The Wrong Quarterback (The Wrong Player #1)

Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

PARKER

Cole: I knew you were going to use it.

I scoffed at the text from my brother, knowing I’d done this to myself.

Me: I used a much better version of your move, in fact, I really don’t think they’re comparable.

Cole: Let’s crowdsource the issue, shall we?

I wrinkled my forehead, leaning back against my pillow as I waited for whatever nonsense he had planned. It had been twenty-four hours since my tutoring session with Casey, and no amount of following her or lifting weights or jacking off could change the fact that I was literally pining for her.

It was like Jace had cursed me that day at practice. I’d gone from never even using the word, to pining for someone twenty-four-fucking-seven.

I texted him a fuck you for good measure.

Cole sent me a link as soon as I’d finished, and I hesitantly clicked on it, hoping he hadn’t sent me blow-up doll porn, like the last time.

Not to yuck on anyone’s yum…but that shit wasn’t for me.

Only Casey was for me , I thought dreamily as I waited for the link to open.

The video that popped up was of Cole and me, side by side. On one side of the screen he was doing his “I want to fuck this microphone” routine and on the other side was my touchdown celebration. Definitely not comparable.

But both very popular, apparently.

There were already two hundred thousand views.

Cole: The consensus is that you’re a copycat, Parkie. Look at that pretty poll I made.

I rolled my eyes as I went down to the comments and saw he had, in fact, put a poll up.

Me: How do I know you’re not the one doing all the voting?

Cole: Like I have time to do that 135,000 times.

Cole: 155,000 times, I mean. The people are moving fast.

Me: …

Cole: Hitting me with the…you’re getting a little edgy in your old age, Parkie.

I grinned when Walker’s text popped up.

Walker: Can we not and say we did. I was trying to sleep.

Cole: I just lol’d. Every time you say that, it’s definitely code for “fuck.”

Walker: Olivia and I were trying to sleep!

I shook my head, it was still hard to believe that Walker had somehow convinced a famous pop star to date him…and marry him…and then have his baby. He just wasn’t that cool.

Me: We’ll let you get back to your beauty sleep, Disney.

Walker: Don’t start.

I chuckled, because I could literally hear the growl he’d just given me. So Disney Prince-like.

Cole: Before you go, tell our little brother he definitely used my move.

I waited, knowing exactly what was coming. Because like my two best friends, there was nothing my brothers liked to do more than give me a hard time.

Walker: It did look suspiciously close, Parker. I’m ashamed you caved to peer pressure.

Me:

Me: Notice how I didn’t type that out, Cole.

Cole: Notice how I didn’t get the full intent, Parker.

Before I could answer, I heard a pounding at my front door. Glancing at the clock, I frowned when I saw it was after midnight.

Maybe it was weird that I’d chosen to rent a house by myself, right next to the one that Jace and Matty shared, but I liked my sleep…and I liked my privacy. And having someone knock on my door when I was supposed to be sleeping violated both of those things.

I walked to the front door and glanced out the window, not seeing anyone on the porch.

Fuckers.

That was happening more and more often. People finding out where I lived and thinking it would be fun to “prank” the school’s quarterback.

I threw open the door. “Really funny, assholes,” I called out to the quiet-sounding street. I was about to close the door when I noticed a red envelope on the ground, sealed with a very familiar emblem.

Fuck. It was from the Sphinx.

I grabbed the letter and went back inside, ripping it open as soon as the door closed and reading through the contents, my disbelief growing.

Great, looks like I’d be missing out another night of dreaming about Casey.

Tonight was Initiation Trial Number One.

“Remind me why we’re here?” Jace complained as we parked my truck a few blocks away from the cemetery we’d be invading tonight.

I slapped him on the shoulder as I jumped out and opened the back, pulling out the shovels I’d brought for the occasion.

“I just mean, what part of football player means grave robber to these people?” Jace continued after he’d finally gotten out of the truck and walked over to where I was waiting.

We both stared at Matty still sitting in the truck, staring straight ahead as if he could pretend that we weren’t there if he didn’t look.

