Complete Nothing Page 17

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  True

  “And now, your Lake Carmody High School marching band!”

  There was a smattering of applause across the depleted crowd in the bleachers. The band had formed the letters M and J out on the field, and now launched into a barely recognizable version of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” Fortunately, I was hardly paying attention. I couldn’t stop thinking about Orion.

  Orion, who had run over the other team’s defense throughout the first half, leaping and spinning and slamming through guys twice his size. Orion, who had never looked hotter than when he’d pulled off his helmet on the sidelines and dumped a cup of water over his head. Orion, who I swear had almost kissed me before the game. He’d been thinking about it. I was sure of it.

  I took a deep breath and gritted my teeth. That was it. After the game I was going to find him and ask him out on a proper date. Why not? What did I have to lose? I’d already been forced to give him up once. If he said no, I could handle it.

  Maybe.

  But he wouldn’t say no. He was my soul mate. He couldn’t say no.

  “So, you’re friends with Lauren, and Lauren is friends with that girl Mia Ross . . . right?”

  I glanced at Wallace, who had materialized as if from nowhere. He was standing next to my bench, wearing an LCHS T-shirt over a white thermal, trying to act casual. Instead he looked kind of like the Tin Man in need of a good oiling. His right hand leaned into the bleacher’s railing, the arm perfectly straight, his legs crossed at the ankle, and he was tilting sideways. Definitely trying too hard.

  Out on the field, the marching band moved through their formation changes as they stumbled their way into their next Michael Jackson song, “Black or White.” I narrowed my eyes as the drum major moonwalked across the pockmarked field.

  “Why? Do you like Mia Ross?”

  “She’s the fourth-shortest girl in the sophomore class,” he said, dead seriously.

  “And that appeals to you?”

  He looked across the bleachers, where Mia sat gossiping with some friends. She had a pretty face. Light-blue eyes, soft features, and a melodious laugh.

  “She’s like an elfin princess,” Wallace said with a sigh.

  I grinned. This was perfect. If I could hook Wallace up with his elfin princess, and Claudia and Peter could get their act together, then Orion and I could be out of here before next weekend.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” I assured him.

  “Hey, True. Can we talk?”

  I turned to squint up at Lauren, whose curls were framed by the sun. “Actually, we were just going to come find you,” I said. “What do you think of introducing Wallace to Mia?”

  Lauren eyed Wallace, who stood up straight, shoulders back like an Elizabethan-era butler awaiting his lady’s inspection.

  “Later,” Lauren pronounced, shoving her hands into the pockets of her denim jacket. “Right now I need to tell you about how your brilliant plan is backfiring.”

  She cast a glance over her shoulder at Claudia, who was standing near the Snack Shack with Casey, watching something on a phone screen. Instantly my shoulders went tense. My plan could not be backfiring. I’d kept an eye on Peter Marrott throughout the first half, and he’d spent a good 80 percent of his time on the sidelines blatantly longing for Claudia. My plan was as good as gold.

  “Wallace, will you excuse me for a second?” I asked.

  “Sure.”

  As Lauren and I walked down the bleachers, he pulled out his own phone and fired up a game of Angry Birds. If he wanted to meet Mia Ross so badly, why didn’t he just go over there and introduce himself? If only I had my golden arrows. That coupling would be done and done.

  I wondered if I could conjure them. Not that I would have ever tried. If I started shooting people in the heart with magical arrows, Zeus would definitely notice. Not to mention everyone in a ten-mile radius and their camera phones.

  “What’s going on?” I asked Lauren as I leaned against the guardrail at the bottom of the steps. A group of rowdy guys in football T-shirts jostled by, looking us up and down.

  “Put your tongues back in your mouths, frosh,” Lauren griped at them. She rolled her eyes, then sighed. “Look. I know my best friend pretty well, and I’m, like, ninety-nine percent sure that she’s falling for Keegan Traylor.”

