“You’re what?” Dwayne slams his hands on the table, his chair falling down on the floor. A couple of people turn their heads toward us and Luigi tilts his head.

“You need to keep it down. This isn’t something that I want getting out.” I pick up Dwayne’s chair and sit him down. The whole time, he’s shooting daggers in my direction. This is going as well as I thought it would.

Dwayne leans over the table and I follow his lead. He looks around the room to make sure that nobody is listening in. “Let me get this straight. You’re suspended from all games until you get your grades up?”

“That was my tutor. She’s going to help me get my grades up and I’ll be back on the field in no time,” I say, but my mind is somewhere else. I look out the window and try to catch a glimpse of Casey before she rounds the corner. My eyes scour the street for that petite and curvy frame of hers, but I don’t see her. I must have just missed her when Dwayne had his outburst.

I shake my head.

What the hell is wrong with me?

I’m never like this. I’m not the one who chases girls. They come to me. Always have since I became the star quarterback. Yet, there’s something different about Casey.

She’s smart, and quirky, and she doesn’t care that I’m the star quarterback. It also helps that she’s drop dead gorgeous; curvy in all the right places, long curly brown hair, and the most blue eyes I’ve ever seen.

I smile to myself, hiding it from Dwayne behind the can of soda. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to work for a girl. And I’m always up for a challenge. I smirk and turn my attention back to Dwayne, who is shaking his head.

“What?” I take a sip of my soda, lock my hands behind my head, and lean back in the chair.

“You like her, don’t you?” He still hasn’t stopped shaking his head the whole time. If I didn’t know Dwayne so well, I thought he would be having a seizure.

“Who?” I try to play it off.

“Casey Boone.” Dwayne grabs a napkin off the table and crumples it up. He takes aim at the trash can across the room and throws it. He misses by a country mile. “Good thing I’m a football player,” he laughs.

I fall down in my chair and press my hand down on the pile of napkins before he grabs another. “How do you know about Casey?” I don’t remember ever telling him about my tutor. Or ever seeing her with him at any point. I might have let it slip last night in my drunken stupor, but I doubt it.

“She and I used to go to the same high school,” he answers. He lifts my hand off the pile of napkins and makes another paper ball. He takes aim and throws it in the air, only for me to smack it down to the ground. “Hey, what the hell was that for?”

“I need your attention on me right now.” I grab the pile of napkins and crumple one up for him. “You answer my questions and I’ll give you a shot.” Dwayne tilts his head, his eyes going from the ball and my face.

“Deal. So you have the hots for Casey?” Dwayne smiles. He brings his hands together, rests his palms, bats his eyelashes, and lets out a large sigh. He looks at me and breaks into laugher. “Come on. Admit it. You have the hots for your tutor.”

“I’m the one asking the questions here.” I squeeze the paper ball a little tighter. Even if I did feel something for Casey, I wouldn’t tell Dwayne. Not now, at least. He wouldn’t understand. “So, what do you know about Casey Boone?”

He holds out his hand and I drop the ball into it. He pulls his arm back and fires across the room. The ball falls into the middle of the trash can. “She’s too much trouble for you, David. My advice is drop her and just get that aggression out with some other girl.”

Too much trouble?

What does he mean by that?

Nothing about Casey rang any bells for me. She seemed like a normal bookworm who would rather be stuck between the pages of a book than out partying. That might be weird to some people, but not to me.

“I don’t want any other girl.” Dwayne looks at me and smiles. “And I don’t want Casey,” I lie.

“That’s good, cause she’s not worth the trouble.”

I grab a handful of napkins and twist them under the table. There’s an anger boiling deep inside of me. Dwayne might be my best friend on the team, but sometimes he lets his mouth run a little too much. I take a deep breath and readjust myself before I clock him upside the head.

I don’t even understand why I want to punch him. I’ve just met Casey. I shouldn’t even care what Dwayne has to say about her. Yet here I am, waiting on his every word.

