“Sonny called me,” Ashton finally said, lines of regret creasing his face.
Confused, I reached for my sweatband and ripped it off, grimacing as strands of my hair came with it. “Why? What’s it to him?”
“Well, he was dating someone and now he’s not, and every dude kept calling in about this chick, so he decided to google her,” Ashton explained. He was leaning against his locker, looking loose and relaxed, but I knew he was waiting to pounce on me if I went to hit him.
“Why did he call you? Why did he have to ruin the one good thing I have? I like her . . .” Devastated, I sat back down on the couch, and dropped my head into my hands.
“Let’s go!” Conley’s voice bellowed through the locker room.
Mo put a hand on my shoulder. “We’ve got to go to the meeting. You don’t want him to find out about this.”
I stood on weak legs, swaying for a second before I followed him. I might as well have had spent the day doing weighted squats. But I sat through the meeting, going through the motions, nodding my head at the right times as I watched the tape, but I didn’t really see it. My mind was on overdrive.
I guessed Cate didn’t need to explain her secret project anymore. Part of me wondered why she was doing it, and the other half didn’t give a fuck. If Sonny knew this shit, I gave him a day to keep it to himself. Soon it would be everywhere, and the whole fucking world would be watching my girl get her titties fucked.
Coach dismissed us, and I walked in a daze back to the couch in the locker room.
“Dude, best to learn this now and cut ties up front,” D said. “League is coming for you, and you can’t be linked to the campus porn star.”
Sad thing was, I didn’t care what the league thought. I cared about sharing Cate with every other man in America.
She was supposed to be mine.
Catie
Blane didn’t touch base on Friday, and I couldn’t help but feel used and spit out. He must have been busy with game-day preparations and grabbing his mom from the airport, but something didn’t feel right. Had he used me?
Sonny called and asked me to cover a few hours at the station, and I accepted. I thought it was odd, but if he needed help, I’d take the shift. I needed a distraction, so I grabbed a coffee and took the bus over to campus.
When I arrived at the station, Sonny was laughing into the mic, discussing romantic Valentine’s Day dates with a caller. Michael Jackson’s “PYT” played softly in the background, and Sonny laughed like a hyena when the caller said pizza and a movie rental was romantic.
“Dude, you need to go to the bookstore right now and buy Dating for Dummies,” Sonny was saying into the mic as I entered the booth. “Look who just showed up—my old intern, Catie P. She might have some movie recs for you. Hmmm, one sec, let me show her this quick clip and I’ll be back with her suggestions.” He turned the volume up slightly on the music and hit PLAY on the laptop in front of him.
There I was on the screen, Rick coming all over my cleavage and rubbing it into my skin. I stared at it like it was a bad hallucination, a figment of my imagination and a horrendous mistake. It was someone else, Sonny had to be mistaken.
Sadly, he wasn’t.
Embarrassment swept over me, sending heat over my entire body. Ready to run away, I turned to find Sonny glaring at me.
I’m gonna get you for this, he mouthed before he grabbed the mic.
“Turns out Catie has so many recs, she’s going to make a list right now. While she does, I’m going to play some tunes. How about a little Macklemore? ‘Downtown,’ you like to go there? Don’t you? Down? Get it?”
Sonny smacked the button, turning off the mic, and swiveled toward me. I was trapped in the booth; he’d slid his chair in front of the door, eliminating my escape route.
“Why are you doing this?” I demanded.
“Me?” He pointed at his chest with his thumb, as if surprised I would question his motives.
Narrowing his eyes, he laid into me. “I took you back here as an employee, and now I find out you’re fucking any dick . . . on camera. Fuck, I’m sure you’ve violated a million different school policies, but fucking Christ, I can’t whack off to my intern, Blane’s lady. Whole fucking school is talking about Ariel Stone and her tits of wonder, so I chanced a look. Nearly poked my eyes out when I realized it was you.”
All at once, Blane’s absence and my niggling worry clicked.
I gaped at Sonny. “You told him?”
It wasn’t even a question. Blane’s silence spoke volumes. He knew. Sonny was the one who told him.
Not waiting for an answer, I ran from the booth, straight through the building and out the door as tears threatened to break free. They fell as I burst through the exit and hit the cold winter air, burning as they froze on my cheeks. My vision blurry, I searched desperately for a corner where I could hide. I spun in a circle, wetness covering my face.