  My heart dropped, seeing my grand plans for couple number two go up in smoke. Keegan the cocky player was not worthy of Claudia’s love, and I could tell just by looking at him that he wasn’t the type to get serious in high school. Lauren was right. This was not good.

  “No. She wouldn’t,” I said. “She knows that Keegan isn’t for her. She knows he’s just a means to an end.”

  “I’m not so sure. You should see the way her face lights up when she talks about him. He’s going to break her heart. That boy is a player with no conscience, who plows through girls like he’s harvesting them for grain.”

  We were both silent for a second, pondering whether that metaphor made any sense. I shook my head.

  “Well . . . maybe it won’t end badly. Maybe he’ll fall in love with her,” I suggested hopefully. “There’s a first time for everything.”

  “Not for this guy,” Lauren said, shaking her head glumly. “Last year, my sister’s best friend, Felicity, went out with him, and he told her he loved her, then hooked up with her other best friend before dumping her because she wasn’t, quote, ‘Keegan Traylor material.’ ”

  Okay. Even I knew there was no reforming a person like that. “Well why didn’t you say any of this when I set her up with him?”

  “Because! She was supposed to be using the asshole. I didn’t expect her to like him! She’s usually too smart to fall for a guy like that.”

  We both turned and looked at Claudia. She scanned the far sideline, as if she was waiting with bated breath for Keegan to appear once more. She looked so hopeful and guarded at the same time. So open and so timid. And just like that, I realized what was happening. I’d been too intent on helping her to see it before, but now it was crystal clear.

  Claudia was rebounding. Maybe on a normal day she’d be able to see through a too-perfect boy like Keegan Traylor, but Wednesday hadn’t been a normal day. It had been the day after the love of her life had dumped her. Clearly she would have fallen for the first non-troll who happened to look her way.

  And I’d set her up with a troll in prince’s clothing.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  Claudia

  Standing outside the visiting team’s locker room after the game, I checked my reflection with my phone. Ugh. So pale. Too many freckles. And what was I thinking with the braid? Was I trying to look like I’d stepped out of the pages of Little House on the Prairie? I quickly reached back and untied it, fluffing my hair over my shoulders. It fanned out in silky auburn waves.

  Huh. Pretty. But there was so much of it. Now I looked like I was trying to be sexy at five o’clock on a Saturday afternoon. Too much. I shoved my phone into my bag and shakily pulled my hair back into a ponytail. The band was just snapping into place when Keegan emerged from the back door and I smiled, trying not to appear as self-conscious as I felt.

  But how could I not? Because look at him, and then look at me. I could already sense people watching us curiously. Skeptically. But I’d been Peter Marrott’s girlfriend for over a year. Was it that much of a stretch that Keegan Traylor could be interested in me?

  “Hey,” Keegan said with that ridiculous knee-melting smile. I looked at his lips, and suddenly it was last night and I was experiencing his kiss again. His lips, his hands, his tongue . . .

  “Claudia?” he said.

  “Oh, sorry. Hi!” I replied brightly. “How’s it going?” Then I remembered his team had lost, and my smile faltered.

  He stopped a couple of feet in front of me. “You came.”

  Wait. Didn’t he remember we’d made a plan? Or maybe he’d only made a plan to be polite. Crap. Did he even want me here?<
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  “Um, yeah. Of course I came,” I said, trying to think of a way to cover. “I go to school here, remember?”

  I made a lame gesture at my booster ribbon and glanced around for Peter, wondering briefly what he’d think if he saw Keegan and me together right now. Whether he’d care.

  “I know. But you came to see me,” Keegan said, his smile widening. “I wasn’t sure if you would. You know, fraternizing with the enemy and stuff.”

  I smirked and tried to relax. Tried to focus. “I don’t take football that seriously. No offense.”

  “None taken.” He shrugged.

  “Sorry about the loss.”

  A couple of his teammates came out behind him, and he lifted a hand as they shouted their “See ya laters!”

  “Their defense was on fire today and my offensive line basically crumbled,” he said casually, holding the strap on his duffel bag with both hands. “What’re you gonna do? You win some, you lose some. It’s a cliché for a reason.”

