“You think I could be a cheerleader?” Levi flirts.
Seeing him smile at another girl sets off firecrackers in my stomach. I’m surprised it hurts so much. Levi and I aren’t together, and I’ve never cared in the past whether he’s been interested in someone, but it seems I am now. I don’t want to imagine him kissing a girl like he kissed me last night. He’s not mine, but still.
I groan under my breath.
“What’s wrong?” Hunter asks me.
“I’m hungry,” I lie, because people believe it when I make that excuse.
“As soon as Levi’s ready, we’ll go to the concession stand.” Hunter gestures at our friend, who is still talking to the Ravens cheerleader. “He seems to be doing okay today.”
“Huh?”
“He’s been acting weird. Shelby’s cousin from Georgia is in town, and I asked him to go out with us tonight, but he said no. But he was interested when I showed him her picture a couple weeks ago.”
Could that have something to do with me? “Really?”
“Yeah. Do you think he’s depressed?”
“Depressed? What? No.”
“Good. It makes absolutely no sense that he won’t go out with Shelby’s cousin for one night. She’s smoking hot.”
“He’s fine,” I grumble, imagining Levi on a date with another girl.
“Something’s wrong with you too?”
“No, we’re both fine.”
Hunter turns to take in my face, blinking.
I pull a deep breath. What made me think I could keep my arrangement with Levi a secret forever? Hunter may not know the specifics, but he understands us well enough to know when something’s off.
If he questions me again, I’ll say I’m sad I didn’t make the US Junior National Team, which is true. It devastated me, even though it was a long shot. Only twenty-five people nationwide made it. The only good news is that when I looked up the team online, Roxy didn’t make it either. I grin evilly to myself.
The concession stand only has greasy pizza and cotton candy, which won’t help me at practice later, so Levi pulls a protein bar from his backpack to tide me over.
I take a seat between Levi and Hunter in the stands near the Hundred Oaks basketball and football teams. I love that all these guys came out to support the cheerleading squad. Levi’s thigh touches mine, but he makes no move to put space between us, even when Noah Thompson, a basketball player I’ve always been friendly with—but Levi can’t stand—turns around to talk to me.
“Did you see the new Bond movie?” Noah asks.
I shake my head.
“Oh my God, you have to see it. First, Bond free jumps from a satellite in orbit above the earth and lands in the middle of Siberia. Then he stows away on a train into North Korea! Then he steals a nuke from the North Koreans! Then he does it with this lady from North Korea on the back of an ATV!”
“What, you gonna tell her the whole movie?” Levi asks.
“I’d rather she just go see it with me.” Noah gives me a not-so-subtle look.
“She doesn’t like action movies,” Levi replies, rolling his eyes.
“What crawled up your ass, Lucassen?” Noah snaps.
Lucky for me Hundred Oaks is cheering next, distracting the guys from their pissing contest. When Georgia runs out onto the gym floor, Levi and Hunter jump to their feet, pumping their arms in the air.
“Woooo! Georgia! Woooo!” Hunter yells.
“Georgia!” I scream, clapping.
Levi wolf-whistles.
Our cheerleaders wave at our section and hop up and down. Dance music blasts from the speakers.
The football and basketball players go nuts, holding up posters they made. Several football players—seven to be exact—rip off their shirts to reveal they’ve painted their chests. Together they spell 100 OAKS.
“Ready, okay!” the cheerleaders yell in unison, clapping once.
The routine starts with Georgia nailing a roundoff followed by three back handsprings and a back tuck. I spot David Cantor sitting a few rows away, cheering for Georgia. I nudge Levi and Hunter, pointing him out. Levi smiles a little because David is here; Hunter is wide-eyed.
The cheerleaders fan out across the stage, doing splits and jumps and all sorts of other tricks that do not seem physically possible.
When Georgia does a split, Noah turns around again. “The North Korean lady did the splits with James Bond in bed.”
Levi flicks him in the forehead.
It’s really fun, dancing along with the cheerleaders and the loud, rhythmic music. Levi puts an arm around my waist, pulling me closer, sliding his hand up and down my hip. My mind flashes to last night, when he took off every scrap of my clothing and rocked against me in his boxers. Is Levi thinking of it too? Oh my God, are we naughty dancing?
Hunter happens to look over and see this, and I quickly step away from Levi. Hunter’s mouth falls open.
The routine ends and we scream for Georgia.
When we sit back down, Levi’s thigh touches mine as he leans over and says quietly in my ear, “You were making me hot.”
“Like sweaty hot?” I joke.
“No, like I want to take you under the bleachers hot.”
My whole body is overcome by heat. I completely understand how he gets girls into closets so quickly. It’s that voice. Or is it because he’s like a Dutch sex god? Anyway, it’s difficult not to take him up on the offer.
Hunter dips his head to speak with me. “I think I know why Levi’s not interested in Shelby’s cousin anymore. It’s because he wants to take you under the bleachers.”
“It’s not polite to eavesdrop.” I lightly punch him in the thigh and expect him to make a joke, but he just sits there gripping his knees.
While waiting to see who won the competition, we collect Georgia and go hang out in the lobby. When we arrived at Vanderbilt, sun streaked through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Now it’s starting to rain outside; water drips down the glass.
I tell Georgia she did great, and she beams. Their performance made everybody from our school hyper—the football and basketball guys surround the cheerleaders, hugging them and hollering.
Noah Thompson sees Levi giving Georgia a big hug and calls over at us, “Levi Lucassen rocks my world!” and Levi flips him off.
I bend down to hug her too. Hunter stands there, not smiling. Georgia nudges his side. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
“Does Georgia know something’s going on between you guys?” Hunter asks me and Levi.
Georgia’s eyes grow huge as she glances between us. She jumps and claps as if doing one of her routines. “I knew you guys would get together one day!”
She did? Levi and I just look at each other. At one time I think we would’ve cracked up, but not now.
“We’re not together,” Levi says.
Hunter crosses his arms. “But you’re fooling around?”
“Who said anything about that?” I ask.
“I’m not blind. I can tell something’s going on with you guys. And somebody’s going to get hurt.”
“Nahhh,” Levi says, avoiding eye contact with Hunter.