Chapter 5
“So,” Chase said after practice the next day. His hangover had finally vanished, but his questions about Claire lingered. Especially given what Ricky had told him. “I gotta ask you something.” He knew that it wasn’t exactly his business, but he’d ended up in the middle of it anyway somehow and he felt like he deserved to know the truth.
“What is it?” Logan asked.
“You said that you broke up with Claire.”
“Yeah?” Logan stopped, looking hard at Chase. “Why?”
“Well...because she says that she broke up with you.” And I believe her. Try as he might, Chase couldn’t get her face out of his head. And Claire might be a lot of things, but he didn’t think Oscar winning actress was one of them, no matter how manipulative she was supposed to be.
Logan shrugged and looked across the field. “Sure. I mean, obviously that’s what she’d say. Who wants to admit that they got dumped?”
“Nobody,” Chase agreed. “At least, not at first. But it seems like a weird lie to keep up.”
“Did you miss the part where I told you that she’s crazy?”
“No...but why stay with her for so long if she’s nuts?” That was another thing that bugged him. He and Logan weren’t close, but he knew that the other guy didn’t take any shit. He couldn’t see him being manipulated by anyone, no matter how sexy that person was.
“I made a mistake,” Logan said, his voice growing cold. “You’re headed toward making one yourself.”
Chase felt his muscles grow tense, but he didn’t want the situation to escalate so he simply nodded. “Look, all I’m trying to do is pass math and stay on the team. I just don’t wanna be in the middle of the drama.”
“She put you in the middle of all the drama, not me.”
Except that Claire had never mentioned Logan. At least, not until Chase had thrown some accusations at her. Frowning, Chase ducked into the shower and then headed for Professor Porter’s class.
Once he was there, something happened that made him forget all about Logan. He even forgot all about Claire which had proven harder to do over the past few days.
“Take a seat,” the professor called. “We’re going to have a little quiz.”
His heart dropped down to the soles of his shoes.
****
Chase wasn’t even surprised when a text from Coach Davis came through about three hours after math class had ended. As a matter of fact, he’d skipped his other two classes and gone straight back to his room to wait for it.
There was no way that his coach wasn’t going to find out, even if the professor hadn’t called him to the front of the room for another talk. He’d seen the look in her eyes as he’d left the room. It had been a combination of pity and sternness. In other words, it didn’t bode well.
He opened the message. Maybe Coach Davis would just throw him off the team without meeting up with him at all. That way he could just pull the covers over his head and pretend that none of this was really happening.
“My office.”
Okay, apparently it wasn’t going to be that easy. Chase pushed himself up from his bed where he’d spent the last few hours and walked over to the office. He didn’t see the need to hurry to his execution, even though he knew that the coach would only be more pissed off to be kept waiting.
As he trudged, he contemplated. What else could he do with his life? He wracked his brain but absolutely nothing came to mind. His degree was in general studies, for God’s sake. What was he supposed to do with that?
Football was pretty much the only thing he was good at. Innately, instinctively good. And now he was going to lose it all because of...his thoughts stumbled to a halt and his shoulders slumped.
There was no point in trying to lie to himself on top of everything else. It wasn't anyone else's fault. He should have called Sydney the minute he knew he wasn't getting trig. He shouldn't have taken his anger out on Claire, or let himself be caught up in Logan’s issues with her. As much as it sucked, all of his problems were pretty much his own fault.
Chase squared his shoulders and walked into Coach Davis's office. At least he could go out like a man. The coach looked up at him and then leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest.
“We seem to be having some sort of failure to communicate, Franklin.”
Chase stopped just inside the door, shifting from one foot to the other, getting a little more nervous. The coach hadn't even asked him to sit. Was he planning to make his dismissal that fast? Now that he was here, Chase wanted an opportunity to explain himself, to fight for one more chance.
“No,” he said. “I got what you were saying--”
“You just didn’t do it? You haven't seen your tutor since the first day!”
Chase nodded when the coach paused, but he knew that the coach wasn’t done. He was proven right by Davis’s next spurt of speech. He didn’t say much, but when he did it had the rapidity of a machine gun burst, and it was just as pleasant.
“Care to explain why? Why the best damn wide receiver I’ve ever seen at this level of the game is willing to throw it all away over a math grade?”
Change felt a minor glow of pride. Coach Davis had seen a lot of college football and he never blew smoke. He really thought that Chase was the best.
