“He did it!” I screamed. “He did it!” A shotgun blast marked the end of the game. The drum line erupted into rolls of percussion. “Oh my God, he won!” I said. I flattened my palms together and put them up to my mouth, and I just stood there, staring down at the field like a proud parent.
Pretty soon, the stadium had turned to pandemonium. This was the first Homecoming game Hollow Pines had won in ten years. Fans stormed the field, and I rode the rush until the soles of my shoes hit plush green and I was searching for Adam in the crowd, reading the numbers on grass-stained jerseys, peering past the grates of face masks. My insides bubbled. It was so uncomplicated, this sports thing. And it was all Adam. My Adam, I repeated this. A mantra. I did this.
So flushed with the glow from Adam’s win, I didn’t mind the sweaty arms brushing by me or the stink of hard-worked boys. I pushed through to the center of the crowd. Never had I felt a pride so pure as the one throbbing through my heart for Adam. My Adam. When I spotted him only a few yards away, I thought it may burst through my chest. This contrivance of my own device, of my own sweat, of my own tedious work, late night, and bloodshot eyes.
I squeezed through a pair of local reporters interviewing a pair of Billys, and I was about to shout for Adam when there was a blur of orange sequins and skin. Cassidy straddled Adam, wrapping her arms around his neck. He twirled her, and when he did, I could clearly make out the smile plastered across his face, and I knew then that I’d succeeded. Adam felt something. But it was all Cassidy’s.
She returned gracefully to the ground, her hand clutching his shoulder.
“There you are!” She caught me looking on. “Did you see our man?”
Something sour brewed in my stomach. Who did Cassidy Hyde think she was? Our? I swallowed down the piping hot mixture of jealousy and righteous indignation that had risen to the top of my throat.
Adam peeled off his helmet, and my intestines untangled themselves. I couldn’t help but smile. Hair stuck to his temples, masking the incisions I knew were there. Beads of perspiration dripped from the tip of his nose. He shook his head like a puppy, and sweat flew in all directions.
When Adam’s eyes landed on me, the effect was undeniable. His grin lit up the whole of his face. From there, it reached into my chest and gave my heart a gentle tug. Okay, so it wasn’t the same way that he looked at Cassidy. Instead, it was as if I were the sun and he were one of my planets. He looked at me with such awe that I both simultaneously shrank and expanded beneath it.
“Victoria, I did it,” he said.
“You did it. Congratulations,” I said, keeping a healthy distance.
“I saw you clapping.”
“I’ll deny it with my last breath.”
Billy Ray barged into the conversation. He lifted up Adam by his thighs and hoisted him up into the air three times before dropping him. “Thatta boy!” He slapped Adam’s back. “Party at Knox’s house. One hour.”
I looked down at my watch. “What about curfew?” The ten o’clock quarantine was still in effect, and the third body lingered like an invisible presence at the same time every night. Better get home or you’ll wind up dead, it whispered to us silently. Only tonight, nobody was listening.
“Best not to get caught, then.” Billy Ray pointed at Cassidy and then Adam and then turned to me. “Don’t flake out now. Winners don’t flake.”
“Oh, well then, I feel personally entitled to continue to flake,” I said.
Cassidy did that thing where she tucked her hands under her chin and shot out her lower lip. “Come on, Tor. You guys have to be there. Knox’s parents own part of the Texans.”
“The who?”
She laughed. “The pro football team. They’re on the road this weekend. Nobody will ever know.”
I sighed. “I don’t know.” The truth was I had already been dreaming of plaid pajama bottoms and bunny slippers and, oh yeah, the idea of not being murdered. “I mean, I got up real early and I wear, like, a retainer at night.” I frowned. I didn’t think it looked nearly as convincing as Cassidy’s princess pout. “Really just, like, a whole headgear situation. It’s not pretty. And, I mean, it’s probably best just to skip altogether.” I looked at Adam for help. After all, he needed to be recharged by morning, but he was searching me with pleading eyes.
“Shut up, Victoria.” Cassidy grabbed both of my hands and held them in hers. “You two have to come. Promise me you’ll come.”
The merriment surged around us, and the pesky memory of the third body seemed to float farther and farther away. I looked up to the cloudless sky and decided what the hell. “Okay, okay, I promise. For one hour. That’s it.”
Cassidy narrowed her eyes and held out her pinkie to me. “Cross your heart and hope to die?”
I rolled my eyes but locked my finger into the crook of hers. “And hope to die,” I said.
THIRTY
Subject’s Stats:
Height: 6′3″
Weight: 196 lbs
Blood pressure: 142/96
Eyesight—good; hearing—normal