Page 184 of On the Breakaway

I can’t focus long enough to tell.

All I can see is Grayson and the look on his face right before he completely lost it.

I swallow hard, unable to process any of it.

Hockey players fight. I don’t care about the fight.

I care that he promised.

He’d stood in my kitchen and promised me that he wouldn’t let Damon get to him.

The memory hits me so hard because I’d believed him with my entire being. My whole body had relaxed when he guaranteed me that it’d be fine. I could come watch him, and it’d be fine.

Because Grayson is controlled. He is reliable.

He promised, and I believed him.

And now, I can’t stop wondering if any of his promises hold the kind of weight I’d come to rely on.

If he could be wrong about this, what else could he be wrong about? And once that thought enters my head, it spreads like a crack through glass.

He promised we’d take things slow. He promised he’d wait for me. That he was in this. That he wanted a real future.

A future I never believed in until he promised it could be real.

Be ours.

And now.

What if I was wrong about all of it?

“Avery, where are you going?” A chorus of voices and questions rings out behind me as my friends try to keep up.

My feet carry me faster down the stairs, toward the locker room, because it’s where we parked.

I try to steady my breathing. Time and space will help.

It has to help.

“Avery.” Harper steps in front of me.

I side-step her, but she does it again. I nearly run into her.

“Avery, stop and just talk to us.” She looks panicked, as if none of this makes sense.

It doesn’t make sense to me either.

“What’s going on?” Sloane asks, brows furrowed. “Why do we care about that fight?”

My eyes dart to Katie, who’s standing toward the back while she watches me carefully.

“Damon Woods is Avery’s ex,” Harper says as if that explains all of it.

That hardly scratches the surface.

“The guy Grayson just pummeled?” Sloane glances back at Katie. “Have you ever seen him lose it like that?”

Katie just shakes her head, her eyes glinting with the new knowledge as she pieces together what must’ve happened out there.