“Wipe that smile off your face,” his coach snapped. “It doesn’t mean a damn thing now, because--”
“No!” Chase burst out. He couldn’t let him say it. If he said it, it was final. He needed to be able to speak before the sentence was handed down.
“No?” Davis asked, staring at Chase in surprise.
“Please. Just let me explain--”
“There’s nothing that you could say to excuse yourself,” the coach said tiredly. “I gave you as many chances as I could.”
Chase caught his breath, his throat going tight. His voice was rough when he spoke again.
“I know that I screwed up. And I'm not blaming anyone but myself. Just...please give me another chance. Please. This is all I've got.”
Coach Davis leaned back in his chair and looked at him. Chase bit down on his lip till he tasted blood.
“Fine,” Davis said after a moment. “And sit down before you fall over.”
Chase dropped into the chair gratefully. His knees had gone weak and his heart was beating too fast.
“There’s one thing you’ve gotta understand,” the coach said, looking Chase in the eye. “I’m sticking my neck out for you. You screw this up and you’re gone. No ifs, ands, or buts. I will not do this again, do you understand?”
Chase nodded a few times too many. “I understand. I really do. I’ll--”
“And it’s not just me that has to sign off on this,” the coach said, cutting off his relieved babbling. “Wait here.”
Chase nodded as the coach walked out. Then he leaned forward until his ears stopped ringing and his vision cleared. He’d just brought his head up again when the door opened once more and Coach Davis came back.
He wasn’t with Professor Porter, as Chase had expected. Instead, the coach was leading Claire Montgomery. Chase felt his whole body grow hot at seeing her again so unexpectedly. His throat went dry in a rush.
“I asked your tutor if she’d be willing to continue working with you,” Coach Davis said. “And she informed me that you don’t seem to want to work with her. She also mentioned that you have one hell of an attitude problem. Care to explain that?”
Chase rubbed the back of his neck and cleared his throat. “She’s right about the attitude.” He took a deep breath and looked at Claire. He thought that he could see her shaking. He shoved down the urge to go over and pull her against him. If he did, she’d probably give him the slap that he knew he deserved. “I was pissed off about the whole thing and I took it out on her. I’m sorry, Claire.”
Her lips parted in obvious surprise, but she stood her ground. “I can’t teach someone who doesn’t want to learn. And I won’t teach someone who treats me the way you have.”
Chase nodded. “I know that I don’t deserve another chance,” he said honestly. “But I’d like to make things right between us.”
“Why?” she asked, her voice barely more than a whisper.
“Because...” He couldn’t find the right words. Especially with his coach standing right there staring him down. “Because I’m honestly not a jerk,” he said. It was half of the truth, anyway. “And I’d like to prove it.”
“I can vouch for the fact that he’s a decent kid,” Coach Davis said. “Doesn’t listen too well. But he’s all right.”
Claire looked at him. Chase looked back, waiting. She swallowed hard, but she didn’t speak.
“I really do need your help,” he said into the silence. “But I understand if you don’t want to be in the same room with me. And I won’t hold it against you.”
Claire chewed her thumbnail, looking from Chase to the coach as they both waited for her decision. She sighed. “Fine. I’ll help you out.”
Chase couldn’t hold back a grin. “Thank you, Claire. I’ll be your best student, I promise.”
“And on your best behavior,” Coach Davis said seriously. “If she tells me that you put so much as one toe out of line, you’ll be benched for more than just the next game.”
Chase blinked. “Wait. I’m benched?”
“Oh yeah. It seems like you need the extra time to study.”
Claire eyed Chase warily and he knew that she was expecting him to lose it. Oddly, it helped him stay calm. He took a long breath and then blew it out.
“Fair enough.”
His coach nodded in approval. “Then I’ll leave you to it.” He pointed to both of them. “You’re starting over. Clean slate. This is all water under the bridge.”
They both nodded and the coach walked out, closing the door behind him. Chase stood and pulled a chair out for Claire. She took it without speaking and then began digging through her bag.
“Thanks,” he said again. “I wanted to...kind of explain myself, if that’s cool with you. Part of that clean slate thing.”
Claire only nodded, still facing away from him, her dark hair curtaining her pretty face. He itched to push it back, to twine it around his fingers and feel it brush his palm. He sat up straighter and tried hard to remove the mental image. The best he could ever hope for was that Claire didn’t hate him thoroughly. No matter how much more he might want.
“I was pissed off the first day because I felt like an idiot,” he said honestly. “And I took it out on you because I couldn’t take it out on the coach or Professor Porter. But I shouldn’t have, because my shitty math grade isn’t your fault. Obviously.”
