"Fuck."

Curses and laughter followed my expletive, though I usually didn't cuss during practice. This was an exception.

Patrick extended a hand down to help pull me up to my feet, a shock of copper tinted hair falling into his eyes, but instead of taking his hand in my grip, I waved him off. I didn't need his help. I'd fallen, it wasn't like I'd been fucking injured.

I had a hard time taking other people's help. Sue me.

"You alright, man?"

"Yeah," I said, wiping the salty sweat out of my eyes with the back of my forearm. In reality, that fall hurt like shit, but I wasn't about to let him know that. I didn't do well with showing others my weaknesses, least of all my teammates. I knew all too well how they could turn on you on a dime. It was better to stay closed off to everyone. Less of a chance to get hurt that way, anyway.

"Alright, whatever you say. I'm going to stick around and wait on Maddie, but-"

"Okay cool. I'm hitting the showers," I ground out just as I finally managed to get myself up to my feet. By myself.

I took a calculating glance around the court to see who else had stuck it out as long as I had with Patrick and realized that we were the last ones to finish our workout. I always made sure I was the last out. Making captain wasn't because I was good with people, it was because I worked the hardest, wanted it the most, always did what it took to win.

My eyes almost skipped over Maddie, never wanting to look at her too long in case Patrick thought I was making eyes at his girl, but that time, I was glad that I allowed myself a longer cursory glance.

If I hadn't, I would've missed her entirely.

She was openly staring at me, which did more for my ego than it should have, but a girl that beautiful staring at me like I was a piece of meat, when it should've been me looking at her that way? Definitely a pride boost for sure.

Beautifully sculpted features, long, dark hair and a generous, full figure with a bigger chest than most girls in our school, I couldn't believe how I hadn't come across her before. It wasn't like our campus was that big...

I threw her a smirk, noticing she hadn't torn her eyes from me, and just for show I pretended to be overheated, throwing my sticky shirt off my sweaty frame and -just to see what she'd do- grabbed my water bottle and let it drip down my head onto my body.

I was almost to the point of laughing until Maddie snapped her fingers in front of her face and called her by her name. Virginia. Huh. Wondered if she was a virgin...

I rolled my eyes at myself. Why did my thoughts have to be so immature?

Plus, getting involved with a girl that beautiful wouldn't be good for me. At all.

I needed to focus on the game, focus on getting in good with Coach Bruins, and impressing his entire family so that he'd be willing to take me on. My last coach had spread the wrong word about me when I hadn't had the chance to defend myself and, let's just say that things got ugly after the incident at my old school.

I didn't want to think about him, though. I'd survived, and I wasn't going back to that kid that I used to be. Once May rolled around, I would be eligible for the draft and I'd leave this shithole of Miami and be on to bigger and better things. My agent had said that the Knicks were keeping their eye on me, so all I had to do was wait it out and hope that since Coach Bruins was in a wheelchair that he couldn't do nearly the same amount of damage as my last coach had...

My shower was frigid, like the ice I felt in my heart for that man, and for my mother who'd allowed him to continue doing what he did even knowing what a shit human he really was. I didn't bother with my appearance leaving the locker room, hoping that if that girl was still out there that she'd see what a mess I really was in the first place and steer clear from me, but to my disappointment (and secret excitement) she was standing out in the middle of the court with Maddie beside her and Patrick talking with them about something.

I strolled up with Wilt and Miles, hoping my presence would make them go somewhere else, but it did the exact opposite.

They were discussing Patrick's party when I walked up, and her eyes were glued to mine again, although it was more like she was checking out the rest of me, too, so I decided to do the same with her.

She had on a cute outfit, adorable really, since she was dressed in a short pink dress that was split into shorts at the bottom, I think they were called rompers? I didn't know, but it looked seriously good on her, and she had an indigenous look to her features, and she reminded me of Pocahontas from when my little sister forced me to watch the movie over and over and over again, but where the animated character had more of a sharp point to her chin and smaller eyes, this girl, Virginia, her eyes couldn't have been any bigger on her face.

Big, beautiful and enticing brown eyes sucked me in from the moment I locked eyes with her across the court, and I swear to god she almost knocked the breath out of me. I'd never seen a woman in person who looked so...uniquely perfect.

Her anything but average facial features were what added to her appeal, a little scar going through her eyebrow where a patch of hair was missing that gave her an edgy feel, a button nose turned up at the end, large, endless eyes slanted at the outer corners making me seriously wonder her heritage.

