The Quarterback Next Door novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Roof

We didn't tell my mother where we were going.

She was working until seven in the morning, and we told ourselves we'd be back before she called.

We crept out the back door at eleven forty, Cade in the hospital hoodie and me in a coat over my pajamas.

The stadium was a mile and a half away, and we ran most of it.

The lights were off, and the big scoreboard glowed dim red against the clouds.

The chain on the visitors' gate hung open, which meant someone had cut it or hadn't locked it.

We slipped through and walked down the cold concrete tunnel under the stands.

At the far end, near the home locker room door, the girl in the squad jacket stood in the dark holding a phone.

She jumped when she saw us.

"You brought him?"

"He needs to hear it," I said.

"He needs to see it."

She looked at Cade with her chin up, daring him to say something cruel.

"I'm sorry," Cade said.

"For the gym. For all of it."

She blinked and looked away.

"I'm not the one you should say that to."

"I'm saying it to everyone I can."

She nodded stiffly, held out her phone, and tapped the screen.

"This is my brother's phone."

"I took a screenshot of the chat on Friday night before she made me delete it, and I emailed it to his account so I'd have a copy."

"It's the original, from June."

I took the phone in both hands.

There it was.

The same group chat, the same three names, the same hearts.

June 14th, 9:12 p.m.

My real message sat in its blue bubble, a full sentence shorter than the fake.

A girl's cheer was under it.

And under that, my own one-word answer.

There was no number and no bet.

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