Books, Boys, and Basketball: Junior Year

WHIPPED

I look at the girls whose butts I just kicked and a few others whose jabs I let slide. Someone picked Nicole up off the ground, but both her nose and mouth are bleeding pretty badly.

"Nah, I did what I wanted to do. Let them stay."

Dreux raises a brow at me like he thinks I'm crazy for allowing them to stay, but I've proven my point and now they know I'm no punk. He shrugs and allows them to stay, but he cranks the music up.

The football team, basketball team, and my teammates all come to give me my props. And they appoint themselves my protectors for the rest of the night.

Who needs family when you have friends like these?

Then a comforting thought hits me. Drew, Quincy, and my teammates. They're my family, too. I may have lost my entire immediate family, but I still have some family left. And the way my teammates stood up for me... I now realize they're more than teammates. They're my sisters.

"Is she okay?" Q asks Drew, concerned.

"She has a few scrapes and bruises, but her crazy ass is fine."

"I'm with Drew. That was crazy Sid. They could have seriously hurt you or injured you and kept you from playing ball," Chloe agrees.

"I didn't even think about getting injured," I realize and privately scold myself.

"That's because you let your hot ass head take over," Drew gives me a stern look.

Shrugging, I tell him, "I won."

"Yeah... this time. But you won't always have an entire team of people with you, Sid. You got to be smart. None of those girls are worth your basketball career, remember that."

He's right. I hate that he's right and I playfully poke my lip out into a pout. He laughs and pulls me in for a hug, but what he does with hands has me practically jumping out of my skin. They smooth down the slope of my back and then he cups my butt, squeezing both cheeks.

I haven't agreed to date him again, so I try to remove his hands, but he won't let me. He pins my hands behind my back with one hand and kisses me.

My mind goes blank.

Even my sore body doesn't object to his touch, and I hate that he has this effect on me.

"You two back together?" Jason asks curiously.

"No," I reply.

Frowning, Drew completely disregards my comment and overrides what I said. "We're working on it."

"I never said I would work on anything with you. We've got a lot of issues if that wasn't clear by your little smash buddies trying to beat the crap out of me."

"You want to be exclusive and I'm giving you that. You don't want to have sex and I told you we can work around that. What else do you want from me, Sid? Whatever it is, tell me, and it's yours."

Once again, he and I are the center of attention thanks to his loudmouth. "You can't be serious," Kimberly gawks at him. "He doesn't know the meaning of exclusive, so if I were you, I'd run for the hills."

"And why would she take any advice from you after what you and your friends just tried to pull?" Xerxes asks.

Briefly, I meet Em's gaze and realize she watched those girls jump me and did nothing. But Em is the least of my worries right now. I have Drew and his harem to contend with.