The Captain's Dirty Little Secret

Chapter 1: Chapter 1 - The Bus Ride

The duffel bag slammed onto the empty seat before Roxie Jones could sit.

Kendall leaned back with a tiny, satisfied smile. ”Oops.”

Several girls giggled behind their hands.

Roxie stopped walking.

Of course, Kendall would do this now, when their cheer bus had a flat tire and the whole squad had been forced onto the football team’s bus. Kendall had been waiting for a moment like this. Roxie could tell by her smile.

Roxie’s fingers tightened around the strap of her cheer bag.

She could move the duffel. She could call Kendall pathetic. She could make a scene and give everyone exactly what they wanted before they even left the parking lot.

From the front row, the freshman quickly scooted over. ”Captain, you can sit with me!”

Roxie almost took the seat. Then Kendall’s smile widened.No.Roxie was not sitting in the front row while Kendall watched her accept pity.

Fine. She wanted a show.

Roxie could give her one.

Her eyes drifted toward the back of the bus.

Zachary Prescott.

The football captain and quarterback, everyone was obsessed with.

Especially Kendall.

Roxie tilted her head toward Kendall, grinning. ”There’s a perfectly decent seat back there.” Then she turned and walked straight toward Zac.

The bus went quiet for half a second before someone started laughing.

”Ey yo, Prescott,” one of his teammates called out. ”She’s coming to you.”

Zac’s eyebrows lifted slightly as Roxie stopped in front of him.

”You need a seat, Captain?” he asked with his brows raised.

Roxie dropped her bag at his feet. ”I do.”

Prescott looked amused enough to let it happen.Roxie hoped she was right.

Then she sat directly on his lap.

The bus exploded.

Someone near the front screamed. Whistles filled the aisle. Half the football team started slamming their hands against the seats, laughing and yelling.

Roxie crossed one leg over the other like this was completely normal.

Zac’s hand landed on her waist almost immediately. His fingers spread against her side, warm even through her jacket. His body tensed underneath her.

The boys noticed.

”Holy shit,” one of the football players said. ”Look at him.”

”Captain embarrassed him.”

A couple of them started laughing.

Roxie looked toward Zac.

He was rolling his eyes, but the tips of his ears had gone red.

”Shut up,” he muttered.

Which only made the others laugh harder.

Roxie faced forward again, sitting straighter. Ugh. They sounded so immature.

From the middle rows, Kendall’s stare burned into her.

Roxie leaned back a little more as the bus pulled away from the parking lot. The sudden movement made her slip, and Zac’s arm tightened around her waist, pulling her back against his chest before she could slide off.

The whole bus reacted again.

”You comfortable there, Captain?” someone shouted.

”Very,” Zac answered before she could.

Someone slapped the window. Another girl screamed into her hoodie. The football boys laughed so hard the seats shook.

Roxie turned her head to glare at him. Their faces ended up too close. His blue eyes looked darker from this distance. His gaze dropped to her mouth for half a second before returning to her eyes.

”Enjoying yourself, Prescott?” she asked.

His smile returned, slower this time. ”You’re the one sitting on me.”

”I needed a seat. You looked available.”

His laugh was low against her shoulder.

”I’m trying to be a gentleman,” he said.

”Bad fit.”

His fingers flexed once at her waist. ”You know me well enough to say that?”

”I know your type.”

”My type?”

”Loud. Big. Dumb. Too full of himself.”

Zac’s teammate made a choking sound beside them.

Zac smiled wider. ”Big?”

Roxie regretted the word the second it left her mouth, but she kept her face calm.

”That was the only part your brain kept?”

”I’ll take it.”

”God, you’re annoying.”

”You picked the seat, Captain.”

Roxie kept the smile on her face because Kendall was still watching. ”Just shut up.”

He chuckled. ”You know I could make this worse for you.”

Before she could answer, his arm shifted and he lifted her slightly off his lap like she weighed nothing.

Roxie swallowed the sound that shot up her throat because absolutely not. She was not screaming on a football bus while sitting on Zac Prescott’s lap. Kendall would probably frame the moment and hang it in her locker.

She twisted to glare at him. ”Try that again and I’ll sit somewhere else.”

