The Captain's Dirty Little Secret

Chapter 258: Chapter 258 - Have Some Respect

By lunch the next day, Roxie had learned that apparently nobody at Briarwick had anything better to fucking talk about.

She heard her name twice walking into the cafeteria, Zac’s three times, and somebody behind her whispered something about the scratches on his arm. Roxie turned around hard enough to make two sophomore girls suddenly become very interested in their phones.

Great. They had been officially broken up for one fucking day, and somehow the entire school had already decided it was public property. The fact that Briarwick had won State and was heading to Nationals had somehow been pushed to the back burner because everyone was apparently more interested in creating their own version of what happened between her and Zac.

It was maddening, and Roxie was getting dangerously close to killing someone.

She dropped into her usual seat at the cheer table and stabbed her fork into the salad in front of her. Karen and Angela sat across from her while Ava and several of the other cheerleaders filled the rest of the table, talking about practice and whatever ridiculous breakup rumors they had already heard that morning.

Roxie was trying very hard to look like she did not give a shit.

The football table was making that difficult.

Zac was sitting there with Mason, Kyle and Dylan, his attention fixed on his phone while several girls hovered around them. Roxie recognized two from their grade and another from junior year. One had actually dragged a chair close to Mason and was leaning halfway across the table toward Zac like personal space had suddenly stopped existing overnight.

Roxie stabbed a tomato hard enough for her fork to hit the container underneath.

Karen watched her for a moment before looking toward the football table. ”If eyes could kill, there’d be dead bodies on the floor.”

Roxie slowly turned her head and gave her a hard stare.

Karen raised both hands. ”Just saying.”

Ava followed Roxie’s line of sight and immediately made a face. ”The audacity.”

”Seriously,” another cheerleader agreed.

”Like vultures,” someone else added.

Roxie stabbed another piece of lettuce. ”I don’t care.”

The table went suspiciously quiet.

When Roxie looked up, every girl was staring at her.

”What?”

Karen pressed her lips together like she was fighting a smile.

”Fuck all of you.”

That earned a few quiet laughs before Roxie went back to her salad and forced herself to eat even though she was barely hungry. She could still see the football table from the corner of her eye. One of the girls said something that made Mason laugh, Kyle joined in, and Dylan kept eating while glancing between everyone.

Zac was still on his phone.

That somehow made everything worse because he was letting those girls stand there.

For months, Zac had known exactly how she felt about girls hovering around him. He knew how quickly it got under her skin when someone flirted with him, and enough of their stupid fights had started because some girl smiled at him for longer than Roxie liked.

Now they had been broken up for one day and apparently girls could crowd his fucking table while he sat there doing absolutely nothing about it.

Roxie knew how insane that sounded. They were broken up. Zac could technically let whoever the fuck he wanted stand beside him, sit beside him or flirt with him.

She hated that technicality.

What pissed her off even more was that he had barely looked at her. Roxie had caught him once that morning near the lockers, but his eyes had moved away almost immediately.

Now, they were sitting in the same cafeteria, half the room was probably watching both tables waiting for something dramatic to happen, and Zac had literally glued his phone to his face.

Fine.

If he wanted to act like none of this bothered him, Roxie could do the same.

Angela glanced around the cafeteria. ”Why are people staring?”

”Because everyone here is fucking nosy,” Roxie said.

Ava looked around too. ”They’re definitely waiting for one of you to do something.”

”They’re going to die waiting.”

Karen glanced toward the football table again. ”I give you seven minutes.”

Roxie kicked her beneath the table.

”Ow. What the fuck?”

”Shut up.”

Karen rubbed her shin. ”Violent.”

Roxie was about to answer when Angela’s expression changed. Her eyes moved past Roxie toward someone approaching their table.

”Oh.”

Roxie turned and saw Caleb and Mike walking toward them.

Caleb reached Angela first and leaned down to kiss her cheek, which immediately earned a loud boo from Karen.

”Really?” Karen pointed her fork toward them. ”We have a brokenhearted girl at the table. Have some respect.”

Roxie rolled her eyes. ”Please continue your relationship. Apparently one of us should have one.”

Angela gave her a look. ”Rox.”

”I’m kidding.”

Mostly.

Caleb laughed and took the empty chair beside Angela while Mike remained standing, unfortunately, and his eyes went straight to Roxie.

