Page 508 of Bad Prince
That lands.
Because she’s right.
Not softened.
Not floaty.
Not distracted in the way people assume girls in love become.
Different in the way sharpened steel is different from raw metal.
Before I can answer, Coach walks in wearing her signature tracksuit, coffee and clipboard in hand.
The kind of competent female authority that can freeze a room with one glance and still somehow make you want her approval more than oxygen.
She stops just inside the doorway, takes in the noise, the phones, me, the hoodie tossed half over my bench, and the fact that approximately ten seconds of disciplined playoff energy have evaporated into gossip.
Then she says, deadpan, “I’m glad Cinderella had a nice weekend. Now everybody move.”
The room explodes again.
I actually choke on a laugh.
Coach points at me with her coffee.
“Don’t smile at me, Cortez. You’re first on serve receive.”
“Yes, Coach.”
“And if one more person says ‘S and T’ in my gym before nine a.m., I’m assigning suicides until graduation.”
That buys us twelve whole seconds of peace. Just because my team was told to shut up—doesn’t mean the rest of the athletic complex isn’t buzzing. From field hockey—soccer—to the football weight room. I feel badly for Isa… whispers about her trickle to my ears.
Half the campus is already losing its mind over the new golden pairing of Stanford sports.
By the time we hit warm-ups, I’ve heard some variation ofbasketball royalty,East Coast prince,the Newport photos, andS&T is insaneenough times that I want to throw myself into an ice bath face first.
Instead, I stretch.
Tape.
Band work.
Dynamic warm-up.
Normal things.
Athlete things.
Things that have nothing to do with the fact that my body still remembers Tristan’s mouth, his hands, the private jet, the dance, the hotel, the way he looked at me like love and heat had somehow learned to share a face.
Coach Alvarez stalks the sideline with a whistle and a tablet, watching all of us, but especially me.
That part I notice immediately.
Not because she’s glaring.
Because she’s assessing.
