Just … complete and total silence. Every guy on the team turns to gawk, even—especially—Miguel. Every cheerleader, too. Even I have no idea what to say.

Well, actually, I do. “Hell yeah, I will.”

And then there’s cheering again. And whistling and catcalling and I know it isn’t all friendly, and I know the team is whispering and snickering and none of that is friendly. But I don’t give a shit. Because she’s hopping down from the pyramid. Because she’s running over here. Because my brain is working on autopilot, picking her up and swinging her around and kissing her in front of the entire. Fucking. School.

Somewhere in the back of my brain it occurs to me that maybe I’m not thrilled at a scout seeing this, but I’m done being anyone other than who I am. If anyone watching can’t handle me having a girlfriend, they can’t handle me.

Still, no one needs to see two people of any gender making out for too long, so we force ourselves apart, grinning like idiots. “I’m forgiven?” she whispers.

“Not even close,” I whisper back. “Now I have to spend tomorrow looking for a suit.”

She laughs and squeezes my hand. “Sage and Morgan said they’d be very happy to help with that. And maybe tomorrow you can get your hair cut, too. If you want to.”

My heart swells a little bit at the suggestion. I know what she’s saying, and she’s right; the cat’s out of the bag. It’s time to look like me too. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. But for now…” She yanks the elastic out of my messy hair and pulls it up into a neater, photo-ready knot, and there’s something about how she isn’t bothered by any of the sweat or grime or how rank I must smell that sends the butterflies fluttering even harder. “Much better.”

“I’m suitable to be a cheerleader’s girlfriend now?”

She winks. “Well, you are the quarterback.”

Chapter Thirteen

-AMBER-

“Will you stop fidgeting? You’re going to make me smudge it.”

I sit obediently, admiring my newly polished fingernails while my mom finishes winging my eyeliner. Ordinarily, I’d be getting ready with a few other girls on the squad, but, well, nothing about taking my football player girlfriend to homecoming on a day’s notice is ordinary.

If we were doing this normally, I’d be picking up Miguel and maybe a couple of friends who need rides. Instead, I dug hard into my savings and took out a loan from my mom to make this night as special as possible to make it up to my two favorite people.