21 
21 GAME OVER
IT TOOK EIGHT HOURS JUST TO GET TO halftime. Okay, okay, so that wasn’t totally true, but it felt like that long. When the players left the field and Canterwood’s cheerleaders back flipped and cartwheeled onto the grass, Heather turned around.
“I need a soda,” she said.
“Me too,” I said quickly.
I looked over at Paige to tell her I’d be back, but she was cheering for the show. She probably wouldn’t even notice that I was gone.
I hurried past Callie and followed Heather down the steps and to a concession stand on our side of the field.
We got in line and Heather turned to me. “Don’t do that. You didn’t do anything to break up Callie and Jacob. He made a move on you—anyone with a brain would know that.”
I shot her a look. “Well, no one but Paige does know, so shut up. I don’t want Callie to find out. It would hurt her too much.”
Heather stared at me and folded her arms.
“What?” I asked.
“You’re not protecting Callie anymore.”
“Yes, I am! Why else would I let this go on and not be able to be her friend?”
We moved closer to the stand and Heather sighed. “Silver, don’t act like I’m dumb. You don’t want Jacob to look bad. It’s obvious.”
I opened my mouth, trying to think of what to say. She was right, like she always was, but I didn’t want to tell her that. Heather’s phone rang.
She pulled it out of her pocket, frowning when she looked at the caller ID.
“Hi,” she said.
Her voice was unusually high. She paused and covered her other ear with her hand.
“The noise?” Heather’s face turned pink. “Oh, I’m walking by a football game on my way to the stable. I had my afternoon lesson, but I’m going back to ride.”
Her dad—I knew it. He never let up on her about riding. He was always after her about practicing more even though she spent more time at the stable than anyone. Even Mr. Conner had finally told Mr. Fox that his constant pressure on Heather wasn’t helping, but he didn’t let up. I’d walked in on Mr. Fox questioning a nearly teary Heather one day in the tack room and I’d stepped in and made it sound as if she did nothing but practice, which wasn’t true anymore. She spent a lot of time at the stable, but she was also working on balancing that with other things.
“Yes, Dad,” Heather said into the phone. “Mr. Conner said my ride during the lesson was perfect. I’m going back now to work with Aristocrat over a few jumps. I’m getting up early before class to ride, too. Like always.”
Like as of weeks ago, I thought. Our afternoon lessons were so intense, there was no reason for us to get up before classes and ride. And Heather wasn’t. But I stood quietly and looked away so that she didn’t think I was listening to every word.
“I will, Dad,” Heather said. “I’ll call you after my lesson. Bye.”
She snapped the phone shut with such force, I was surprised it didn’t break. She rubbed her nose with her hand and took a long breath.
She shrugged. “Whatever, totally. You know how my dad is about riding. If I told him I was at a football game, he’d freak.”
“But you didn’t have a choice. We had to come.”
Heather laughed. “You try that on my dad. He’d call the headmistress to find out if it was true, which would be insanely embarrassing.”
I nodded. “Yeah,” I said softly. “It would be. Sorry.”
“Forget about it.”
I watched Heather out of the corner of my eye as we moved through the line. Her dad had rattled her. She was trying to be cool and act as if it didn’t matter, but it did. I could see how she’d changed the second she’d looked at the caller ID.
We ordered sodas and walked back to the stands without saying a word. I passed Callie and she looked away when I walked by. I sat down and clutched my cup of soda. I had to say something to her about the breakup. She was hurting and I couldn’t just sit here and watch her be in pain.
“Callie,” I said, leaning toward her shoulder. I wanted to get it out before I overanalyzed every word.
She turned around, her black hair flipping over her shoulder. “Are you talking to me?”
Her tone almost made me wince, but I forced myself to keep talking. “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry about—”
Callie shook her head. “Oh, my God. Please. Don’t even. I can’t believe you’d start to say that.”
“But I am sorry,” I said.
Callie’s brown eyes darkened. “I told you not to ever talk to me again. Leave me alone.” She shrugged. “Besides, I give you twenty-four hours before you and Jacob are together. He’s all yours—your birthday wish is granted.”
I sat through the rest of the game and didn’t move from my seat. Every so often, Paige, Ryan and other people in our skybox would jump up and scream.
Near the fourth quarter Paige reached over and touched my arm.
“You okay?” she asked. She almost had to yell the last word when the crowd screamed.
“Fine,” I said. “Just tired.”
Paige nodded and flicked her eyes to Callie’s back. “I saw what you—”
I slashed my hand across my throat, cutting her off. “Not here,” I said.
“Okay.”
Paige looked back at the field.
I sat through the final minutes of the game, ignoring every tackle and field goal. I didn’t even look at the score. I just watched the clock tick down the final minutes to when I could leave. Finally, the clock hit 00:00. The Canterwood crowd exploded with cheers.
“YESSS!” Paige screamed beside me.
“All right!!” Ryan yelled. Screams for our team rang out across the field and I finally looked at the scoreboard. We’d won by three points.
I grabbed my empty cup and slung my purse over my shoulder. I turned and looked down the row of seats.
Jacob was staring back at me.