Complete Nothing (True Love #2)(45)
“And now, the captain of the defense! Number sixty-seven, senior defensive end Gavin Dunnellon!”
Gavin gave me a tight smile and ran out. Suddenly I was alone in the locker room, and my head was filled to bursting with images of Claudia. Claudia standing out there waiting to cheer for me when she was really thinking about some St. Joe’s tool. Those pitying faces on the guys a few minutes ago when Mitch had made his announcement. My fingers curled into fists. I wasn’t some loser whose girlfriend went out and dated other guys. I wasn’t some dork who got left behind. I wasn’t pathetic.
“And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for! Number eleven! Your senior quarterback and captain of your Lake Carmody Rams, Peter Marrott!”
I yanked open the door and jogged out, grinning as widely as humanly possible. I ran right by Claudia and didn’t even give her a glance. Then I did something that surprised even me. I took a left, grabbed Josie out of the line of cheerleaders, and kissed her in front of the entire school.
Josie let out this surprised squeak before she sank into me, and the crowd went freaking crazy. The whole thing took about five seconds, but it felt like the best five seconds of my life. I was Peter Marrott. King of the school. And I was living in the moment.
*
Later that afternoon, I lay on my back on the weight bench, pressing, pressing, pressing. Sweat poured down my temples and puddled behind my ears. I clenched my teeth. My muscles quivered. Just five more reps. Four. Three. Two. I let out a huge grunt and hit the last one, then dropped the weights on the ground, gasping for air.
It was already after six, and most of the guys had bailed hours ago. Coach had told us not to work too hard. He didn’t want to wear us out before tomorrow’s game. But I couldn’t go home. Not yet. I was too pent up. Too pissed off. I crooked my arms and lay the back of my hands against my forehead, staring at the lights sunk into the ceiling while I tried to catch my breath.
I wondered what Claudia was doing right now. Was she really out with some guy from St. Joe’s, or was that just a rumor? Maybe she was actually at home with Casey, baking something for my spirit basket. If she was even still making me a spirit basket.
I laughed under my breath. Who was I kidding? Of course she was. Claudia would never back out on something she said she’d do. Even though I’d broken up with her, I couldn’t imagine her dissing me like that. She was too good for that. Unless maybe she was busy baking for this new guy she was going out with.
The idea made my fists clench and I bit down on my tongue. “Sonofabitch!” I shouted, sitting up. Josh Moskowitz and Trevor McKay looked over at me from the corner, where they were spotting each other. “Sorry,” I said. I couldn’t believe that the second I’d stopped working out I’d started thinking about Claudia. It was like there was some kind of malfunction inside my brain.
“Everything okay?”
I glanced at the door. Josie had just walked in, wearing the tiniest cotton LCH shorts imaginable and a white tank top. Her hair was in a ponytail. She’d clearly just come from cheerleading practice, her chest shimmery with sweat. I was instantly turned on.
“Yeah. M’fine,” I said, reaching for my towel. I wiped off my face and tossed it aside.
“Good.” Josie straddled the weight bench in front of me. Our knees touched. “Because some of the guys were saying you’d had a bad couple of days. I thought I’d come in here and see if you needed some cheering up.”
Her eyes traveled up and down my body as she said this, then over my arms and down to my hands.
“That was some kiss at the pep rally,” she said.
“Uh, we’re gonna go get some Gatorade. You want anything?” Josh asked, hightailing it for the door with Trevor on his heels. McKay stared at Josie’s breasts the whole entire way.
“No thanks, man.”
They slammed the door to the weight room—the door that was always propped open—behind them. Josie and I were very, very alone.
“So.” Josie took my hand and placed it on her thigh. Very high up on her thigh. Then she did the same with the other hand. “Do you need some cheering up?”
My pulse pounded in my ears. My lips throbbed. “Um, maybe.”
She slid forward onto my lap in one motion so quick I never even saw it coming. Just like that, her legs were wrapped around my waist and her breasts were pressed up against me and thoughts of Claudia were obliterated from my mind.
“I’m gonna take that as a yes,” she said.
And then she kissed me. And it didn’t matter who Claudia’s new guy was or what I would do to him if I ever met him. All that mattered was the hot girl in the tiny shorts with the grabby hands who clearly wanted no one but me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Claudia
“Do you think he’ll come to the door?” Casey asked, leaning sideways to peek out the window while letting only a very minimal part of her body show. “Peter always came to the door.”
“Of course he’ll come to the door. He’s a gentleman,” my father said, still in his shirt and tie, though he’d lost the suit jacket. He cast me a sidelong glance, his blue eyes teasing. “He is a gentleman, right, Claudia?”
“Very polite,” I replied. I looked around at my family, remembering the first time Peter had come to pick me up. They’d hovered that night too. They were pretty good at hovering in general.