As if Oliver would notice. He belts out another snore. Chloe and Alyson are curled up asleep together on a love seat. I wake them up to show them to one of our guest rooms.
Then I take advantage of Oliver’s drunken obliviousness and lead Ezra to my room, praying Marina doesn’t notice. He follows me into my bathroom, where I find a new toothbrush under the sink. He accepts it with a smile, and then we brush our teeth together. Ezra goes to steal a pair of basketball shorts and a T-shirt from Oliver’s room while I change into the pink strawberry pajamas he bought me for my sixteenth birthday.
When he walks back into the room and sees what I’m wearing, his eyes take me in, and he swallows hard. “You’re beautiful, Taylor.”
“You are too.”
His hands skim over my back to settle on my waist. “I like your strawberries,” he says with a wicked grin.
“Behave.”
As I’m crawling under the covers with him, cuddling and kissing, loving the feel of his body against mine, it occurs to me that I never could’ve planned such a wonderful evening if I’d tried to orchestrate it.
Find the Coupon
About an hour before the soccer game is to start, I’m at the field warming up. I want to get in a run and stretch my legs really well so I’m limber for the game.
Chloe appears ten minutes late, wearing dark sunglasses. “Never. Again.”
I laugh.
“Your brother’s crazy.”
“He definitely knows how to party.”
We look over into the stands, where Oliver and Ezra are sitting together. Oliver waves at us, happy as can be. He has a Tylenol/Gatorade/McDonald’s breakfast sandwich hangover cure that works for him every single time. He looks like he’s never had a drink in his entire life. Ezra, like Chloe, is also wearing sunglasses and looks grumpy as hell.
“Um, are you interested in Oliver?” I ask her. “I don’t really care, just wondering, since you and I are friends—”
“No. I think he’s great, but I’m still not interested in anything serious with anyone.”
I touch her elbow. “Do you want to warm up with me?”
She groans. “I don’t want to do anything right now, but sure.” We begin kicking the ball around in a half-assed manner. Then I manage to squeeze in my run before joining the rest of the team to stretch.
Nicole gets up in front of everyone and gives her typical pregame speech. “Let’s play hard, everybody.”
I can’t help myself—maybe there’s leftover tequila in my bloodstream—but I have to speak up. “Let’s have fun today too, y’all!”
A bunch of heads turn my way.
“Nobody asked you,” Nicole says.
“Oh, so you don’t want to have fun? I don’t believe that, especially considering how much you hog the ball.”
Coach Walker just stands there. He’s probably wishing Dr. Salter were here to help him.
“Don’t you think it would be more fun if we pass the ball to each other?” I ask. “Give everyone a chance to play?”
“I agree,” Alyson says.
“Me too,” Sydney adds.
“Because otherwise, what’s the point?” I say. “I’m not having fun, Nicole. I’m tempted to walk away.”
“Me too,” Chloe says.
“Then why don’t you?” Nicole snaps.
“Because then you’d have no subs,” I tell her. “C’mon, y’all. Let’s pass the ball. Communicate. Have fun.”
“Yeah!” Chloe says, and Sydney joins in.
A smile appears on Brittany’s face. “I’m in.”
Slowly, all the other girls begin to clap and smile, and I haven’t felt this good about soccer since I left St. Andrew’s.
Nicole puts her hand out, and we pile ours on top. “One, two, three, team!”
During the game, we pass the ball and overall have a good time. I don’t even mind playing defense instead of forward, because Sydney rocks it.
At halftime, we’re down 1–0 against Tullahoma, but we’ve been playing great. Well, everyone except for Chloe, who gets sick behind the bleachers. She should’ve tried Oliver’s hangover cure.
During the second half, Sydney is on fire. With an assist from a momentarily revitalized Chloe, she rockets a shot into the upper left of Tullahoma’s goal.
“Goal!” I scream, running up the field. The other girls hustle toward Sydney, surrounding her with hugs. She blushes and grins, laughing. I jump up and down. Chloe smiles but places a hand over her stomach.
“You need grease ASAP,” I tell her.
“That’s the first thing I’m going to do right after the game. Obtain grease.”
The ref blows her whistle. Tullahoma kicks off, and Nicole runs up to meet the ball. She passes it off to Chloe. She dribbles a few feet before it’s stolen from her. A Tullahoma player boots it down the field my way. I stop it with my chest, and it falls to the ground in front of me with a bounce. I dribble a few feet, faking out a forward, then pass it up the left side of the field to Sydney. She’s like lightning as she attacks the ball and heads for the goal. She sidesteps a defender, rears back, and boots the ball. The Tullahoma goalie lunges for it but misses.
“Ahh!” I yell, running for Sydney. By the time I reach her, she’s beet red but jumping up and down. We encircle her again, patting her back. I bet the scouts will be keeping an eye on her from now on.
“Wooooo!” Coach Walker hollers from the sidelines. Even he’s clapping.
The rest of the game goes great. We pass the ball and call each other’s names. Alyson stops a ton of shots on goal. I’m grinning my butt off, even when Tullahoma scores a second time. But hey, a tie is great!
When it’s all over, I throw an arm around Chloe. “You know what this tie means, right? You have to get trashed before every game from here on out. For good luck.”
Chloe gives me an evil look to end all evil looks.
After the game, Oliver wants to go out, just the two of us, so I give Ezra a kiss good-bye, and he makes plans for tonight to go to that dance club Oll is desperate to try. For now, I’m excited to spend time with my brother alone. I haven’t seen him since he went back to school at the end of summer, and talking on the phone is just not the same.
My brother’s car is not much better than my Buick, but he loves it. Dad bought him a 1999 Mustang convertible. Oliver puts the top down before we peel out of the school parking lot. As always, he drives waaay too fast, and we argue over the radio station. I turn it to rock, and he keeps flipping back to rap.
“Would you stop it?” I snap, pushing his fingers away from the radio.
He smacks my hand.
I let my hair out of its braid to feel it blowing in the wind.
A cop car is up the street, so Oliver slams on the brakes, slowing way the hell down.
“How was Jenna when you saw her last week?” Oliver shouts over the music.
“Pretty good. She was her usual crass self.”
“Hey, that’s my twin you’re talking about.”
“I’m surprised she didn’t devour you in the womb.”
“Hey!” Oliver puffs out his chest. “We didn’t share an amniotic sac, so there’s no way she could’ve devoured me.”
“Well, this conversation just got weird.”
Oliver snorts.
“Jenna had a guy over—he’d spent the night—and Dad was pissed.” I lower my voice and do an imitation. “I don’t pay for this condo so you can entertain boys here. Grrr.”