“You have to get him out. This isn’t even our trial. I’m only doing this because we both know you’ll be insufferable if we’re Sphinx cool people and you’re not,” Jace said, crossing his arms and leaning against the truck as he began to whistle.

I needed new best friends.

I walked to the other side of the truck and threw open the door. “Are you coming?” I asked, trying to be nice. It was two o’clock in the morning, and of the three of us, Matty needed the most beauty sleep.

“I can’t do it,” he said, sounding a bit…panicked.

“Sorry?”

“I can’t go into that graveyard. Everyone knows that one is haunted.”

I blinked at him, trying to figure out if he was kidding or not.

“Alright, well I’ll be sure to protect you from any—ghosts—that we see,” I said soothingly.

Jace popped his head over my shoulder. “I think he’s being serious,” he commented unhelpfully.

“Now is not the time to inform us that you’re terrified of cemeteries,” I snapped, putting all of my team captain’s energy behind my voice.

It didn’t work. Not even in the slightest.

I waved a hand in front of his face. Nothing.

“Maybe offer him a cookie or something. His blood sugar could be low,” said Jace…beginning to munch on his own cookie that he’d pulled from who the hell knew where.

“Could you be any louder?” I hissed. I didn’t know it was possible to eat a cookie like you were working a chainsaw, but Jace was showing me how it was done.

He stuffed the entire thing in his mouth, resembling a man-bunned chipmunk as he grinned at me.

“Sorry, QB,” he said in a muffled voice.

I rubbed at my forehead. At this rate, I really could dig up a grave by myself faster than I could with the two of them.

“There’s no ghosts,” I told Matty. “Jace is way too annoying. They’ll get fed up immediately and leave the premises until we’re gone.”

That had to be the dumbest argument that a person had ever made, but Matty seemed to be considering it, finally turning his head to look at us.

Jace stuffed another cookie in his mouth.

“That’s a good point,” Matty said, making a face as Jace somehow showered the two of us with cookie crumbs.

I couldn’t believe we were really having this conversation.

A dog barked somewhere nearby, and Matty jumped, like that was further evidence to support his ghost argument.

“You didn’t even blink when we watched Silence of the Lambs ,” I said incredulously, resisting the urge to hit him over the head with a shovel. Jace and I had been about to wet our pants, and Matty had fallen asleep while a guy wore someone’s skin on his face.

“I can kill a serial killer. I can’t kill a ghost!” Matty snapped back, like that should be obvious to me.

“Matthew Clay Adler, get your fucking ass out of the truck, or I swear, I will find a ghost, and I’m going to sic him on your ass for the rest of eternity!” I growled.

“God bless you, you’re an American classic,” commented Jace, clapping me on the back.

Matty must have realized I was on my last, tired straw, because he finally dragged himself out of the truck, muttering something about coming to haunt us if a ghost attacked him .

“I’ll take that chance, buddy,” I grumbled back.

I felt like some kind of Bond villain as we crept down the sidewalk…with shovels. Trying to stay in the shadows in case anyone had decided to peek out of their windows in the middle of the night.

“I have to say, when I decided to go to college, this wasn’t what I pictured,” mused Jace as we got to the cemetery gates.

I humphed in agreement, studying the wrought iron twisted into elaborate almost sinister patterns that were casting jagged shadows across the gravel path. Why the fuck did cemeteries have to be so creepy? If I was ever in charge…of cemetery design…I was going to make everything look way better. I wasn’t sure how. But I was pretty sure I could do it.

“Alright, do you have the bolt cutters?” I asked Jace.

“Yep, and I’m ready,” he said, holding them up like a blond Edward Scissorhands.

I took a step away, for safety’s sake, and watched as he went to work on the gates, grunting as he cut the metal.

What seemed like an hour later, the chain finally clattered to the ground. I winced, glancing at the houses across the street. But they all seemed to be quiet still.

The hinges squeaked as the wind nudged the gates apart, and we paused, staring out at the headstones that jutted from the earth like rotting teeth. This was one of Tennessee’s older cemeteries.

And it showed.

The headstones were covered in moss and cracked by time, and I was a little worried Matty wasn’t going to make it through the night.

This place really did look haunted.

