Page 179 of Cruel Steps
I kissed Emerson, shocking her again, before I walked to the center where the emcee stood with a fake crown. The other guys clapped as I passed, patting me on the back of my pads. That was the thing about most guys; we didn’t hold this kind of thing as having value, so we wouldn’t beat each other up.
No, we reserved that for the field.
My gaze swung to Kincaid at the thought, and I regretted it the second I spotted him talking to my father. I focused back on the field, looking at Emerson as she stood alone.
“And our Homecoming Queen, by a landslide: Emerson Adams.”
The crowd roared, students standing up with their signs as they shouted their happiness. “Mer for Queen.” “Mer’s one of us.” “Emerson is Hayward.”
Emerson jerked at the sound, her body tight as she stood still, staring at the crowd. Smiling wide, I ran over to her, picked her up, and spun her around. She wrapped her legs around my waist, and I carried her back to the fifty-yard line.
“You won, Wildcat.”
“I… I didn’t think I would. I just wanted to show those Zetas they didn’t scare me.”
“Is that why?” I asked, motioning with my eyes to her chest. I gritted my teeth at her cleavage.
“They took my dress and left me a cow costume. I decided not to let them win. I wasn’t going to run away or wear what they wanted.”
“So fucking brave, baby.” I kissed her and set her down on the field. The queen from last year placed a crown on her head, dropped a sash over her head, and handed her a bouquet of roses. She stiffened at the sight of them, so I took them and gave them to the girl the emcee said was runner-up. Emerson relaxed once they were out of her sight.
“Congrats, Emerson. I have to say that you’ve made this year’s race exciting. There’s been so much support for you. Why do you think that is since you’re new to campus?” the emcee asked, thrusting the mic at her. I growled, but he ignored me.
Emerson looked alarmed, but didn’t back down. “My first day at Hayward, I was the victim of bullying. It wasn’t the first time. I was bullied all through high school, and I decided I was tired of letting other people tell me how to feel about myself. I wrote an article, and I guess people identified with it.” She shrugged.
“I’d say so, considering this year’s vote was the largest turnout in ten years. You made quite a stir when you exited the tunnel. What was your reasoning for going against the grain and not wearing a dress?”
“That choice was taken from me, actually. Someone replaced my dress with a cow costume. It almost made me want to quit, to run away and hide. But then I remembered my fellow Wolfettes, who had risked dancing something different to support me. I remembered Lydia from my Anthropology class, who told me how nice it was to see someone like her on the ballot. Countless others have taken the time this week to tell me how much my running meant to them. So I knew I couldn’t let all these people down, nor would I let the bullies win.” The crowd clapped, standing as Emerson took a breath. She pointed to her body. “These words, they’re things people have said to me.”
“They’re not very nice things,” the emcee said.
“No. They’re not.” She lifted her other hand and displayed a sponge. She swiped at the words, ‘fat ass, cow, dumb bitch, ugly, whore, slutbag, worthless,’ and smeared them away. “These cruel words don’t define me. They don’t define any of us. I had to take a lot of hard steps to learn that. Hopefully, no one else will have to.”
“Powerful message. Congrats to our Homecoming court! Now, let’s get back to the game. Our Wolves have some Royal ass to pummel.”
The court walked off the field as the football teams took it to warm up. The two girls who hadn’t been disqualified stopped to tell Emerson how much they admired her. My team beckoned me to join them, but I needed to tell my girlfriend something first.
“Do you know how tempted I am to drop down to one knee and propose right here?”
“Shut up.”
“I’m not joking, Wildcat. In fact, when I win this game, I’m doing just that.” I kissed her hard, handed her my crown, and jogged to my teammates. Colter handed me a squirt bottle, and we both bent to warm up our muscles.
He motioned to Emerson when we stood. “What did you say?”
I glanced back at our girlfriend, who was still frozen on the field. She snapped out of her daze when a Wolfette ushered her off, and they headed down the tunnel. Hopefully, to change. I wouldn’t be able to concentrate if she stood half-naked on the sideline.
Turning back to Colter, I smirked. “I told her I’d propose when I won this game.”
Colter snorted and shook his head. “Cocky asshole.”
“What? You don’t think I will?”
“No. I believe that. But you need to win the game first.” He leveled me with a look, the challenge clear.
“Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be?”
“Yep. If you win by only one possession, I get to ask her.”