Guarded - Nicole Dykes

Jameson Bates\n I have a secret. We all have secrets. I’m nothing special.\n It just so happens, however, that my sworn enemy also knows my secret.\n He’s the absolute worst person to know this, and there’s nothing I can do about it.\n What he does with this information is totally out of my hands and completely in his.\n This is why I’ve never let anyone in. I don’t trust easily. I keep to myself. I’m closed off. Angry.\n Guarded.\n Garrison Dixon\n I shouldn’t have seen what I did.\n I shouldn’t know what I do.\n But how Bates can think I would ever say anything is beyond me.\n Everyone thinks I’m just a big, dumb football player with nothing more to him.\n The truth is I’ll never say a word about what I witnessed. I don’t care about it the way he thinks I do. I wouldn’t hurt him.\n And