Game Day Box Set: A College Football Romance by Lily Cahill

Author:Lily Cahill
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Publisher: Nameless Shameless Women
Published: 2016-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter One

Nara

THE NEON LIGHTS OF LA spread out beneath me, warming me from below like an electric blanket. I lean against the balcony railing and grin. Not because others are watching or because it’s expected, but because I want to.

Damn, that feels good. So much of my life has become smiling because I have to: reassuring Coach Higgins that I’m a team player even as all the white girls get the best stunts; appeasing my sorority sisters, who expect me to be the best sort of diversity pick; comforting my parents that I’m not becoming Yaya.

When had it happened? When had I stopped being happy and started faking it? Probably around the time my older sister overdosed, when I’d suddenly become the only person keeping my parents from succumbing to their grief. They’d essentially lost Yaya to darkness and addiction. They sure as hell weren’t going to lose me. But somewhere along the way, it’d all become a front. A perfect, photoshopped, always-smiling picture of what I’m expected to be.

Lord, I’ve come to hate that word. What’s expected of me: from my parents, my cheer squad, my sorority, my university. I—the only black girl on my squad, one of only two black girls in my sorority—am playing a part. It’s left a scuzzy film over my desires, over my hopes. Something slimy that makes me itchy and uncomfortable in my own skin. And the more I try to be what everyone else considers perfect, the more it feels like something in me is clawing its way out, demanding that I stop holding back, stop playing nice. That voice inside me scares me nearly as much as this veneer of happiness. Is that the voice Yaya finally succumbed to?

So often any more, it feels like there are two sides to me warring for dominance. But damn it, not right now. My smile is wide, and the fading warmth of the California sun makes my brown skin glow. Maybe everything isn’t so bad. After all, how many college juniors get all-expenses-paid weekend trips around the country and a front row seat to high-stakes football? Yeah, this smile is earned tonight.

“Nara?” At the balcony door, Madison Allgoode peers toward me through the gathering darkness. Her eyes flash aqua blue against the glowing neon and her bouncy blond hair is perfectly soft. Both her eye color and her hair color are fake, so maybe I’m not the only one putting on the “perfect” front.

“You coming, girl?” Madison twirls hair around her finger.

I smooth my straightened, caramel-colored hair over one shoulder and readjust the hem of sparkly gold minidress. I’m shorter than Madison by a head, and compact from years as a competitive gymnast instead of lithe, but this dress makes me feel like a goddess. It’s covered in tiny gold sequins, with skinny golden straps that criss-cross over my muscular back and a deep enough vee to make it seem like I actually have some cleavage. But my round ass more than makes up for the lack of assets on top.

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