And that skin. Dark honey, burnt caramel, gilded bronze...all were lacking descriptions to perfectly encapsulate just how her skin shone even in the faulty fluorescent lighting of the gym. Even then, it glowed...especially when she looked at me, or so I liked to think.

Maddie said her name a few times, but I only heard it the third time, probably the same time she noticed it as well because we both broke our burning stares with each other to hear her begin to introduce everyone to her.

"Nice to meet you," she said, and damn if my chest didn't squeeze a little bit tighter at her voice, lilting with a hint of rasp behind it.

"So you're the new girl, huh? Are you a ball chaser or do you just really need the money?"

I was about to kick Wilt in the balls for that one. Or...maybe not. This girl was new to the college, freshman obviously, and the way she was looking around at the guys, I was nervous that she might've just been looking for a way in, kind of like what some of us thought about Maddie when she first came around but she grew on us. I hoped Virginia wasn't like them, but she never answered the question, getting caught up on what it meant and playing innocent.

"You didn't answer his question," I said after Miles introduced himself, a fake mean smile on my face to see what she was made of. I wanted to know, mainly because I was too damn attracted to her to not find out what she was wanting, and then I could figure out what I'd do next.

"Which question?"

"Are you just a ball chaser, or did you only take a job like this for the money?"

Having her full attention back on me was thrilling, and I never wanted her to look away from me, not even if it was because I was being an asshole to her.

"Did you ask Maddie that when she got a job here?"

Oof. Patrick was going to get my balls for that one, again. I'd already heard it enough after I questioned him about his choice of girlfriend. I was just trying to look out for the team. If he didn't have his focus on the team and instead on some girl who didn't really care about him, then we wouldn't stand a chance, same with all the guys.

"I'm pretty sure I can figure out what you mean by 'ball chaser' and if I ever decided to go for someone, it most definitely wouldn't be a basketball player. Does that answer your question?"

I didn't respond. Her attitude and spunk were enough for me to figure out what I probably already knew in the back of my head, but maybe I wanted to be just enough of an asshole to scare her away, to keep her at a distance, because a girl like that? I could see myself with a girl like that, and not just for a night.

And that shit was terrifying.

"Damn girl, we're not all assholes like him. What do you have against the players?", Wilt asked, and I wished he wasn't already so comfortable sounding around her. What were they, best friends already?

I picked my phone from my back pocket and pretended to play on it while still keeping my ear to the conversation. I shouldn't have tortured myself, standing there listening to them talk her up and flirt, but I was a glutton for punishment.

"Nothing against the players, well, not those kinds of players anyway. I do, however, have a bad habit of attracting the wrong kind of guy, so pretty much all of them are being sworn off. Probably for good. I think I'll get a cat instead, they're better company anyway and aren't sexist assholes."

Shit. Well, at least she wouldn't try going for the players on my team. At least I wouldn't have to see her at the courts all up on Miles or Wilt, or any of the other guys. Even though I would've preferred her to be like that with me...

"Okay Bruins, we gotta go and do some paperwork before the next team comes in for practice. See you later guys," Maddie said, and my heart literally skipped a beat in my chest. No way. There was no. way. this girl was Mike Bruins' daughter. Not a chance in hell.

"Bruins?"

"Like Mike Bruins?"

"Mike Bruins is your dad?!"

"No, it was just a coincidence. I don't even know who that is."

My eyebrows shot up. If she was lying, then why was her voice shaking?

"Oh, I was so excited there for a minute. Can you imagine, being able to meet a legend like that?"

"I know right, shame about that accident, and what happened to his wife too! Fucking crazy, man."

Virginia froze as my friend's words left their mouths, and I watched her carefully as a stricken look passed over her features. She definitely wasn't telling the truth, otherwise she wouldn't have acted like that. I just didn't know why she'd want to lie about something like that.

"Okay, we really have to get to work," Maddie said to Virginia, and I noticed that she was humming along to a song and Maddie gave her a weird look.

I left before everyone said goodbye, wanting to be in private while I did a little sleuthing on my phone.

Sure enough, right there on Mike Bruin's Google search page was a picture of him with his family before the accident, on the courts a few years ago after one of his big wins.

An eleven or twelve year old version of Virginia was right there, smiling with a snaggle toothed grin.

I wanted Coach Bruins to be my coach to take me to the NBA, and to do that, I needed to start with getting off on a better foot with his daughter.

I knew she'd lied, it was just time to find out why.