What I did notice was Mr. Warren.
He was partially concealed by the side of the stands, but I recognized him because he was the only man I knew who wore bow ties. I moved closer, rounding the corner of the benches just enough to see him talking to Talia McCutcheon, his teacher’s assistant from last year who went to the local college now, and Lily Foster, the girl in the year below me that had shown up just as I was leaving his classroom last week.
Curiosity burned through me even as the saying curiosity killed the cat reverberated in my head.
Still, I stalked closer.
It was too loud in the echo filled gymnasium to hear what the three of them were saying but both girls were curved on either side of Mr. Warren like brackets, listening quietly and so attentive.
I didn’t have the first clue what they could all be talking about.
Mr. Warren reached out to take Talia’s hands in his, pulling her close so that her body obscured my view. After a few seconds, she moved away with a deep blush on her pretty face and quickly fiddled with her purse before ducking her head and taking off into the crowd.
Lily lingered, looking pale and terrifyingly excited. Mr. Warren took his time with her, drawing her closer and closer until he was curled around her but not touching. She had her lime green backpack close to her chest like she didn’t want him to get closer and I was this close to interfering when she took off into the crowd.
Mr. Warren stood there for a minute, little smile of satisfaction on his face, his hands in his pockets and his weight on his heels. He looked like a man about to declare checkmate on his opponent and it sent a ripple of alarm down my spine.
I wondered if that was the man who had me seeing warning flares everywhere I turned.
Then I felt a hand on my arm and knew before the rough, wide fingers had even closed around me that the real danger had arrived.
Without turning me to face him, Zeus led me with a hand at my back and the other on my arm deep into the shadows Mr. Warren had just absented. Instead of stopping there though, he pushed me deeper, into the small gap between the metal siding of the bleachers and the wall of the gym. We entered the dark space and the noises of the court immediately receded.
Zeus had me flipped around and pressed against a pole before my eyes could adjust to the dark.
“You still seein’ that motherfucker?” he asked me in a voice that was lower than a rumble and so controlled, I knew I was in trouble.
“Erm, technically, I don’t know if we were ever dating in the first place,” I tried to explain. “The logistics of modern dating are kind of complicated.”
“You fuckin’ with me, little girl? You playin’ with a grown man for sport to learn a few things ’fore you go back to limp-ass teenage dick?”
“Zeus,” I called to him through the fury and pressed a hand against his AC/DC tee-covered chest, right where I knew his scar would be. “I didn’t break up with him because every spare moment this week I’ve spent with you and when I wasn’t with you, I was so busy getting everything done so that I could be with you that I did not have time to see him. Chill, Z.”
His body turned to stone beneath my hand. “You think a man sees his woman kissin’ another man, he needs to chill? I’ll remember that next time I got bitches hittin’ on me at the clubhouse, yeah?”
“Okay, that’s fair,” I admitted, because the idea of any of those women touching Zeus made me manic with violence.
“You’re damn right it is. Come to see my girls cheer and instead, I see H.R. wearin’ her uniform but suckin’ face with her trash boyfriend behind the gym. Then I come in ’ere thinking, at least my good girl will cheer me up, wearin’ that pretty little outfit, and doin’ the splits in a way that’ll remind me how I had ’er doin’ them naked around my cock just this mornin’, and instead I see her suckin’ face with another trash boyfriend. You see the fuckin’ theme here?”
“I see it, definitely,” I agreed solemnly but then pressed up on my tiptoes to take his chin between my teeth in a gentle nip. “I’m sorry.”
He stared hard at me for a minute and then nodded. “Right. Turn around, bend over and hold on to your fuckin’ ankles.”
I blinked at him because even though my body was already growing wet, my brain took longer to understand. “Excuse me?”
He leaned into me with a soft sneer and said, “Bend over and hold on to your fuckin’ ankles. I’m gonna fuck you in this cheerleader getup like I planned to do later tonight, only I’m gonna do it here so when you go back out and break up with that kid, you’ll have my cum inside you.”