“Let me know if you see any ghosts,” Jace muttered to Matty, followed by an oomph as Matty punched him in the arm. “Or not,” Jace grunted, rubbing where he’d been hit.

“Come on,” I whispered. “We’ll turn on the flashlights when we get further in.”

We set off in relative silence, the crunch of gravel beneath our feet and the occasional rustle of wind through the trees the only sounds breaking the thick stillness. The deeper we went into the cemetery, the older the graves became, marked with weathered stone angels and crosses that loomed over us.

I turned on my flashlight at that point, and the beam cut through the mist that had somehow developed, casting pale, shaky circles of light over the uneven ground.

“You know what I was just thinking to myself?” Jace whispered.

I glanced at him over my shoulder.

“I was just thinking that we were missing mist…that this place didn’t look nearly creepy enough. And now look around us. Mist.”

“So, I guess I should blame you for the fact that Matty’s about to pass out?” I asked, nodding my head to where Matty was pale-faced as he walked, his shovel out in front of him like he was preparing himself for something to jump out of the shadows.

Jace grinned like I’d said something funny.

We got to a sort of crossroads, two gravel paths going out in opposite directions. I pulled the paper that had been left on my doorstep out of my pocket and examined the map that was included.

“Alright, this way," I told them. “We’re almost there.”

“Do we even want to be Sphinx people? I mean, I’m not sure that any of us are the kind of psycho that would make someone dig up a grave,” commented Jace. Matty jumped at the sound of his voice, like it had surprised him.

I cocked my head as I considered his point. I hadn’t exactly told them about my plans for how to get Casey. Those might have qualified me as a psycho. I’d have to consult them about that…sometime…maybe.

“Of course we want to be Sphinx members. Think about all the access we’ll get,” said Matty grumpily. Jace and I shot each other looks. Matty’s family was poor—the kind of poor where there wasn’t any food, and he’d had to spend the nights out on the streets more than a few times growing up. He took every endorsement deal he was offered, no matter what it was, because it meant money he could send to his family. Unfortunately, his dad had a gambling addiction, and that money never seemed to go very far. Matty had four younger siblings, and he was always worried about them.

“Okay, so we’re going to be Sphinx psychos now. Noted,” Jace said supportively, and a shadow of a smile slipped across Matty’s lips.

“Where are you, Eleanor?” I muttered scanning the headstones until my light landed on the name we were looking for. The grave was the only fresh one in the area, a neat mound of dirt heaped over it, flowers wilted and browning at the edges.

“Eleanor Cross,” I whispered. According to what we’d been told, her husband had been a higher-up in the Sphinx before betraying them, stealing a ring that held more significance than any of us understood. It had been a symbol of power, something sacred, and Eleanor had worn it even to her grave. Now, it was our task to ensure that the Sphinx reclaimed what was theirs.

Hooray for us.

I dropped my flashlight to the ground and gripped the shovel.

“Holy shit, we’re about to become grave robbers,” Jace muttered as my shovel sank into the earth with a dull thwack , the sound somehow muffled by the oppressive silence of the graveyard. I gripped the handle harder, my palms already sweating despite the cool night air.

“Was that a creak?” Matty asked in a panicked voice, looking around like he half-expected a zombie to rise from one of the graves.

“Don’t back out now, Mr. ‘Of Course We Want To Be Sphinx Psychos,’” drawled Jace.

I shot them both a look. “Are you going to help me or not?”

“We’re probably getting the raw end of this deal,” Jace scowled as he stuck his shovel in the ground. “They definitely would have made it harder for you. We’ll probably just be asked to steal, like, a car or something. You know, normal stuff.”

“I’d even rob a bank if it meant I didn’t have to be out here in a cemetery, digging up someone’s grandma,” Matty added, looking around again fearfully.

“I’m pretty sure robbing a bank gets you more jail time than grave robbing,” I told them.

Jace scoffed. “You would know that, Big Brain.”

“Plus, there’s adrenaline in bank robbing, you know? Excitement . All we get here is the chance of a haunted curse.”

Jace and I both gaped at Matty.

“You kind of sound like you might have personal experience with that, buddy. Anything you want to share?” I asked.

