I can't keep still in class an hour later as my mind keeps reverting back to my conversation with mom and coach earlier. I can't wait to tell my teammates. Rhys, Cgc, Xander, and I all agreed on playing college ball all of our four years.

I don't think they'll be bummed when I tell them I'm considering entering the draft though. If anything, they'll be even more ecstatic than I am. It will be bittersweet though. It's a big decision that I'm still considering. I didn't just want to play four years of football here, but I also wanted to finish getting my degree.

For some reason, I think it'll be way harder for me to excel in school if I'm playing in the NFL at the same time. Getting my degree was something that was very important to me. Sports aren't forever. No matter how good you are, there's always risks.

There's about 1,000 people better than me, possible injuries, and well, aging. I can't play football forever, I know that. I also haven't been taking these difficult classes throughout the years for nothing.

"Valdez?" Professor Adams says, catching my attention. Everyones looking at me too. Shit, what did I miss? I haven't been listening to a word she's been saying since I got here. "Pick a partner for the speech." I've had Prof Adams before, so I would say we're besties. She loves me.

"Oh, uh, who's still available?" She looks down at the notepad in her hand. "Julian, Kit, Allie, Kendall, Novalee, PJ, and Sasha." I turn to Novalee, who is sitting three rows below me, and smirk. She rolls her eyes and turns away from me. She's not stupid, she knows what's coming.

"Uh, Novalee?" I act dumb, so Prof doesn't assume we're friends. She gives me a head nod before writing something down. The rest of the class pairs up quite quickly and then lecture ends.

I pick my stuff up quickly and jog towards Novalee who's already headed out the door. "Hey!" I say, catching up with her quite fast. My longer strides always beat her smaller ones. "Why did you pick me?" She retorts, eyeing me. If looks could kill, man.

"Good morning to you too," I tease, but she doesn't even crack a small smile "it was my choice to pick and I didn't know any of those other people, jeez." I finish and she sighs softly. I didn't know she hated me this much. I don't deserve this behavior from her.

"Stop being a mean, Nova. We'll make this work." I grin. Then, I remember that I have absolutely no idea what this speech has to be about. I hadn't been paying attention the whole lecture. "So, what's the speech on?" I ask, hoping she won't get mad.

"I don't know. We have decide on a topic together. Any ideas?" I think momentarily. "Let's sit here really quick." She says pointing to a small bench that's under a tree. Good, I need shade. It's too fucking hot. "How about something problematic?" I suggest and she laughs.

"What if we don't agree on this 'problematic topic'?" She questions. I roll my eyes playfully. "Are you trying to pick something we don't agree on so you can argue with me? Can't catch a break on scolding me can ya?" Her lips twitch bit and shakes her head.

"No, asshat. I just don't think we'll agree on anything." She says. I furrow my brows. "Why?" I already know what she's going to say. Because we're different, blah blah bah. Bullshit.

"Dunno. We can discuss our topic and points a little bit more right now? I don't have another class until 3:00." She says. I suck my teeth and shake my head. "Sorry, babe. Gonna go have lunch with my mom. Maybe tomorrow?" I stand up and dust off any possible dirt from my ass.

Her auburn brows furrow slightly. "Your mom's in Cali?" She asks. My mom had actually met Novalee a bunch of times when we lived back in Georgia. Mom was kind of in love with her, but these days, I wasn't really looking for moms approval in anything.

"Yup, she wants to celebrate the 'big news' I got from coach earlier." I can't help but roll my eyes, I don't care if Novalee sees it. "What big news?" She sounds intrigued as she stands up as well, my bigger frame now towering over her.

"Coach told me his friend, Coach Davis, is interested in me to play ball for him next year. He's the head defensive coordinator for the L.A. Rams." I can't help, but smile again at the thought. Novalee's the first person who knows besides coach Carter and mom. She gasps lightly and smiles.

Nova's never been a football fan, I know that. I used to always have to force her to come to games. "That's amazing, Valdez." She pushes my shoulder slightly. This is the first time she's being nice to me, and I'm gonna appreciate while it lasts.

"Thank you, thank you. They'd be stupid not to want me though, come on." I shrug. Novalee's grin turns into a frown. Time's up. "Arrogant much?" She rolls her brown orbs. "Sexy much?" I say, raising my eyebrows at her a bit.