“What do you mean?” I try to play it off and toss a crumpled ball into the trash can.

Dwayne looks at me and sighs. He knows that I’m not going to drop it until he answers all my questions. “You’re not going to like what I have to say.” He waits a little bit for me to answer, but I don’t say anything. “Casey and Hannah are more alike than you know.”

I almost spit out the soda in my mouth. “There is no way that Casey and Hannah are anything alike. Hannah is all high and mighty, while Casey is the complete opposite.” I shake my head. Dwayne is wrong about that. There’s no doubt in my head.

“Well, I don’t know Casey now, but when we were in high school she was just like Hannah. The most popular girl in school. Always at the football games and head cheerleader. Until that one night-” Dwayne takes a sip of my soda and loses focus as he stares across the room.

I wave my hand in front of his face. “Earth to Dwayne. Earth to Dwayne.” His pupils dilate and he turns his head to me. “What night?”

“I don’t know the whole story since I wasn’t in the room when it happened. But there was a homecoming party at someone’s house. Everyone was having a good time until all hell broke loose.” Dwayne stops and looks at me. “Are you sure that you want to hear this?”

I nod. It can’t possibly be that bad. Casey doesn’t seem like the kind of girl to get involved in anything too awful.

“All I know is that one moment she’s fine and dancing at the party , the next, she’s on the floor. From what I heard, nobody knew what to do and someone called the paramedics while she lay on the ground.” Dwayne shakes his head and grabs a napkin from my hand. “She almost died ‘cause nobody knew what to do. She’s just not worth your time, David.” Dwayne tosses the ball across the room and Luigi walks up and swats it to the ground.

“I won’t have you throwing away perfectly good napkins.” His words come out deep and accented, his face redder than spring tomatoes. He picks up the napkins from my hands and shakes his head as he walks away.

“Sorry, Luigi,” Dwayne shouts. He looks at me and then at the wall behind me. “Oh shit, I’m going to be late for practice.” He grabs his bag off the ground. “He’s going to have my ass running all night if I’m late. Aren’t you coming?”

“Yeah, I’ll be right there.” I throw my backpack over my shoulder and rush out the door with him, throwing a twenty on the counter for Luigi. “See you later.” Luigi nods his head and waves us off.

* * *

I sit back on the bleachers and watch the team huddle up. They’ve been going over the same play for the last hour. Coach Vaughn has pretty much lost his voice. They’ve run more laps this practice than the whole season. And it doesn’t help that they’ve been throwing dirty looks my way.

Me not being on the field is throwing them off. We’ve spent a season working together and now I’m messing with their flow. And it’s not like I don’t want to be out there. I would give anything to be on the field. Even running laps. And I hate running.

Coach Vaughn blows his whistle and team forms up for the umpteenth time. It’s time for me to check out. I can’t do anything for them right now. My mind goes straight to Casey and Dwayne’s warning.

I can hear his words clear in my head. They’re loud and clear but don’t mean anything to me. All I know is that I want to see where things go with Casey. I can’t just drop her because of some stupid high school drama.

She and I are more similar than she thinks. The hard work she puts in. The dedication to her studies and doing her work. There was a time when I used to be like that.

A time before I got drawn into all this.

The whistle blows and Coach Vaughn spins his finger above his head. There’s a groan from the players as they start another set of laps around the track. A couple of them stare me down, but I just smile and wave.

She works so hard and has so little time for fun. I used to know what that was like. How lonely it can be.

Well, that’s about to change. If she’s going to help me get back on the field, then I’m going to help her have a little fun. I know she’ll hate me for it at first, but I think she’ll turn around. Especially now that I know she has a party animal inside of her.

I know that Dwayne meant his words as a way of turning me off from her.

Instead all he did was make me want her more.

I want to bring the old Casey out. Make her comfortable to be around me. So that she can bring that fun side of her out.