Page 66 of Ruthless Edge

Knox waits.

"At the concert. She showed up and immediately put herself against your side and was all over you."

"She was cold⁠—"

"Knox." I say like I’m talking to a badly behaved toddler. He stops. "The first SAB meeting, she sat next to you and touched your shoulder every time she made a point. At the obstacle course she arrived at the finish line in a clean outfit to seek you out. At Paige's party she knew exactly where you were in the room within two minutes of walking in." I hold up my hand. "Every event we've had this semester, Laura finds you within fifteen minutes. She does not do this with the other players."

Knox is quiet.

"She's not just hanging around the team," I say. "She's hanging around you."

"She's friendly," he says, but there's less certainty in it.

"There's a difference between being friendly and what Laura does." I pick my fork back up. "Besides, it's not just that. It’s the way she talks to me."

He looks at me. "What do you mean?"

"She makes comments. Small ones, so small you can't call them out without looking insane. At the pregame party she asked about the sugar in my drink because she was thinking about me. At the concert she kept telling me to eat up in a way that had nothing to do with wanting me to eat. She told me she loved my dress at Paige's party and then said it takes a certain confidence to go that bold, but it's so me." I watch his face. "Do you know what that means when a woman says it?"

Knox doesn't answer.

"It means she's trying to hurt me. She knows exactly what she's doing, and her words are innocent enough that if I repeated them to any guy they'd say she was being nice." I look at him. "Each one taken individually would be nothing. All of them together is a message."

"What message?" Knox says quietly.

"That I should understand who you belong to."

The table is quiet. Outside, something moves on the lake, a bird landing on the water. Knox is looking at me and I can see it, the thing I said landing and then him going back through things, replaying them. The expression on his face is not comfortable.

"I didn't know she was saying things to you. I took her words at face value and thought she was complimenting you," he says.

"I know you didn't."

"You know I would never⁠—"

"I know," I say again. "That's how it works. You're not supposed to know. If you knew, she couldn't keep doing it." I take a drink of water. "I'm not angry at you about it. I'm telling you because you keep looking at me like you can't figure out why I keep one foot out the door, and now you know part of it."

Knox looks at the table. Then back up at me. "I'm not with Laura, and I’ve never been with Laura. I want you to know that."

"Okay."

"I mean it."

"Sure," I say, and I find, saying it, that I mostly do. Which is its own kind of problem.

"You don't look like you believe me."

"I believe there's a world in which you don't have any interest in Laura," I say carefully. "I'm less certain Laura knows that."

“Sorry, it’s just,” he’s shaking his head, “there’s no way. I can’t see any of what she’s doing as claiming me in some way, and I can’t see how you could ever imagine that she and I were together in any way. Laura’s just, a friend at best, but more like a girl that just hangs around.”

My mind starts working. He can’t see it in any way, because he knows what it looks like when a guy claims a girl, but not the other way around.

“Fine.”

He opens his mouth.

"But I can prove what I’m saying is true," I say.