Chapter 8 So It Was Your Idea
Riley's POV
Sloane checked the route notes on my station list, then looked toward the athletic office.
"If you need another clipboard, I'm leaving," I said.
"I need the map."
"Cole has it."
"Then we're almost finished."
She held the door open for a staff member carrying a box, and I moved my backpack out of the way. The hallway was still busy with people heading toward the locker rooms.
Cole arrived before the door swung shut.
"Here."
He unfolded the map against the wall beside Sloane. One corner stuck out where he'd folded it wrong at lunch.
I'd noticed him doing that. Apparently I'd been paying attention to his paperwork habits, which was unfortunate on several levels.
Sloane compared the sheets.
"This works. We'll use the entrance change. The bins are ready, so there's nothing else to sort."
"Careful. You're going to make us feel useful."
"You caught a problem before we had people standing in it." She tapped the route I'd marked. "That's useful."
I took the pen she offered and initialed the correction.
"How did I end up being your track person, anyway? I don't even have a team photo you can put on a poster."
"Cole suggested you."
My pen stopped.
Sloane reached for the map. "After the rally. He said you'd know what we were missing."
I looked at him.
He wasn't looking at the paper anymore.
"He suggested me for the committee?"
"For the event," she said. "And said he could work with you. Dawson and I thought it made sense."
I handed her the pen.
"Friday?"
"Yes."
"After the assembly."
"Right." Her attention moved between us. "You didn't know?"
"No."
Cole shifted the map so she could take it.
Sloane didn't immediately reach for it.
"We decided the assignments," she said. "It wasn't just his call."
"I understand."
She waited, and I realized she expected another question. I had several. None of them were hers to answer.
"The route's approved?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Okay."
She kept the map and handed Cole the station sheets while I opened my backpack. I hadn't put anything inside it by the time she went back into the office.
At lunch, he'd asked if he could sit with us.
Before that, he'd already asked somebody else to put us together.
I closed the zipper.
"Walk with me," I said.
Cole did.
We made it past the next doorway before I stopped. Cole stopped beside me, leaving enough room for someone to pass without interrupting us again.
"So you recommended me."
"Yes."
"And yourself."
"Yes."
I turned to face him. He held the station sheets at his side.
"I asked you."
"I know."
"In the meeting. I asked if you knew we were partners, and you said you'd read the folder."
"I had."
"Cole."
"That wasn't the whole answer."
He said it without smiling. I had been ready for an argument about the exact wording of my question. Having that taken away didn't make me less angry.
"You could have mentioned the part where it was your idea."
"Yeah."
"Before I signed my name."
"Yeah."
A pair of students came through the doorway behind him. We moved closer to the wall to let them pass. One said hi to Cole; he nodded, then turned back to me.
"Why?" I asked.
"You know track."
"Dawson already gave me that speech."
"It's still true. You'd notice if we made everything about football."
"You noticed yesterday. Eventually."
"I know."
"And there wasn't anybody else who could work with me?"
"There were other people."
"But you volunteered."
"Yes."
He wasn't making this easy to dismiss. No claim that he'd been forced into it. No convenient shortage of students with pens.
I folded my arms.
"Why you?"
His fingers shifted against the papers.
"I wanted to work with you."
I looked away first, toward the office we'd just left. Sloane hadn't made it sound complicated. A name suggested, a pairing considered. An ordinary decision I'd spent three days treating as an inconvenience we shared.
"That's not much of an explanation."
"You want me to say I didn't?"
"No. I want you to stop giving me the shortest answer you can get away with."
He looked down the hall, then back at me.
"I wanted to see if you were still like that."
"Like what?"
"Always deciding what everybody else should do."
There it was.
I glanced at the sheets in his hand.
"So you arranged to spend more time with me. Interesting solution."
"I suggested it."
"And then sat beside me while I found out."
He didn't correct that.
Tuesday morning, he'd waited for me to object to the outside list. I'd seen it. I'd wanted to finish the work just to deny him the satisfaction.
Now I wondered how early he'd started waiting.
"Was I supposed to be difficult?" I asked.
"I thought you might be."
"Sorry to ruin your morning by showing up."
"You didn't ruin it."
The answer came quickly enough that I lost the next thing I'd meant to say.
I adjusted the strap on my shoulder.
He'd moved those cones yesterday. He'd admitted it was easier for his team to make everybody else wait. Neither of those things stopped being true because he'd put my name forward.
I wished they did. It would have made this conversation simpler.
"Then why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't want to have this argument before we'd started."
I stared at him.
"That was your decision?"
"It shouldn't have been."
I had almost preferred the folder answer.
"You let me stand there asking about random partners."
"Sloane told you it wasn't random."
"She told me why we made sense on paper. Not that you'd raised your hand."
"You're right."
I pulled my backpack higher. The movement gave me a second before I had to look at him again.
At lunch, I'd told him I stopped before the hurdle. He hadn't pushed for that part. I'd offered it.
I wasn't going to bring it up now. I wasn't going to hand him that, too, just to explain why this bothered me.
"You kept telling me I could switch," I said.
"You could."
"That's not the same as telling me what I was switching out of."
He started to answer, then stopped.
I waited until he looked at me.
"I knew you remembered camp. I didn't know you'd gone to Dawson about me."
"After Friday," he said. "After we saw each other."
"I heard Sloane."
He nodded.
The station sheets bent slightly under his thumb. He loosened his hand, flattening them against his leg.
"If you want another partner because of this, it doesn't count," he said.
"Toward the bet."
"Right."
"Generous."
"I'm not trying to collect anything."
I looked toward the office. I could go back. Sloane was still there, and she'd made it clear nobody had to keep working with anybody over a dare.
Cole moved a little farther from the wall, leaving the way open.
I hated that he'd thought to do it. I also would have hated it if he'd stayed in my way.
"Stop," I said.
He stayed still.
"I haven't said I'm leaving."
"Okay."
"I wanted that track slot changed before I knew any of this."
"I know."
"And the entrance was a mess."
"Yeah."
My work was on the papers he was holding. I'd done it because it needed doing, not because he'd tricked me into noticing a line across a walkway.
I wasn't giving it back.
"I'm staying on the project."
Cole's shoulders shifted.
"For now," I added. "That doesn't mean we're done talking about this."
"I understand."
"Do you?"
He looked at me, and I made myself ask the actual question.
"If you do something that involves me, tell me you did it. Don't wait for Sloane to mention it while I'm holding a pen."
"I will."
He didn't add a joke. I didn't help him find one.
Somewhere behind us, the office door opened again. I stepped aside for the person coming through, then held out my hand.
"My sheets."
Cole separated the station list from the other pages and passed it over.
I checked the top page, though I knew what was on it. My notes. Sloane's approval. The work I'd agreed to finish.
"Anything else for today?" he asked.
I shook my head.
He nodded, but didn't leave immediately.
I put the sheets in my folder. This time, when I closed it, I kept my hand on the cover instead of reaching for something else to say.
He'd wanted me here before I'd decided to stay.
I still didn't know what he wanted from it.
"I'll see you," I said, and took my part of the work with me.
