HOLDEN

My arms burn but I keep forcing them to move. Up. Down. Up. Down. It feels like it takes hours to reach fifty.

Finally, I drop the bar with a clang and sit up. I drink some water and wipe my face with a towel, rubbing away the sweat until my breathing evens. Around me, guys are starting to stand and head for the locker room.

Thursdays are our easiest day. We have a team meeting to go over specific strategies for tomorrow’s opponent and then a weight session. Tomorrow’s game is against Covington, one of our main rivals. The meeting lasted later than usual, then we still had weights.

I stand and head for the hallway. Finn meets me in the middle of the weight room and punches my bicep. “Fellini’s?” he asks.

The local pizza parlor is a popular hangout after practice. I nod, my stomach grumbling.

I shower and change, remembering to text Sydney, letting her know I won’t be home for dinner before I leave the gym. We eat separately most nights, especially now that basketball has started and taken over most of my schedule.

Most of the team is already gathered just inside the door when I arrive at Fellini’s. It’s seat yourself, so they’re waiting for me. I stop next to Finn and glance around, looking for a couple of empty tables. And freeze.

I’m totally immobile and it’s involuntary—completely outside my control. I just…can’t move. Blinking, but can’t process what my eyes are seeing.

Betrayal slashes my chest, hot and harsh.

“Adams?” Finn asks. “What are you—oh.” He laughs. “Dude, she’s a junior. She was going to start dating eventually. And that’s the honor club guy. I doubt he’s going to get her into hard drugs or knock her up.”

I manage a grunt in response. Finn thinks I’m focused on Sydney, who’s sitting in a booth next to Graham chatting away. I’m not. I’m looking at the girl with a brown ponytail and a Pembrooke Animal Shelter sweatshirt sitting across from my sister. Sitting next to Harrison Baker.

Cassia is on a double date with another guy—and my sister.

I can’t figure out the flare in my chest, can’t rationalize why I want to walk over and kiss her. Mark my territory and make it clear she’s off-limits.

I’ve slept with several girls. Not as many as the school gossip mill speculates about, but she wasn’t my first—the way I was hers.