Complete Nothing (True Love #2)(21)

Envy surged through me and I felt not green, but white hot with rage. That was my man. Mine. She had no right to look at him like that.

“Hello?” Claudia said. “True?”

I snapped back to the now, and suddenly my skin tingled. Of course. Why hadn’t I thought of this before?

“Make him jealous,” I mused.

“What?”

I sat up a bit straighter as a cloud passed over the sun. “You have to make him jealous.” It was the oldest trick in the book. If this guy was as primal as he seemed, he’d fall for the envy thing in seconds. “Guys always want what they can’t have. Especially when they know what they’re missing.”

“So I . . . what? Flirt with other guys in front of him?” she asked.

“No, no, no,” I replied. “That’s for amateurs. You have to date someone else. Make it seem as if you’ve moved on entirely. That you have with this new person exactly what you had with him.”

Claudia squirmed in her seat. She touched the ring again. My heart went out to the girl. The love of her life had just broken up with her. I was sure the very idea of being with someone new made her uneasy. But sometimes we had to do unpleasant things in the name of love.

“Like who?” she asked quietly. “I’m not interested in anyone at school. And besides, everyone looks up to Peter. They’d probably stay away from me out of respect or something.”

“People do that?” I asked.

“Yep. Lauren couldn’t get a date for, like, a year after she broke up with her boyfriend Todd. You know, Todd Ivanovic? The captain of the swim team?” I stared at her blankly. “Anyway, she finally got Chase Varone to tell her what was up, and he said that everyone still thought of her as Todd’s girl even though Todd had totally been hooking up with a different girl, like, every weekend since she dumped him. So unfair.”

“Brutally,” I replied. “Well then, if none of the guys at your school will go out with you, we’ll just have to go elsewhere.”





CHAPTER TEN


Peter


I ducked my head as I walked past Coach. He was going over something with one of the assistants, poking at his iPad. I hoped to God he wouldn’t notice me. I couldn’t take a lecture right now. More than anything, I wanted to be home in front of the TV with a Big Mac and a monster soda. Actually, I wanted to be anywhere but here.

I still couldn’t believe I’d broken up with Claudia. I pictured her crushed expression and my stomach clenched. Just like it had out on the field right before I’d thrown that interception. And right before I’d gotten sacked the first time. And the second. And the third.

Humiliating. The whole practice had been humiliating.

“Marrott! Where do you think you’re going?”

I stopped and my head hung lower.

“Get your ass over here!”

I trudged up to him. Gavin, Mitchell, and Lester watched us from the bleachers, drinking their water. Great. An audience. This should be fun.

“What the hell was with you today?” Coach demanded, spit gathering at the corners of his dry lips. “You looked like a freshman novice out there.”

“Sorry, Coach,” I said.

“Sorry? Don’t tell me you’re sorry. Tell me it won’t happen again. Because we have our opening game against our biggest rivals this weekend, and we got scouts coming. Now is not the time to lose it.”

“I know,” I said quietly.

I saw Claudia’s face again. My fingers curled tight on my helmet’s grill. But I had to do it, right? I couldn’t take her pushing me away anymore. I couldn’t take the pressure. I couldn’t live my life waiting for the inevitable day when she would dump me and head off into her perfect future. I’d taken control of the situation. I’d done what I had to do.

“Excuse me?” he shouted.

“I understand, Coach,” I said more loudly, my chest heaving. I felt like I wanted to punch something, and he was standing so close I actually imagined doing it—punching him square in the jaw. But I didn’t. Of course I didn’t. Instead I said a silent prayer.

Get me out of here. Please just let me get out of here.

A stiff breeze rustled the leaves on the trees around the field and cooled off my neck. I took a breath.

“I swear it won’t happen again,” I said, looking him in the eye.

“Good,” he said. “Now go shower and screw your head back on. I want to see the QB I know and respect back here tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir.”

I turned around and walked as fast as I could toward the school. Gavin, Lester, and Mitchell jogged to catch up with me. My heart pressed against my chest over and over and over again, and each time it felt as if something sharp was pressing right back, puncturing its outer wall.

“What the hell was that about?” Mitchell asked.

“What do you think?”

“So you had one bad practice,” Gavin said. “Why’re you so pissed?”

“I broke up with Claudia,” I snapped.

“What?” Gavin stopped in his tracks. The rest of us kept walking, so that he had to run to catch up with us.

“Dude! That’s awesome!” Mitchell crowed. “We are so gonna to party this weekend!”