Matty rolled his eyes. “All I’m saying is that there better actually be a ring at the end of this little expedition. If all we get is a decomposing corpse, I’m not going to be happy about that.”

“You mean a skeleton,” Jace corrected as he threw some dirt into the pile we were making next to the grave.

Now it was Matty and I exchanging looks.

“You remember she’s only been buried for a week, right?” Matty said slowly.

Jace froze and stared at us in horror. “This was not part of the job description!” he snapped, beginning to freak out. He dropped his shovel on the ground. “I signed up for skeletons, not Night of The Living Dead corpses! I want a refund!”

I rolled my eyes and jabbed my shovel deeper into the ground, the sound of metal scraping against the dirt grounding me. “Suck it up, Thatcher. You’ll be fine. Just think of it as a really screwed-up scavenger hunt.”

“Yeah, a scavenger hunt with dead bodies,” Jace muttered, but he resumed digging beside me, his face scrunched up in disgust like he was already touching the corpse.

I didn’t blame him for being freaked out. If I could pick what would be the worst initiation task, this would have been top of the list—if my brain was even nefarious enough to think about something like this to begin with.

The graveyard was too quiet, the air too still, like it was waiting for something. The moon hung low in the sky, casting long shadows across the tombstones, turning them into twisted, crooked figures in the darkness. I tried not to think about how many bodies were buried beneath our feet or how disrespectful this felt. Luckily, we weren’t here to make friends with the dead—a good thing as long as Matty’s theories on ghosts weren’t real.

“You know,” Jace commented, breaking the tense silence, “I bet the old lady in this grave was a total badass when she was alive. I mean, she had to have been to keep the ring until she died. She’s probably just waiting for some idiots like us to disturb her eternal slumber, and then she’ll take her revenge.”

Matty groaned, throwing a handful of dirt at Jace. “Would you shut up? Can you not make this worse?”

Jace just grinned. “Whoops.”

We kept digging, the dirt slowly giving way beneath our shovels, revealing the metal casket below. The sound of the metal hitting metal sent a shiver down my spine, but I ignored it, wiping the sweat from my forehead.

“Alright, almost done, boys,” I said, tossing my shovel aside and crouching down near the casket. My pulse quickened as I stared at the dark top, realizing this was it. We were about to pop open a casket and steal a ring off a dead woman’s finger. If that didn’t scream “secret society,” I didn’t know what did.

For a second, Casey’s face popped into my head. I wondered what she would think about this particular situation. I quickly pushed her out of my head. If I thought it was disrespectful to steal from a corpse, it was even worse to do it with an erection.

“You’re actually going to open that?” Matty asked, his voice higher than usual as he stepped back, his shovel still in hand like he was ready to run if he saw one finger of hers move.

I glanced up at him. “You want to leave now?”

Jace leaned against his own shovel. “This is your induction thingy. Please proceed with touching the dead body. That falls outside of our job descriptions.”

“Of course, it does,” I muttered, taking a deep breath as I wedged the tip of the shovel under the edge of the casket’s lid. I’d googled how to unseal the rubber gasket they used to seal these things nowadays…but actually doing it was a whole other matter.

A few more hits with my shovel, and I heard a pop as the seal broke and the air inside of the casket rushed out.

Along with a terrible smell.

“Help. I’m dying,” Jace groaned, staggering back.

I leaned away, bile rising in my throat. The smell of decomposing bodies was way worse than the frogs I’d dissected in seventh grade.

I was going to puke.

I pulled my shirt up over my face, taking deep breaths. Matty and Jace were now several feet away, staring at me in horror.

How helpful. I really wished this was a one-hand kind of job. The smell might end me.

Taking one more covered breath, I dropped my shirt and held out my hand, my nose wrinkled in disgust from the odor assaulting my nostrils.

“Hand me my flashlight,” I asked, catching it when Jace threw it over.

Heart pounding, I lifted the lid and shined my light, revealing the body inside. There she was, lying peacefully in her eternal sleep, her face pale and sunken, her hands folded over her chest. And smelly. So very smelly.

“Oh, she doesn’t look that bad,” Jace commented, cocking his head and covering his nose as he stared down at her over my shoulder. Matty’s eyes were firmly trained at the sky.

