Page 103 of Playing Dirty

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Too familiar.

Too comfortable.

And I stayed standing in the aisle like an idiot.

Jace hissed from my seat. “Sit down.”

“I am.”

“You’re literally standing in the aisle like a problem.”

I didn’t move.

Because moving meant going back.

And going back meant pretending I hadn’t noticed.

But I had.

All of it.

Caleb’s knee against her chair.

Her hand writing something she wasn’t reading.

The way she didn’t look back even once.

That last part was what irritated me.

Not attention.

Absence of reaction.

Coach paused the film again.

“Reed,” he called without turning. “You good?”

“Yeah.”

I wasn’t.

I finally sat down.

But I didn’t look away.

That was worse.

Because now I was too aware of how close everything felt.

Too aware of her.

And how she wasn’t aware of me at all.

Rowan

The air changed when he sat down again.

I don’t know how I knew.

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