His brows rose. ”You’re saying that like this is a privilege.”

She shifted forward like she was actually about to leave.

His hand tightened around her waist immediately. ”Okay, no.” Zac cleared his throat, still smiling. ”I’m just enjoying the attention.”

From the front, the coach raised his head and spotted them instantly.

”Prescott,” he called out. ”Hands where I can see them.”

The entire bus erupted again.

Zac lifted one hand into the air without moving the other one from Roxie’s waist.

The coach stared at him for a long second, then sat back down like he had already accepted whatever problem Zac Prescott turned into.

Roxie blinked toward the front. ”Wow. I wonder if they’d let you get away with murder too.”

Zac grinned against her shoulder. ”Depends. You planning one?”

Roxie rolled her eyes, but the corner of her mouth twitched anyway.

Slowly, the bus settled back into regular chaos. Phones kept buzzing. People kept glancing back at them and whispering.

Roxie fixed the sleeve of her jacket and sat straighter, refusing to react. Her thumb slipped through the hole in the right pocket. She pressed the torn lining flat and kept her face blank.

Most of the other girls had newer jackets.

She had been wearing this one since sophomore year.

Zac’s eyes flicked to her pocket. ”So I’m part of a revenge plan?”

Roxie pulled her thumb out of the tear and looked at him. ”Don’t flatter yourself.”

”I’m trying not to, but you did choose me out of every seat on this bus.”

”I chose the loudest option.”

His smile tugged higher. ”Loudest?”

”And most convenient.”

”That hurts.”

”You’ll survive. You seem used to attention.”

His brows lifted. ”From girls?”

Roxie gave him a look. ”From everyone. Don’t act humble. It’s embarrassing.”

The annoying thing was he did not even need to try. Zac Prescott was the kind of handsome people noticed before he opened his mouth, with damp hair falling into his eyes, a lazy smile, and the easy confidence of someone who had never had to wonder whether a room wanted him there.

Roxie hated that she noticed all of it.

Zac leaned back like he had caught her thinking too loudly. ”So Kendall was the way to make you notice me?”

Her face warmed. ”I am sitting here because Kendall is a childish little nightmare, not because I care about you.”

”Sure.”

The way he said it made her want to hit him with her bag.

Roxie turned toward the window, but the dark glass only showed her exactly what everyone else could see: her sitting on Zac Prescott’s lap like she had planned it, like she wanted the whole bus talking, like she had finally cracked her own perfect image because Kendall pushed one stupid button.

That made her angrier than the bag.

Kendall had set the trap, but Roxie had walked straight into it.

Zac tilted his head closer, still smiling. ”For someone who doesn’t care, you’re pretty tense.”

Roxie looked back at him. ”For someone who gets attention from half the school, you’re pretty needy.”

His grin flashed.

Then a bright flash lit up near the aisle.

A football player lowered his phone with a grin. ”Oh, that’s definitely going on Snapchat.”

The noise around her shifted.

Roxie’s stomach dropped.

Zac Prescott was Briarwick’s favorite boy. People would laugh, call him lucky, and move on.

Roxie was not getting that same treatment.

She could already picture tomorrow morning. Group chats blowing up, cheerleaders gossiping, football players adding captions to the photo. People deciding she was obsessed with Zac Prescott because of one impulsive decision.

Roxie reached for the phone. ”Delete it.”

The player laughed and leaned away. ”Relax, Captain. It’s cute.”

”Delete it,” Zac said.

His voice dropped low enough that the whole back row felt it.

The laughter thinned almost instantly. Someone stopped mid-whisper. The player’s grin faltered, and the air in the bus shifted from teasing to tense so fast Roxie’s stomach tightened.

She put her hand on Zac’s arm.

Don’t make it bigger than it is.

He looked at her.

For one stupid second, everyone looked at her too.

Roxie hated that even more.

Fuck it.

Roxie pulled her hand back and faced forward.

”Keep it then,” she said, forcing her voice to stay light. ”Since apparently this is the most interesting thing that’s ever happened to you.”

The player’s grin slipped a little.

A few people laughed, but it was different now.

Roxie had only wanted to avoid being humiliated.

Now half the school probably thought she was flirting with Zac Prescott.