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I closed my eyes, thinking back to the whole reason Piper and I had gleefully committed a felony together. Tomorrow, we’d be leaving Oklahoma and no doubt we’d see Xavier and hear all about the bad luck that had befallen him in the van ride.
Unless…?
With a frown, I slipped out my phone. Half past three, it was the worst time you could wake up somebody with a call. But it was a call I needed to make.
“I’ll be right back,” I told Piper, wracking my brain for an explanation. “I’m going—I’m going to email my coach with the weekend pictures.”
I left our dorm and headed down the hallway, off towards any quiet place where I wouldn’t be disturbed. I made my way up to the sixth floor, the seventh floor, and the eighth floor until I finally found a private hideaway with a couch that had half its cushion ripped to shreds.
“Come on, pick up, pick up,” I muttered into the phone and leaned back to sit. The couch groaned underneath me and I rolled my eyes. I forgot how much the training center splurged on seats that actually fit me.
The ringing ceased, but there was no response. I pulled back my phone to see the seconds ticking up.
“Hey, King,” I said. “I need a favor.”
No reply. Nothing.
I rubbed my temples. “I know it’s late as hell. And—yeah—this isn’t something you can tell Ryan about.” Still nothing but silence. I barreled on. “Cleo’s bound to be watching my credit cards right now. I’ll pay you back in two weeks and I’ll owe you big time. Come on, brother. Do me a solid here.”
Silence.
“Goddammit,” I swore. “If I knew you’d grill me this hard, I would’ve called somebody else.”
Nothing.
I sighed the kind of sigh that took everything out of me and I closed my eyes, tapping the phone against the side of my head before I finally said the one thing that’d get the asshole to respond. “It’s about June.”
His blankets shifted. There was the sharp sound of a switch flickering on.
“Xavier cheated on June,” I explained, putting him on speaker. I brought the phone away from my ear and typed for a moment, searching for exactly what I needed. “This isn’t a favor just for me. It’s helping her too. Look, I…I feel bad about the whole shit situation.”
King’s voice was contemplative. “I didn’t know you did that.”
“Did what?” I frowned. “Feel bad? Oh, fuck you, man.”
He didn’t chuckle, but I could imagine the half of a smile on his face before I knew it disappeared.
“How bad is it?” King asked.
“Bad.”
“Shit.” King sighed. “What are we going to—holy shit.”
“What?”
“June texted me.” There was a long pause over the phone. “She doesn’t want to do the fake relationship anymore.”
I hesitated, listening in for what was supposed to happen next. June and King weren’t going to be an item anymore? Goddamn, they’d been keeping up that charade for a long time. I couldn’t even imagine our football events without June there.
“Holy fucking shit…” King breathed out. “It’s over. It’s done.” He paused. “Fuck, what am I saying? This is a fucked up time to be happy right now.”
“I mean, you’ve been counting the days.”
“No. No.” He sighed. “This is about June. What are we doing for June?”
“Check the link I sent you.”
There was a longer pause while King clicked the link, and for just a moment, I was damn grateful I didn’t call Ryan. I knew if push came to shove, he would’ve done it, but I had no patience in helping technophobic Ryan Cross figure out what clicking a link meant.