  And he laughed.

  Really? That was it? Whenever Peter had lost a game last year, he’d walked out of the locker room angry, stormed to my car, and brooded the entire way home. Then he’d spent the rest of the day in stony silence, occasionally blurting out something else he should have done differently or some bonehead move he’d made that could have changed the whole game. This was a whole new world. And maybe, just possibly, a better one.

  Or was it bad that Keegan wasn’t taking any responsibility for the loss? Somehow I had a feeling that was what a quarterback and captain was supposed to do.

  Then Keegan took a step closer to me, so close our toes were almost touching. My pulse went low and quick, making it hard to breathe.

  “Besides, how can I be depressed about some game when I have you here to cheer me up?” he said.

  He was going to kiss me. It was blatant to the entire world. And I had a million thoughts at once. Where was Peter? Would he see? What had I eaten for lunch? How gross was my breath? Did everyone think he was too hot for me? Oh God, he really was so insanely hot.

  And then he did kiss me, and I no longer cared. About any of it. Because when he kissed me the only thing that mattered was the kissing.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  Peter

  Everyone was still whooping and shouting and laughing when I got out of the shower. I felt like some kind of actual hero as my teammates clapped me on the back and tossed their towels at me. I slapped hands and did everything I was supposed to, but what I really wanted to do was get out of there and find Claudia. She was going to take me back. She had to. It wasn’t like she actually liked Keegan Traylor. They’d only gone out once. And besides, he’d just had his ass handed to him. Publicly. That couldn’t have been attractive.

  I yanked on my jeans and pulled a blue Rams T-shirt over my head. It stuck to my skin on the wet patches left over from my shower, and my hair was dripping on my shoulders, but I didn’t care. I jammed my feet into my sneakers and headed for the back door, hoping I could still catch her. Hoping that maybe she’d even be waiting back there for me.

  “Marrott! Wait up!”

  I stopped, my heart sinking. It was Coach. Anyone else I would have ignored right then, but I couldn’t ignore Coach Morschauser.

  “What’s up?”

  When I turned, I almost dropped my bag. Coach was standing inside his small office off the locker room, and with him was a man with tan skin wearing a blue polo and visor. The visor had the New Jersey Lions logo on it. The scout from TCNJ.

  “Peter Marrott, I want you to meet Justin Crouch, the scout from the College of New Jersey,” Coach Morschauser said as I stepped into his office. He put one hand on each of our shoulders as if it was draft day and he was the commissioner, posing for the camera.

  “It’s nice to meet you, sir,” I said, shaking Mr. Crouch’s hand.

  Outside the office windows, lockers slammed, my friends shouted to one another, something crashed, but it was like I was existing in a different space. One where college was possible. Not just possible, but standing right in front of me. It was not just a far-off thing I would one day have to deal with. It was here. And it was smiling.

  “Pleasure’s mine,” Mr. Crouch replied. “You showed some skills out there today, son.”

  “Thank you!” I said, my pulse racing. I felt so hot, suddenly, it was as if I’d never showered.

  “Have you gotten your application in to admissions?” he asked.

  I gulped, glancing at Coach. “Um, no. Not yet. I’ve got it on my desk, though.”

  Coach Morschauser picked up on my panic and clapped Crouch’s shoulder. “I’m sure he’s just putting the finishing touches on it, right, Peter?”

  “Right. Yes. That’s it. Trying to get it perfect.”

  “Good. That’s good,” Mr. Crouch said. And I sighed in relief. “There are some people in our athletic department who might be interested in meeting you.”

  “Wow, really? Um, thank you,” I stammered, my palms starting to sweat. “Yes, definitely.”

  Coach Morschauser and Mr. Crouch chuckled. I felt like the butt of my own joke.

  “I’m not making any sense, am I?” I asked, running my hand over my wet hair. “Sorry, I’m just . . . thanks, yes. I’m definitely considering TCNJ.”

