Page 51 of The Cheerleader is Off Limits

What the fuck? My mouth almost opens to ask her what she’s doing here or if this is some sort of joke. But why would she be carrying a backpack?

No fucking way. No. Fucking. Way.

Keep it cool, River. Keep it together. Do not show that anything is wrong. Just check the syllabus and go from there. Maybe this is a joke. A weird and twisted joke, but I’ll laugh if it is. I swear, I’ll fucking laugh.

But the way her eyes are wide and look terrified, I don’t think this is a joke. I immediately go to my desk and pull up the attendance on my computer sliding my gaze down the alphabetized student list until I get to H.

Sure enough–Sloane Hunter. Grade 12

FUCK.

“And you never told her the name of your school? She’s been at your house a few times. You didn’t have anything out that would have allowed you guys to come to this realization earlier?” my brother asks, breaking me of the memory.

“Don’t you think that would have at least alleviated this surprise? No, she didn’t know, and I guess it never really came up. I’ve been keeping my house neat when I knew she was coming over, and when she’s there, I rarely had clothes on. So it’s not like she’d see any of my T-shirts with the school name onit. She has borrowed some things, but it was never anything that had anything Westlake High School or Bulldogs on it,” I explain.

“Did anyone in your class pick up on anything?”

I sit up and dig my heel into my eyes. “I don’t think so. I pretended I didn’t know her and ignored her for the entire class. She came to my office after class, though, and I let her have it. I’ve blocked her phone number since.”

“Okay, for the time being, do not be alone with her at all,” he tells me, and I nod in agreement. “I mean it, River, even if it’s harmless or she’s asking for help?—”

“I told her she needed to transfer out of my class today, so that won’t happen,” I interject.

“Good. The less time you spend around her, the better. For now, all you have going for you is all of this was before school started. She lied about her age. She’s been living overseas for years, so there’s no chance you could have ever run into her. She’s nineteen,” he says, listing off the mitigating circumstances. “But essentially, you should not talk to her until she graduates.”

“Please.” I snort. “I never want to talk to her again, and I hope I made that shit very clear.” He raises an eyebrow at me, and I’m instantly defensive. “What’s that look for?”

“You’ve been walking around like you and your dick are on cloud nine. I know you liked her.”

“Okay, and this is a very big thing to make youunlike someone. She fucked up, and this could still cost me my whole life, and her being a good fuck is not nearly enough to fix it.”

“Well, that is good that you feel this way, but I just want to make sure you realize that if you touch her from this point forward, it is abigproblem,” he emphasizes.

“Obviously!” I respond exasperatedly, like I can’t control my erections enough not to let this destroy my entire life any more than it has.

“I mean it, River, the school will fire you immediately, and you will struggle to get a job anywhere else because this will have been a huge scandal.You’ll avoid jail time because she’s over the age of eighteen, but you’re looking at complete revocation of your teaching license, and you and the district could be sued by her parents or family, or even Sloane herself if shewants to take it there. Do not touch her.” I sigh before nodding once, because while this feels like a lecture, a part of me feels like I deserve it. “Is there any chance she could tell people out of spite?”

“I doubt it. But her cousin does know about me. Not me specifically, but just that she’s been sleeping with a high school football coach named River.” I give him a fake smile. “How long till she puts that together? I don’t know.” I pull my hat off my hair and toss it hard against the wall. “Maybe she won’t.”

He pinches the bridge of his nose as he squeezes his eyes together. “Jesus Christ, her cousin goes to the school too?”

“Yes, thankfully, I don’t have her in any of my classes.” I’d done a thorough sweep of all my class lists and didn’t see a Delaney anywhere.

He takes a sip of his drink. “Okay, are you sure this cousin doesn’t know?”

“Sloane told me she didn’t know it was me, so I’m hoping she doesn’t tell her.”

“Do you still have your texts?”

I sigh. “Yes, I thought deleting them made me look more guilty.”

“Good, and it does, so keep them. Timestamps are crucial. When was the last time you and Sloane texted or talked on the phone, anything?”

“This morning. Right before the class she’s in, actually. We planned to hang out the next time she was ‘home from college,’ which was supposed to be at the end of the month,” I say using air quotes with my fingers, “and I was texting her ideas of placeswe could go for dinner.” I groan, thinking about how stupid I’d been in all of this.

But how could I have known?

“Shit, that’s a very tiny window, but if it’s the truth, then it’s all we’ve got. Geez, this morning? How long did she think she could keep this ruse going?”