“Really?” He sounded disbelieving.

“Yeah. I wanted to check in on you.”

“Come on. The truth, Hollywood.”

Bryna tilted her head up. This was the truth. Mostly. “You didn’t come back to the party last night.” After I kissed you. “I haven’t heard from you all day.”

“And?”

“And I wanted to check on you,” she repeated.

“What exactly am I missing here?” Andrew asked. He grabbed his own towel and rubbed at the back of his neck.

“Bryna is here to apologize, but she’s really bad at it. She’s going to need to try harder,” Eric informed him.

“You’re an ass. I’m not here to apologize,” she said.

Andrew nodded. “I’d have to agree. That sounds unlikely. Bri doesn’t apologize.”

“See? I’m here because I haven’t heard from you.”

Eric shrugged. “Fine. If you’re not here to apologize, then you can go. We’re busy.” He lay back down on the bench.

Andrew laughed hysterically. “You know, maybe I should go.” He grabbed his T-shirt and gym bag and started for the door.

“There’s nothing I’m going to say that you can’t hear,” Bryna said.

“Yeah, but I suddenly feel like I’m in the middle of an argument between an old married couple.”

“Oh, ha-ha,” Bryna spat. She couldn’t believe Andrew. “You’re hilarious.”

“You have no reason to leave,” Eric said.

Andrew shrugged. “I’m going to go anyway. I’ll see you guys later. I have a feeling you’ll be waiting for that apology for a while.” He left, and his laughter followed him down the stairs.

“So…” Bryna said.

“Yep.”

“Do you want to go get dinner or something? I’m starved.”

Eric sat up with rapid speed and stared at her in disbelief. “You’re really going to skirt the issue and act like nothing happened?”

“It’s worked for me before.”

“Hardly.”

“Fine! I was drunk, and I kissed you. I didn’t think it was that big of a deal.” It was a lie.

She had felt bad about it all day. She hadn’t meant for it to happen, and his reaction had been even worse.

“No big deal?”

“You’ve never kissed anyone while you were drunk?”

“Sure.” He shrugged. “But usually, it was because they wanted me to.”

She wanted to say that she hadn’t known he wouldn’t want it, but that wasn’t true either. She had known and done it anyway. It wasn’t her finest moment.

“Yeah. Drunk,” she reminded him. “I guess I shouldn’t have done it.”

He tilted his chin down and observed her. “You can do better than that. Apologize like you mean it.”

“You’re insufferable.”

Eric stood and walked toward her. He stopped when he was only a foot away from her. His hazel eyes were a mix of disappointment and frustration. “I’m your friend, Bri. Real friends apologize when they fuck up. They don’t act like they’re better. They don’t pretend like it never happened. They don’t push back when you call them out on their mistake. I realize this friend thing is new to you, and you’re used to guys throwing themselves at your feet. But I’m not that guy. You knew the consequences and what it could cost me when you kissed me, but you did it anyway. I think I’m in the right in expecting an apology.”

“I know,” she said softly.

Their little game was over. Knots worked at her stomach, and she hated that she’d hurt him. Because he did look hurt. Did he know I’d kissed him because Audrey was there? Did he know I’d been jealous? Would he still want this friendship if he did know?

And Eric was right. He was the first real friend she’d had…maybe ever. She cared too much about his feelings, which had never happened before either. She had never cared about whether or not she hurt someone. She always avoided the confrontation or pushed them out of her life because she didn’t care enough or she didn’t want to deal with the fallout.

But not with Eric.

“You know?” he asked. He shook his head and walked away.

“I’m sorry,” she stuttered out. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

He sighed and sank into the chair. His eyes found hers across the room. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Just like that?”

“You actually apologized. I didn’t think you would.”

“I don’t like you being upset with me.”

“You were just drunk.”

His eyes looked haunted, and she wondered what he was thinking when he looked at her.

“You know I can’t stay mad at you.” Somehow, the way he’d said it though made it seem like everything wasn’t okay.

She was forgiven, but there was something more…and she didn’t know what she could do to fix it.

Maybe she couldn’t.

THE CROWD ROARED AS THE GOLD TEAM scored the final touchdown of the spring scrimmage game. It made Bryna smile even wider because that meant Marshall had beat Pace. All in a day’s work.

As the stadium emptied out, Stacia ran up to Bryna. She was decked out in a silver uniform for Pace’s team, and Bryna was wearing the traditional gold for Marshall’s side.

“Good game, huh?” Stacia asked.

“Yep. Good to be back. I hate that we have to wait five more months until we’re on the sidelines again.”

“Heartbreaking.”

“Definitely.” Bryna waved as Trihn hopped over the railing keeping her from the turf. “Hey!”

“Hey, guys,” Trihn said.

“Hey!” Stacia touched Bryna’s arm. “Can I talk to you later?”

“You’re talking to me now,” Bryna pointed out.

“I know but later, too. Alone?”

“Okay?” Bryna said questioningly.

“Don’t worry.”

Bryna raised her eyebrows. “I wasn’t until you said that. What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” she squeaked. “We’ll talk later.” Then, she turned and jogged toward the locker room without looking back.

“That was fucking weird,” Bryna said to Trihn.

Trihn shrugged. “Stacia is a weird chick.”

Bryna gave Trihn a suspicious look. “Do you know what this is all about?”

“Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you before she did.” Trihn held up her hands to fend off Bryna’s likely attack. “Hear her out.”

“Fine.” But she didn’t have to like it.

“I’ll see you at Posse later. Meet you there!” Trihn said.

Bryna shook her head in confusion. She wondered what Stacia wanted to talk to her about and why Trihn wouldn’t clue her in. Stacia had said not to worry, but it’d automatically made her worry.

She shook off the feeling and sought out Eric.

“Hey, everyone is heading to Posse. You up for it?” she asked him.

His eyes darted to hers and then back out to the field. “I think I’m going to call it quits tonight. I’m exhausted, and I don’t feel like partying.”

“What? Since when?”

Eric ran a hand back through his hair. “I have a huge test on Monday. I’m stressing it, so I’m not really feeling the scene tonight. After the spring game, Posse gets wild.”

Bryna frowned. This was unlike Eric. He wanted to skip out on a party to, what? Sleep? Study? Those things could wait until Sunday or the summer.

“Is this because of what happened last time?” she asked, shifting from one foot to the other.

Things with Eric had been rocky ever since she threw the party at her house. No matter what she did, it didn’t seem like they could find their rhythm anymore. She hadn’t thought one kiss would fuck everything up.

“I’m not going to drink that much,” she added.

“No. It’s fine. I know you’re going to drink more than you expect to. You always do. Go and have a good time.”

“Okay,” she said uncertainly.

He already seemed to be occupied with something else. She shrugged it off and headed back to the locker room to change out of her uniform. She was just on edge. Between Stacia having something to talk to her about and Eric not coming out tonight, she wasn’t sure what to make of it all. But she didn’t like it.