  “Well, we’d love to move to the top of your list,” Mr. Crouch said. “Why don’t you come down for a tour of the school and give me a call while you’re there? I’ll set up a meeting with some of the players, and they can tell you what it’s like to be a Lion.”

  Coach Morschauser beamed. Mr. Crouch handed me a card, and my hand shook as I took it. TCNJ. Me at the College of New Jersey. It was a great school with an up-and-coming team. And they wanted me.

  This was really happening. I felt nauseous and excited at the same time, like I’d just gotten strapped into a roller coaster I wasn’t totally sure I wanted to ride. I needed to talk to Claudia.

  “Thank you, sir. I’ll definitely do that.”

  “Good. It was great meeting you, son,” he said, reaching for my hand again. “Keep up the good work.”

  “Thank you. I will. Have a good day,” I said, sounding like some random guy behind the counter at McDonald’s. I turned around and walked slowly out of the office toward the back door. I felt like my insides were vibrating, and I thought for sure I was gonna throw up, but when I shoved open the door and stepped into the sunlight and the fresh air filled my lungs, a huge smile spread across my face.

  College. They wanted me. And TCNJ wasn’t that far from Princeton. Maybe next year wasn’t going to be so bad. For the first time this year I felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders. I felt like the old me. I’d been so worried about not getting into school, about being separated from Claudia and my family, and now, suddenly, none of it had to happen. If I went to TCNJ, I’d be able to drive home to see them whenever I wanted. I’d be able to drive to Princeton in less than an hour.

  Suddenly I felt better about everything. Every. Last. Thing. It was going to be okay. I was going to have a future. Now I just needed to figure out how to fix things with Claudia and make her a part of it.

  There were a few groups of people hanging out behind the gym. I didn’t see Claudia right away, but I did see her friend Lauren with True and a couple of guys, standing a few yards off. Lauren looked kind of sick when she saw me, and then her eyes darted to the right.

  Automatically, I turned in that direction, and suddenly everything that scout had said, the excitement I’d wanted just seconds ago to shout to everyone in sight, faded to nothing.

  Claudia was standing ten feet away with Keegan Traylor, and it looked like she was trying to swallow his face.

  Suddenly it became totally clear that everyone around me was staring at me. Pitying me. Or waiting to see if I would pound the guy to a pulp. And I was angry. I was. But even more I was disgusted. Sad and disappointed and confused. I’d thought Claudia loved me. This time last week we’d still been together, and now t
here she was, humiliating me with the opposing quarterback outside my gym.

  Maybe she’d never given a crap about me.

  “Dude, you cool?”

  I glanced up to find Gavin hovering near my shoulder. He was looking at Traylor like he would have done the pounding for me, if I’d asked. I stared as hard as I could, as if I could somehow make what I was seeing different. Change the fact that her fingers were digging into his sleeves, that his hand was touching her face, that their bodies were pressed so close together you couldn’t have slid a playing card between them.

  “Yeah, man,” I said through clenched teeth. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  We turned around and walked away, headed back for the field where Gavin had parked his car. I clutched my card from the scout in one hand, my duffel in the other, and decided right then and there that it was time to move on. For real this time.

  “I need to do something, man,” I said to Gavin. “I need to get out of here.”

  “The city thing’s still on. You wanna go?” Gavin asked. “Tiquan said he’d drive.”

  “Yeah,” I said, feeling a rush of freedom. A rush of rebellion. Screw Claudia. She didn’t give a crap about me, then I didn’t give a crap about her. “Let’s do it.”

  I took out my phone and brought up Josie’s number.

  “What’re you doing?”

  “Texting Josie to see if she and her friends want to come,” I said, pissed off that my fingers were trembling.

  “Wow, when you rebel, you rebel big,” Gavin said.

  “Go big or go home,” I recited.

  And from what Claudia was doing back there, it was pretty damn clear, there was no going home.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  True

  “Well. That happened,” Lauren said wryly as Peter stormed past us.

  “He’s clearly jealous, so that part’s working,” I replied.