Complete Nothing (True Love #2)(49)

“You guess?” he said. “What if the quarterback of the opposing team personally invited you? Then would you come?”

I rolled my eyes. “Then it might be impossible to resist.”

Keegan smiled and my skin prickled. Had I really just said that? When had I become this expert flirt? Maybe he just brought it out in me. Which was odd, considering he was not the guy I liked. From the corner of my eye, I saw True, Lauren, and Wallace enter the restaurant, slinking along the walls by the basketball games like they were on a spy mission. Suddenly my phone, which was on silent, lit up at my side. It was a text from Lauren.

PETER IS PARKING HIS CAR OUT FRONT.

Ho. Lee. No way. My insides instantly felt hot and sick and throbbing, even as my heart fluttered around with happiness. He was here! He did still care! But then the dread took over. I sucked down some more water and glanced at the door.

This was really going to happen. It was happening right now. I looked at Keegan, who was obliviously shoving fries into his mouth, and suddenly felt so guilty I wanted to run. He had no idea what he’d gotten himself into—what True and I had dragged him into. And then Peter walked through the door, his varsity jacket open over a T-shirt patched with wet, his hair matted with sweat as if he’d just come from a workout. When he spotted us, his whole face crumbled, then, just as suddenly, turned to stone.

It looked like Keegan was about to find out.





CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE


Peter


I saw them the second I walked through the door. They’d snagged one of the few two-person booths near the center of the restaurant, the ones so small that your knees pretty much had to touch under the table. Somehow I registered that before I realized whose knees, exactly, were touching Claudia’s. And when I did, I almost died.

Keegan Fucking Traylor?

I couldn’t move. For a second, I saw double. This was a nightmare. An actual, waking nightmare. The guy was my nemesis. The quarterback of our crosstown rivals. Not to mention an infamous dick who, if the rumors were true, had already had sex with half the girls in the senior class at Holy Cross School for Girls and had recently moved on to the public schools. Someone had to shake me awake from this. Please, God, let me wake up.

Then a stroller rolled over my foot. I doubled over in pain and knew that I was awake.

“Sorry,” the saggy-faced mom said, still moving toward the door.

I bit my lip and stood up. I was going to kill someone. And that someone was Keegan Traylor.

Somehow I made my way through the crowd, around the loud-as-hell games and screaming kids, past the cheering packs of guys at the NFL simulation machines. Before I knew it, I was standing next to their table, and as much as I wanted to grab Keegan Traylor by the collar and pull him out of his seat and pound him for moving in on my girl, I found I couldn’t even look at him. Instead I glared at Claudia.

“Are you kidding me?” I heard myself say.

“Peter!” Claudia looked up at me, surprised. “What are you doing here?”

Then Keegan smiled this big-ass smile that looked about as genuine as the framed copy of the Declaration of Independence my dad had left behind in our basement. He wiped his fingers and got out of his seat.

“Peter Marrott, right?” He offered his hand. “Nice to meet you. I’m Keegan Traylor.”

“I know who you are.” There was no way I was touching him unless it was to punch him across the face.

“Oh, so my reputation precedes me,” he said, like the cocky bastard I’d always heard he was.

I glanced at Claudia. She looked at the table.

“You guys know each other?” he asked Claudia.

“Like you don’t know,” I snapped. “What are you doing with this tool, Claude?”

“He’s not a tool,” she replied. “Don’t be rude.”

“You really think you can tell me what to be or not be?” I demanded. “When you’re out with the quarterback of the opposing team?”

“Oh, wow. I’m . . . wow. Are you guys, like, together?” Keegan asked.

“We were,” Claudia said. “Until Peter decided to end it.”

“You broke up with this girl?” Keegan asked, like he couldn’t believe it. He whistled under his breath. “I wouldn’t break up with this girl if you paid me.”

Claudia beamed. My stomach churned. I hadn’t eaten in hours. In fact, until about twenty minutes ago I’d been making out with Josie in the weight room, breaking about every rule possible. Why had I left her to come here? Why was I standing here letting myself be humiliated?

Why could I think of nothing other than grabbing Claudia’s hand and getting her the hell out of here, away from this jackass? And worst of all, why couldn’t I make myself do it?

I stared at her, waiting for a sign. Waiting for her to show me that this was a bad joke. That she didn’t want to be here. That she wanted me to save her from this jerk. But she didn’t move.

“Well, have a good game tomorrow, man,” Keegan said. “May the best man win.” He sat down across from my girlfriend and looked up at me. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to get back to my date.”

For a long moment, I stood there, hovering. Waiting. Praying. Wishing. And then, finally, finally, finally, she looked up at me. My heart soared.