Page 201 of Forever Relentless

Her jaw tightened. “You’re mad that I told them?”

“No point being mad, it doesn’t change the outcome.”

Her eyes flashed with temper. “Is that a dig? Is that what this is, a fuck you? I made a decision to tell your friends something I know you’ll regret if you do it. And you think that is the same as what you did?”

“What did I do?” I took a step forward. “Saved you from a court date? Got some closure for your brother? Found out about how fucking twisted my coach is, but that even he draws the line at sexual assault? Took this whole sorry mess, with no clear outcome in sight, and put a lid on it with zero consequences to my friends? To you?”

“And look what it cost you!” she snapped back. “Your team, your friends . . . me?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “If they’re so easily lost, then they weren’t worth keeping.”

She stepped back like I’d struck her. I no longer cared.

“You done?” I asked coldly, pointing to my desk. “Some of us have finals coming up.”

She looked at my desk and then back at me. “You want me to go?”

“If you’re done.” I watched her with a coolness I didn’t feel. I wanted to rage, to demand to know what gave her the fucking right to judge me. I wanted . . . to kiss her. Hold her. Tell her I missed her. Which was stupid and needy because she sure as hell didn’t look like she felt the same.

Briar nodded once, and then turned away to leave, and I was glad she couldn’t see how disappointed I was.

She whirled back around, eyes flashing, hands in fists at her side. “This is so stupid, Noah!” Her voice rose before she caught herself and forced it back down. “I can’t believe that after everything you’ve done, you want to run away from it?”

I let out a slow breath. She was still here, and was she fighting for a reason to stay in my room? I moved a little closer. “I’m not running. I’m considering a transfer. It’s football.”

“That’s the same thing as running.”

“Not really.”

She stared at me like she couldn’t decide if she wanted to shake me or slap me. “You’re being a coward.”

I’d moved closer to her, and she had moved closer to me. Somehow the space between us was less than it had been.

“I’ve never been scared of football,” I scoffed.

“But you’re scared of being alone. You’re scared that they’ll turn their back on you.”

And I was protecting myself for that very reason.

“This is what you do!” She didn’t even give me time to speak. Her finger jabbed me in the chest. “You protect people, like me, like Dante, like Mason, and Tate, and you think you need to sacrifice yourself to do it! Well, you don’t. You’re being a complete dick.”

“You know me so well, eh?” I looked away from her. “I don’t think so, B.”

Briar grabbed my arm and tugged, forcing me to look back at her. “I do think so, Noah,” her voice was softer. “I know you better than you think, and so do your friends. You don’t get to walk away without this fight.”

“They walked away first.”

Her eyes flashed with anger. “That’s not fair.”

“It’s accurate.”

Her mouth opened, then closed again. “They were angry,” she said finally.

“So are you.”

Her eyes flickered. “That’s different.”

“Why?”