I could have easily thrown my brother under the bus and told them that Pavel and him had been fighting in a boxing ring last weekend. But I kept my mouth shut. I still owed Liam for all his help escaping from the apartment. And mentioning the party would just get me in trouble too.

“Are you getting excited for your first game?” my dad asked.

“Yeah, but I’m not sure we’re going to win. Practice was shit today.”

“Language,” my father said.

“Well, it was. Axel flat out refused to hand the ball off to Jacob and kept changing up the plays. And I’m happy to catch more passes, but we need a run game if we want to have any chance at winning.”

I had so many questions. But my phone buzzed in my pocket and I tuned everything out when I saw that my kiss thief had texted. It was another two word response again.

“You’re adorable.”

Adorable? Seriously? My shoulders slumped. I didn’t want him to think I was adorable. I pressed my lips together. And if he was only giving me two words, I could give him the same treatment. “Your turn,” I texted.

And this time he texted back right away. I laughed out loud at the ridiculous photo.

Chapter 20 – The Mascot

Tuesday

The kiss thief had texted me a picture of him dressed up as the Empire High mascot. A huge eagles’ head covered his head. And he was wearing big feathered arms with a jersey over top.

He was sitting on a bench in the locker room somehow managing to balance a football on one feathered finger.

I laughed again. He’d sent me his own adorable picture in response to the one I’d sent him.

“Scarlett, don’t encourage your brother,” my mom said.

WHAT?! I looked up, but realized none of them were looking at my phone. They weren’t saying Liam was the Empire High mascot. Liam must have said something I’d missed. “Sorry, what did you say?”

“I said that Uncle Matt should bench Axel for the first game because he sucks balls.”

I expected my dad to say “language.” But instead he nodded his head. “Who is the backup?”

What were they even talking about? The backup wasn’t going to replace Axel as the starting quarterback in the opening game of the season. “Axel will be fine in the first game.”

“If he gets his head out of his ass,” Liam said.

My dad laughed. But then he cleared his throat. “Language, Liam.”

Liam just shrugged. “Maybe you could talk to him, Scar? If anyone can get through to him, it’s you.”

I had no idea why he thought that. If Axel cared about my opinion at all he wouldn’t be texting Gigi nonstop.