Page 21 of Trick Play

Just like mine was. Because of him.

“Am I supposed to feel bad for you?” I didn’t mean to snap at him, but I was panicking too much about my own future to take on his feelings, too. I needed to keep my walls high and strong to keep him from creeping in.

His eyes flashed before all emotion drained from his face. “Of course not. My problems have nothing to do with you. I wanted you to know how committed I am.”

I tapped my pen on the paper. “What other things are you are passionate about?”

He rubbed his face before sitting up straight. “My friends.”

So his team.

“My family.”

His parents and their picture-perfect life were something that always put me off. They were nice enough and made sure to include me, but I always felt like there was something hanging over their home. Secrets, maybe.

But his sister was a different story. She was probably the only genuine thing in their world. How she managed to come out of that environment intact, I’d never know.

“How is Haley?” I could help but ask.

“Good.” A grin tugged at his lips. “She transferred here this semester.”

My jaw nearly dropped. “She’s here?”

He swallowed, and my stomach twisted. What happened? What brought her here? If there was anyone in the world that hated, or resented, hockey as much as me, it was Haley. She was set on going her own way and never looking back once she graduated from high school. She had dreams of getting as far away from her family, Ethan, and their obsession with his career as soon as she could.

“Yeah, she originally went to a school in upstate New York, but it wasn’t a great fit so she came here.”

There was a huge piece of the puzzle he was holding back, but it didn’t matter. Now that I knew she was here, I’d find her myself and get the truth from the source.

“What else?” I asked, trying to get back on topic.

“What about you? What are you passionate about?” His eyes twinkled as he held my gaze.

He probably thought he knew the answer. Once upon a time, he did. He’d known everything about me, my hopes and dreams. I kept nothing from him. It was the two of us against the world. Until it wasn’t.

Ugh. I wasn’t this petty, miserable person. He brought out the worst in me.

“Art,” I answered automatically.

He nodded as if he guessed that.

“Travel.”

A small smile appeared on his lips, and I wanted to smack him. He didn’t know me. He didn’t understand the depth of my feelings about these things. Sure, I loved art in high school. I’d planned on attending an Ivy League school to major in art history and work my way up at a museum, one of the big ones, to become a curator.

My life was perfectly planned out until I threw it all away because of my love for him. He got recruited here, and I followed him like the idiot I was. I got into UPenn but decided that was too far away, as was Cornell. The most important thing was for us to be together, so I declined my acceptance, and a month into our freshman year, he dumped me.

I threw away all my hard work and sacrifices to keep my grades perfect, just to end up single and attending a school that was never on my radar. As much as I hated him for breaking my heart, I hated myself more for letting it happen. I gave up everything that made me who I was in order to support him.

I would never make that mistake again.

“If you don’t want to stay on campus, we could go to Pittsburgh and walk around for a day. We’ll probably find something that inspires us.”

It sounded innocent enough, but the idea of us spending a whole day alone together was terrible. One of us would end up pushing the other into the Allegheny River.

“I don’t know––”

“Let’s give it a shot. If we don’t find anything after an hour or two, we’ll scrap the whole idea.”