Claire still didn’t look at him but she nodded, so he went on. “The second time...Logan told me that you’d called him after I left. That you said I was...” He didn’t exactly know how to put it. It all sounded stupid now that he looked back on it. “That I was coming onto you.”
Her head whipped around. “What?”
“When I showed up, I was still mad that you’d say something like that, but--”
“I didn’t!” she said, her voice trembling slightly as her cheeks went bright red. “I haven’t spoken to him since I broke up with him. And even if I had, why would I...” She trailed off, inhaling for calm. “Obviously, Logan and I had a rough breakup. I don’t think that’s a secret to anyone on the team.” Sometimes it felt like it wasn’t a secret to anyone on the whole campus, but she didn’t mention that. “But I never said anything like that.”
“I know.”
“You know?”
Chase looked down at his shoes. “It...I knew that you were telling the truth when we had that fight. And I...look. We’re still teammates.” He wasn’t sure that those two pieces of information went together, but she nodded.
“I know. That’s part of the reason why I haven’t said anything about him.” She turned away again, obviously still shaken by what he’d said.
“Are we gonna be okay?” he asked.
Claire continued digging through her bag, but he saw her lithe body grow tense. Chase couldn’t blame her for being wary around him, but he hated it.
“Because I meant what I said,” he went on. “I really do apologize.”
“Sure,” she said, straightening up and putting a piece of paper on the desk. Her face was completely closed off, her lips pressed together. “I heard you. I need you to take this placement test so that I can see where we need to start.”
Chase sighed when he saw the long list of math problems that filled the page. “The last time I felt like I knew what was going on in a math class we were learning the multiplication tables.”
“I don’t think we have time to go back that far.” The slight smile that tugged at her lips as she spoke made his own lips quirk upward. She tapped the piece of paper in a businesslike way and then pushed a pen over to him. “Get started.”
He stared at her incredulously. “You do math in pen?”
She shrugged. “Sure.”
“Do you have a pencil on you, oh great one?”
She handed one over. Chase thought that he saw another hint of a smile, but it was so quick that he couldn’t be sure.
“So? Do you accept my apology?”
“Depends on what kind of grade you get.”
He took a breath and got down to work. By the time he'd gotten through the questions, he was thoroughly depressed. He was pretty sure that he hadn’t gotten a single question right. Which meant two things. It didn’t look like Claire would be accepting his apology any time soon. And she’d probably think that he was a complete moron. He bit his lip as she took the paper and began going over it.
“I promise I’m not as dumb as this makes me look,” Chase said as she wrote a depressingly low grade at the top and started making notes. “I’ve got an A in English right now.”
“I don’t think you’re dumb,” she said absently. Then she seemed to catch herself. “A jerk maybe, but not dumb. All this shows me is that you’re weak in a lot of areas that are sort of important in trig.”
“Then you think there’s some hope for me?”
Claire put down her pen and eyed the test with a calculating gaze. “If you put in the work, you can pass.” Before he had time to be relieved, she went on. “You might think about picking a major that doesn’t involve a whole lot of math though, because if you keep going with general education, you’ll only be digging yourself deeper.”
Chase sighed. “One thing at a time, please. Get me through this class and then we’ll talk about my major.”
“Also,” Claire said, sliding his test into a folder. “I’ve decided that I’ll accept your apology when you get a C on a practice test.”
“So where do we start?”
“As close to the beginning as possible,” she said, sounding slightly apologetic. “I actually think we’re going to need more sessions than there are on the original schedule.”
Chase pushed his hand back through his hair and slumped in the chair. It figured. “Okay. As long as I’m not in class or on the field, I’m yours.”
Her face went slightly pink and he realized how that had sounded. He also realized that he didn’t want to take it back.
“Well,” she said, her voice going high and her movements growing flustered as she repacked her bag. “I think that does it for today. Just email me your schedule and I’ll figure out some additional times for us to meet.”
She was gone before he could speak again, practically running out. It hadn’t gone very well in terms of flirting, no matter how unintentional that flirting had been. But hopefully, he was a step closer to earning her forgiveness and changing her opinion of him. It meant a lot more to him than he’d thought it would.
While he was still in the coach’s office, he pulled his phone out and typed up a quick email with his schedule. Then he grabbed the business card she’d left him and typed in her email address. Her cards were plain and simple, designed and given out by the student center. He could probably get another one whenever he wanted it. And hell, he didn’t even really need it because he’d just put her information in his phone. But he put it in his wallet carefully anyway.