She was still fixated on the screen, furiously typing away and swiping around unbothered by the interaction I was having. Her brow was furrowed which meant her attention was a tunnel. I turned back to Brent and shook my head. “Nope. I’m with her and I’m sure as hell not ditching her. If it’s truly life or death, you know where I live. Don’t bother me otherwise.” I jerked my thumb in Kell’s direction to my right.

He stared at me a moment, his expression blank. Probably because he wasn’t used to hearing the word “no.” For a second, I thought he might try to pull another kidnapping stunt telling me to come with him or else, but he didn’t. Instead, he sighed and leaned back, stretching his arms across the seats behind him. He looked slightly defeated. “Alright, babe. Chicks before dicks. But,” his eyes darkened “don’t be surprised when I take you up on that offer. I’ll be seeing you later.”

Excuse me, what? I raised an eyebrow at him wondering what the hell he was on about. He sighed and stood up like it was the hardest task he had to date. He threw me a wink before disappearing into the shadows as usual.

Kelly began giggling. “Babe?”

I held up a hand to stop her right there. No way was I about to talk about Brent. “Don’t even. We’re going down there to find Garrett and see what’s going on since it looks like practice is done because of that wild text.”

Our footsteps rang out on the metal bleachers, thrusting the sound out into the otherwise eerily quiet area. The noise settled down after the text, only allowing for hushed conversations. The air was visibly full of tension, and I could see Garrett standing off to the side with a few of his teammates. Clustered together and whispering amongst themselves like the rest of the campus I assumed,

“Bet you they’re talking about this,” Kelly said, holding up her phone.

I tried to remain casual. It didn’t feel like it was working, but I tried anyway. “Only one way to find out.”

Garrett met my eye contact as we got closer to the group. He forced a smile on his face before backing up a bit from the group of guys. “Hey Fal. Kelly,” he nodded at us. His voice was also not quite right, kind of like that smile he was forcing.

Bad sign.

“Hey you,” I smiled, ignoring the weird looks and tone. “You guys look like you got some big game-winning secret going on.”