But what was I supposed to do? Just sit around pining over Axel forever? Screw that. And screw him. “Oh, and get your shit together and start handing off the ball to Jacob again. You’re going to make Empire High lose our first game of the season.”

Axel opened his mouth and closed it again.

I didn’t wait for him to think of something to say. I just turned and walked away from him.

“Savage,” Sophie said as she caught up to me. She looped her arm through mine. “Have I already said how proud of you I am today? Because seriously...you’re amazing.”

I forced a smile onto my face. That hadn’t felt amazing. Axel didn’t like me the way I liked him. But he’d always been my friend. He wasn’t acting like a friend anymore though. It seemed like he was hellbent on ruining my senior year and I had no idea why.

***

I stared out the window of Jacob’s truck and then turned my attention back to him. “You’ve been driving your truck to school a lot recently,” I said.

“Yeah, Axel and I stopped riding together,” Jacob said. “Our schedules have been a bit off I guess.”

I pressed my lips together. I didn’t want to talk about Axel. And I also didn’t think it had anything to do with a change in Axel’s schedule. Unless being an asshole counted as a schedule change. “Well, I love this truck. It’s very you.”

Jacob laughed and glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. “How so? Because I’m older than you?”

I laughed. The truck was old, but that wasn’t what I was talking about. “No. It’s...homey.” Eek. That came out wrong.

Jacob smiled but didn’t respond as he changed lanes.

It had been a while since I’d hung out with Jacob one-on-one. But the silence wasn’t awkward. It was comfortable. Yeah, this felt right. This was my first ever date. I thought I’d feel nervous. But...it actually just felt easy to breathe. I smiled to myself, remembering my dad’s words.

I stared at Jacob’s profile while he was driving. He had a small red line on the side of his cheek from his fight with Billy O’Reilly. But it was healing. I doubted it would even leave a scar. I’d been so worried about him. I think Friday was the first time I truly realized that my feelings for him were stronger than I thought. That or when he’d watched me licking an ice cream cone. I’d really liked him staring at me with that heated gaze.

“Are you staring at me?” he asked and raised his eyebrow.