”Hi, Roxie.”

Roxie looked up at him with the same enthusiasm she would have given someone trying to sell her something when she did not have a dime to her name.

”Mike.”

The last time she had dealt with him, he had been trying to pick a fight with Zac during their dick measuring contest. Now he was back with that same disgusting grin on his face, except Zac was no longer sitting beside her to make him think twice about approaching.

Karen’s face immediately twisted with disgust when Mike stepped closer to Roxie’s side of the table.

”Fuck off, Mike. It’s been one day. Have some respect.”

A few of the girls laughed under their breath.

Mike chuckled and rested one hand against the table. ”I’m just saying hi.”

”You’ve never just said hi in your life,” Karen said.

”Why are you so hostile?”

”Natural talent.”

Roxie almost smiled.

Mike ignored Karen and kept his attention on her. ”A girl this pretty shouldn’t be without a boyfriend.”

There it was.

Roxie gave him the sweetest fake smile she could manage. ”I don’t need ’nice’ guys like you, Mike. Plus, your cologne is reeking.”

Mike laughed and leaned back. ”Feisty. That’s what I like in a girl.”

Karen immediately made a gagging sound while Ava covered her mouth. Even Angela looked like she was trying hard not to laugh.

Caleb finally leaned around Angela. ”Mike, come on.”

Mike looked toward him, and Caleb gave Roxie an apologetic expression.

”Sorry.”

”At least one of you has shame,” Karen muttered.

Mike laughed again like none of them had insulted him and finally stepped away from the table.

Roxie watched him leave with complete disinterest until one of the cheerleaders beside Ava spoke.

”Zac’s going to lose his mind when all the boys start hitting on Roxie again.”

Roxie paused with her fork halfway toward her mouth.

Her eyes moved toward the football table.

Zac was looking at her.

For the first time all lunch.

Roxie’s heart gave one hard beat as their eyes met. His expression barely changed, but she knew him well enough to see it. His phone was still in his hand, except his attention was nowhere near the screen anymore. His eyes moved toward Mike walking away before coming back to Roxie.

There.

She knew that look.

Zac fucking hated boys around her. He always had.

A small rush of satisfaction moved through her chest before Zac dropped his eyes back to his phone like nothing had happened.

Roxie’s satisfaction disappeared almost immediately.

Seriously?

That was all she got?

He could sit there surrounded by girls while pretending Roxie barely existed, but the second some guy came near her, he got to look over for five seconds and then go right back to his fucking phone?

Roxie looked toward Mike again. He had only made it a few tables away and was standing near Caleb’s abandoned seat, waiting for him.

Karen had already moved on to complaining about him. ”I swear, guys can smell a breakup. Give it twenty four hours and suddenly every idiot who was too scared of Zac is going to remember Roxie exists.”

Ava laughed. ”Twenty four? Mike barely gave it that.”

Roxie barely heard them because she was still thinking about the way Zac had looked over.

He cared.

He could stare at his phone all he wanted, but she knew him. She knew the tension she had seen in his face when he looked at Mike. She knew exactly how much he hated another guy getting close to her.

Roxie glanced back toward the football table.

One of the girls was still standing near Zac.

That settled it.

He had hurt her. He had packed his shit, walked out of her bungalow and spent the next day refusing to look at her while girls crowded around his table like they had been waiting for their chance.

Fine.

Roxie could play too.

Mike happened to glance toward their table again.

This time, when their eyes met, Roxie smiled.

A real one.

Mike immediately smiled back and leaned against the empty chair beside him like the douchebag he was. Roxie’s smile nearly turned into disgust, but she held it long enough to make sure it looked convincing.

Karen stopped talking.

Angela slowly turned toward Roxie.

”Oh, no,” Karen said.

Roxie calmly picked up her fork and went back to her salad. ”What?”

”I know that face.”

”Yeah, it’s a legendary face.”

”Roxie.”

She ignored her and stabbed another tomato before glancing toward the football table.

Zac was looking at his phone again.

Except now Roxie could see the tension in the way he was sitting. His shoulders were stiff, and his hand had stopped moving over the screen.

Her heart gave another hard beat.

Good.

She took a bite of her salad and looked away before he could catch her watching him.

If Zac wanted to know what being broken up looked like, Roxie was more than happy to show him.