uh…” I don’t know what to say. I am temporarily out of words. I turn off my phone and toss it on the bed. “It’s um, nothing.”

“Doesn’t seem like nothing,” she says, standing up. “Why do you look like that?”

I bite my lip. “It’s … well, it’s about you.”





Chapter 5


Keanna



“Don’t worry, none of us believe any of that shit,” Jett says, as he reads a text from one of the guys. Their words mean nothing to me. I am already worried and I haven’t seen what’s going on yet.

“Would you please tell me what the hell is going on?”

Jett turns to me, his eyes slowly meeting mine. “It’s nothing, babe. Someone just decided to talk trash about you online.”

I groan. “What is it this time?”

“It’s nothing.”

I hold out my hand. “I want to see it.”

With a pained frown, Jett hands me his phone. Someone has sent him a link to a Twitter post. I click it, and the Twitter app opens to a very long thread. I see my name, and my heart pounds as I scroll up to the start of the long post that’s bashing me.

And then I start reading, and my entire life flashes before my eyes. Not the good life I have now, with family and a little brother and a great boyfriend. My old life. The life that almost broke me.

We were in Phoenix. My biological mom, Dawn, and me. It was the longest we’d lived in one place in a long time, and I was starting to feel settled down in my school. It was freshman year. I had a couple of friends who would sit with me at lunch. One day they invited me over for a party, and I was eager to go. I’d worn my best jeans and shirt, which wasn’t saying much, and stole some of my mom’s makeup in an attempt to look prettier. Then I walked the fifteen blocks to the girl’s house. I remember her name was Mindy, and she was really popular despite living in a run down trailer. Where I came from, all the popular people were rich, but not in this case. Mindy was pretty and outgoing and a lot of fun. Later, I’d realize that her popularity stemmed from the fact that she’d sleep with any guy who wanted it, but at the time I had no idea. I was just happy to be included. I was out at a party with lots of people, drinking free beer, and trying to enjoy myself, and it was a lot better than sitting at home where we didn’t have a TV or internet or anything fun.

Mindy bumped into me with her shoulder. “I see you staring at him,” she’d said, making flirty eyes at me.

I probably turned beet red as I shook my head and said I wasn’t staring at anyone. But she knew I was lying. “His name is JJ,” she said, nudging me with her cup of beer. “Go say hi.”

I did. I don’t know why, but I did.

JJ was tall, older, and cute in this rugged bad boy way. I’d only been watching him because he was sitting alone on a couch and looked just as bored as I was. But with Mindy’s encouragement, I walked right up to him and sat down on the other side of the couch.

“Hello,” I said meekly when he looked at me.

“Yo,” he said back.

And that was that, for about ten minutes. Then Mindy sauntered over and sat herself between us, throwing an arm around both of our shoulders. “JJ, this is Keanna. She has a crush on you,” she’d said entirely too loudly. I wanted to drop dead of mortification, but JJ just looked at me like he’d suddenly seen me in a new light. “Cool,” he said with a nod and a sly grin in my direction.