OFFSIDE: THE CAPTAIN’s FAKE GIRLFRIEND

THE PARTY Evelyn's POV The first time Xander Hayes humiliated me, I had been in the wrong room for eleven seconds. I should have stayed home. I had a plan for Friday night: tea, a highlighter and forty pages of pharmacology. Instead, I was on the porch of the Hockey House in my favourite cardigan, listening to the bass rattle the windows and asking myself how a grown woman could still be talked into things by her best friend. "Evelyn Grace, don’t you dare!" I had one foot off the bottom step. I closed my eyes, turned around, and found Naomi Brooks strutting up the path in boots and confidence, holding two cups. "You were leaving." "I was considering leaving." "You had a foot out the door." "It's a very small foot." "It's a very small excuse." She pushed a cup into my hand. "Drink. It's mostly lemonade. Is that the grandma cardigan?" I glanced down at my cardigan before looking back at her. "It's warm, practical, and it has pockets." "It has ducks on the buttons, Evie." "They're sweet ducks." Naomi burst out laughing. I rolled my eyes, but the corner of my mouth betrayed me. She hooked her arm through mine and dragged me inside before I could negotiate. The noise hit first. Then the heat. Hockey players shouted over music, cheerleaders shrieked over hockey players, and somebody was singing into a hockey stick like it was a microphone. Naomi vanished into her natural habitat within ten seconds. One moment, she was beside me; the next, she was waving at someone across the room. I did what I always did. I found a wall and observed. I adjusted my glasses and wrapped both hands around my cup, shifting closer to the wall when someone brushed past me. Everyone in that house was performing. Everyone was playing a version of themselves they hoped someone was watching. I wasn't built for it. I had a scholarship renewal form I'd checked six times, a pile of unpaid bills on my desk, and an email from Dr. Carter I'd read three times without breathing. Then a cheer went up. "Captain!" I didn't need to look. Everyone at Riverdale knew Xander Hayes: fourth-year, hockey captain, six foot three of arrogance and talent, with a jaw that looked sculpted and hair that always looked freshly ruffled. The kind of person who walked into a room and made it rearrange itself around him. I looked anyway. Just once. He was leaning against the counter, a drink in one hand, laughing at something a curly-haired boy said. His head tilted back, his shoulders relaxed, and he gave the boy a playful shove. People gathered around him as though being close to him was some sort of privilege. His eyes swept past me, and I felt absolutely nothing. Good, I thought. Perfect. I lasted another half hour. Then I needed the bathroom. That was the end of my good decisions. "Second floor," a boy told me. "Second door on the left." I nodded and made my way upstairs, counting the doors as I went. I did. I opened the second one, stepped inside, and understood immediately that I had counted wrong. A lamp turned low. A girl with long blonde waves was pressed against the wall. One of Xander's hands rested firmly on her waist, while her fingers curled into the front of his shirt. His mouth was on hers. My fingers tightened around the doorknob. For a moment, I couldn't move. I just stood there, staring like someone had pressed pause on the entire world. Then Xander pulled away slightly. The girl followed his movement before noticing me. She turned her head and looked over his shoulder. I watched her eyes travel from my face to my cardigan, to the ducks, and back up. Sienna Blake. Third-year cheerleader, designer everything, smile like a closing door. A slow, delighted grin spread across her face. "Oh my God. Are you lost?" I swallowed. "I was looking for the bathroom." "The bathroom," she repeated, glancing at Xander before looking back at me. "Is that what they're calling it now?" Xander turned around. Somewhere in the back of my mind, a small, stupid, hopeful voice said, He'll say sorry. Wrong door. This will be over. His eyes met mine, dark in the low light, completely unreadable. He looked me over briefly, his expression giving nothing away. Then Sienna said, "Baby, look. It's the school dork." She brushed her blonde hair over her shoulder, wearing a smile that suggested she'd been waiting for an opportunity like this. Laughter exploded from the hallway behind me. Two, three, then five people had drifted up the stairs, drawn by the noise. School dork. I hadn't heard that word since high school. I had thought I'd outgrown being the person it could be said about. I looked at Xander. He didn't say that's enough. He didn't say leave her alone. He didn't even say sorry. He simply stood there with his arm around Sienna's waist, his gaze fixed on me. Then the corner of his mouth lifted. That smirk was worse than anything Sienna had said. My fingers tightened around the doorknob. I felt my shoulders stiffen, but I refused to let my expression betray how badly I wanted to disappear. Something inside me went cold and still, the way it did in the lab when a sample failed and I had to decide whether to cry about it or write it down. I lifted my chin. "My mistake," I said pleasantly. "I didn't realise this was a private screening." A boy behind me choked on his drink. Sienna's smile slipped. I looked straight at Xander. "Enjoy your evening." Then I turned around and walked out. I did not run. I walked down the corridor and the stairs, through the hall, through the front door, and into the cold October air. My steps quickened once I was away from the bedroom. I could still hear the laughter behind me, and I hated that it followed me down the stairs. By the time I reached the porch, my hands were shaking so badly that I had to shove them into my pockets. I made it to the end of the path before I let myself breathe. Naomi caught me at the gate, flushed and furious. She grabbed my arm, her eyes darting towards the house before settling on my face. "Someone told me. I'm going to kill Sienna. I'll push her off the pyramid." "It's fine." "It is not fine." She took a step towards the house, but I caught her wrist and gently pulled her back. "It's fine." My voice was steady, and I surprised myself by meaning it. "I walked into the wrong room. That's all." "And Xander?" I looked down at the pavement, remembering the way his mouth had curved into that infuriating smirk. I thought about it for a moment. "He's exactly who everyone says he is." I took off my glasses, wiped them on my cardigan, and put them back on. The world sharpened. The porch light. The lit windows. A tall figure on the balcony, looking down. My gaze lingered for a second before I looked away. I didn't look up long enough to see who it was. "I'm never going near the hockey team again." "Never?" "Never ever." Naomi gave me a doubtful look, but she didn't argue. She slipped her arm through mine, and we started walking back towards campus. My phone buzzed in my pocket. I almost ignored it. I'm glad I didn't. From: Dr. Helena Carter Subject: URGENT: Call me first thing tomorrow. Evelyn, the accreditation review has been moved up. If we lose accreditation, the programme could lose its funding, putting every scholarship at risk. Including yours. I stopped walking. Naomi took another step before noticing I wasn't beside her anymore. "Evie?" I read the email again, my fingers tightening around my phone. Every scholarship. Including mine. The party thumped on behind us. Somewhere above it, a boy I never wanted to see again was probably already laughing about me. I had one month to save my future.