“Get me another beer.” No please. The usual hints—avoiding eye contact and holding a conversation with everyone but her—hadn’t worked.

She smiled wide, grabbed the bottle and rushed to the kiddie pool filled with ice to retrieve another one. The heat in the room had crept up over the past hour. Sweat rolled down the back of my neck. Why the hell was I even here? Everyone knowing I’d be stuck here while they all locked down college spots would be the final nail in the humiliation coffin. I’d rather puke after every scrimmage play than let anyone see me sweat.

“She’s ten seconds from whipping out your dick and blowing you in front of everyone.”

“My dick and I are in total agreement. That’s not happening.”

“This is Bethany we’re talking about. She’s hot as fuck.”

She bent at the waist, running her hands through the ice bath looking for a bottle opener even though there was one on the wall in front of her. Her skirt rode up showing off the curves of her ass cheeks.

Knox’s jaw was nearly on his lap and he and his dick seemed in total agreement about what to do with the Bethany situation.

“Then you sleep with her.”

“If that were an option, I would, but she’s dead set on you.”

“She’s going to have a shit night, then.”

“You’re not the least bit interested in getting one of the hottest pieces of ass in school?”

I got up from the couch, wincing and biting the inside of my cheek. Fuck that hurt. “Not even a little bit.”

Bethany bounded up to me with the open bottle of beer in front of her like an offering. “If it isn’t my favorite tight end with the tightest end.” She bit her lip and flashed do-me eyes.

“I need to take a piss. Can you give that to Knox? The whole college scout situation has him on edge. He’s got so many teams after him, even after signing his recruiting letter, he doesn’t know what to do.”

Her eyes lit up. “Sure.”

I glanced back on my way to the kitchen. Knox did have his pick of schools. He’d had a banner season and colleges were always looking for a stellar wide receiver to up their throwing game. He’d signed the letters, but the deals from other schools kept getting sweeter.

Knox mouthed a thank you with Bethany perched on his lap. He’d better never say I didn’t do anything for him.

As a tight end, protecting my quarterback and punching a hole through the defensive line for the tailback to do their thing made most people think colleges were beating down the door to get me. They weren’t—anymore. The fire in my stomach flared. My bones throbbed. In my entire football career, I’d missed one game. One game a year ago. The only game that seemed to matter and I’d spent it spitting up blood on the bathroom floor.

I’d be stuck in this shit town forever. All my talk of leaving in a few months sent the anxiety skyrocketing. I couldn’t be in my house much longer. The urge to leave rode me hard. Who cared about a high school diploma? But these were my last couple months to get in front of any recruiter. Being a walk-on wouldn’t work, since I’d been rejected from most schools I’d applied for as a regular student. This was my only out. My only chance to not end up as a guy who used to be someone back in high school.