She laughs. "You constantly calling me sexy isn't going to get you in my pants." I chuckle, "who said I want to get in your pants at all?"

You.

"You're a fuckboy, you want to get into everything with a pulses pants." She snorts. My lips form a straight line. She called me a fuckboy? Not cool. I shake my head, looking away from her. "I'm not a fuckboy." I say irritably. That gets me a laugh.

"Okay, Valdez," she pats my left pec with one hand "give me your phone, so I can put my number in it. We'll talk plans for meeting up tomorrow later."

I take out my phone and give it to her. She puts her number in my contacts quickly before leaving inside one of the buildings.

+

Novalee and I agree to meet up at her dorm since I was already on campus for evening practice. It was inching towards 8:30 when I got to her dorm and we've been working on our speech ever since.

Our speech is about how in most countries, the economy is in the mighty hands of just a few multinational corporations. My suggestion. I'm an Econ major, what can I say? Luckily, she didn't argue much about it. I honestly think she's surprised with how much I know about the topic.

Every time I give a point, I see her almond eyes widen a bit.

"I can't believe you're an Econ major, dude. I took one Econ class my freshman year and literally cried. Never wanted to hear the word economics again." She shakes her head. I laugh, "it's not that bad. You just have to get the hand of what you're learning pretty quickly." I shrug. It had been difficult for me at first too, but I'm actually smart despite what people may think.

"How was lunch with your mom earlier? Oh! And did you tell your friends about what your coach told you?" She pops a potato chip into her mouth. Did she just ask me two questions? About myself? I'm kind of shocked, but I don't let it show.

I can't help but smile a bit though. "Yeah, they were supportive as fuck, like always. It's just bittersweet because we've been talking about playing here for all of our four years." I frown just a bit. After lunch with mom and my second class, I went home and told them the good news. The rest of the team found out at practice. Everyone was so damn supportive.

As captain, my win is everyone else's win. Fuck, I can't help but think about what I'm going to do. I love playing college football and being captain of my team. I don't know why I feel like if I decide to go to the NFL next year, I'll be letting down the guys. They all know how I want to stay and finish off my senior year; They didn't fail to call me a dumbass for even thinking about staying another year.

"Aw yeah, I get that." She flashes me a smile with her pretty, white teeth. God, she is beautiful. I could probably use the fingers on one hand to count how many times I've used the word 'beautiful' to describe a girl.

She has the prettiest, pink, plump lips. Brown freckles that fill up her face. Thick eyebrows that don't need filling in and the longest, shiny auburn hair. She's ethereal literally. I'm a fucking idiot.

"You okay?" She asks. Fuck. I hope she didn't catch me staring. I clear my throat and nod my head. "Yeah, yeah." I give her a weak smile. She pulls out another blank sheet of paper and starts writing on it. "Hey Nova," I start.

She picks up her head to look at me after a couple of seconds. "Yeah?" Her voice is soft. I look over to the clock and it's already ten thirty. We have speech class again tomorrow and we have to let Prof Adams know our topic. I want to say 'its getting late', but that's not the reason I called out for her.

"I don't know what it is about me that you don't like, but I just wanted to tell you that I think you're pretty cool. I'm sorry about everything that went down sophomore year, truly. I never meant to hurt your feelings. I was a stupid fifteen year old kid who had no idea what or who he wanted." I say in a long breath. Nova tucks her lips into her mouth. She covers them with her hand immediately as a laugh tries to escape.

"For fucks sake." I roll my eyes and look away from her. "No, no, no," she shakes her head and her small hand at me. "I didn't mean to laugh, it's just..you sounded so sincere." She says that last word lowly, a grin across her face. "I was being sincere, Novalee." There's no smile on my face right now to prove it. I'm being serious.

She looks at me for a long while and tilts her head slightly. She sticks out her bottom lip. "I guessss...we can be amigos." She finally says. I sit up a bit on her desk chair kind of shocked. "Wait, really?" I say without restraint. She throws her head back a little laughing. "Yeah, sure, why not? I shouldn't deprive anyone of my friendship." She shrugs, flicking her hair back while batting her eyelashes.

I shake my head a bit smiling. "No, you shouldn't."

She smiles. "I was never mad at you for that by the way. Sure, you could've handled the situation better, but we were young," she shrugs "It's not like we were meant to be together or anything." She chuckles.

I narrow my eyes at her. Hm. "Yeah, right."

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