“This is definitely how you get ghosts,” he said roughly.

I kind of agreed with him. This was…creepy.

Shining the light over her hands I breathed a sigh of relief. There it was. The ring.

It glinted in the pale light, the large ruby catching the beam. Etched into the stone was the unmistakable symbol of the Sphinx, intricate lines carved with precision.

I realized then, I had to actually touch her.

“I’m sorry about this,” I whispered…just in case…as I reached for her hand, brushing over the cool, unmoving skin. The ring was snug, but I twisted it gently, heart pounding as it finally slid free.

“There,” I said, slipping the ring into my pocket. “We’re done.”

“We’re done?” Matty echoed, his voice filled with disbelief. “We dug up a grave, opened a casket, and robbed a dead woman. And all you have to say is that we’re done?”

“Yeah,” I said, grabbing my shovel again. “Now, let’s cover this back up before someone sees us.”

We worked quickly, shoveling the dirt over the casket, tension still thick in the air. The wind picked up, rustling the trees, and for the first time that night, I felt like we weren’t alone.

I packed down the last of the dirt, breathing a sigh of relief. “Alright, let’s?—”

“Wait,” Jace whispered, his voice cutting through the night. “Do you hear that?”

I froze, my heart skipping a beat. At first, I thought he was messing with us, but then I heard it, too. Voices. Faint, but growing louder. And then the flashlights—bright beams of light sweeping across the graveyard, cutting through the darkness.

“Shit,” I hissed, grabbing Matty's arm. “Let’s go.”

They didn’t need to be told twice. Jace was already scrambling down the gravel path, his eyes wide with panic. “You never told me there would be graveyard security!”

“Why is that something you thought I would know?” I hissed as I took off. My legs moved on autopilot, the sound of my heart pounding in my ears as I sprinted through the rows of tombstones. Matty and Jace were right behind me, their footsteps echoing against the ground, the adrenaline pumping through all of us.

The flashlights were getting closer, and so were the voices. I could hear shouts now, commands being thrown into the night. My lungs burned, but I didn’t slow down.

“Fuuuuck!” Jace panted from behind me, but I ignored him, focusing on the tree line up ahead. If we could just make it there, we could disappear into the woods, lose them in the darkness.

“Keep going,” I growled, pushing myself harder.

The flashlights cut through the tombstones like searchlights, getting closer and closer with every second. The shouts were louder now, more frantic.

Just as I reached the edge of the graveyard, I heard a shout from behind. I didn’t stop to look back. I dove into the tree line, the branches scratching at my skin as I pushed through the underbrush, my heart still racing.

We kept running until the flashlights were gone, until the voices faded into the distance, until the only sound was the ragged gasps of our breath and the wind rustling the leaves.

When we finally stopped, I leaned against a tree, trying to catch my breath. My hands were shaking, my heart still pounding in my chest. But we’d done it. We’d gotten the ring, and we hadn’t been caught.

“Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit,” Matty groaned, collapsing onto the ground. “That was…insane.”

“Insane? That’s all you’re calling it?” Jace started frantically patting his body all over.

“What are you doing?” I panted, because that was all I was capable of at the moment.

I stood up, my breath still coming out in gasps. I thought I was in great shape, but evidently a thousand-yard sprint was beyond my cardio abilities.

“Making sure all my limbs are attached. I’m numb and tingly, and we just ran for our fucking lives!” Jace said indignantly, giving his leg one last pat before he stood up too.

I grinned as I pulled out the ring, holding it up as my head spun from the adrenaline of what had just happened. “We did it, though. We fucking got the ring.”

“Yeah,” Matty muttered, staring up at the sky from where he’d collapsed. “But that woman is probably going to haunt us for the rest of our lives.”

Jace frowned at him and shuddered.

I slipped the ring back into my pocket, a small smirk tugging at my lips. “One step closer to the Sphinx, boys.”

I slapped Jace on the ass before I held out a hand to help Matty off the ground.

We stumbled our way back to the truck, exhausted and exhilarated all at the same time.

And yes, a little afraid Eleanor was going to start haunting us.