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Haven headed up the bleachers, her nervousness waning as she took a seat beside Dia. Haven waved at Carmine on the sidelines, but he just stared at her from the field, expressionless. She wasn’t surprised—another one of his moods, she guessed. It was certainly nothing new these days.
The coach called his name, drawing his attention away, and he headed onto the field without another glance in her direction.
* * *
The spectators were as rowdy as Haven remembered from the year before, but this time she was more at ease in the crowd. Her body buzzed with excitement by the time the game came to a close, and Carmine ran straight for the locker rooms as the crowd descended upon the field.
Haven and Dia headed over to the grassy knoll to wait. She stood near the chain-link fence as Dia strolled around taking pictures.
A throat cleared as Nicholas leaned against the fence beside her. “I know—me again. I forgot to tell you a joke.”
“Go ahead.”
“Did you hear—?”
Before he could finish, Carmine’s harsh voice rang out, shouting Nicholas’s name as he hastily approached. A chill shot down Haven’s spine, her stomach dropping when she saw his hands clenched into fists. Nicholas took a step away. “Look, I don’t want any trouble.”
Carmine laughed bitterly, shoving him. “If you didn’t want any trouble, you wouldn’t be here.”
“I was just talking to her, man.”
“And what right do you have to do that, huh? Stop using her to get to me!”
Nicholas glared at him. “If anyone’s using her, it’s you! It’s sick what you’re doing! You have her fooled into believing you care!”
Carmine’s fist connected with Nicholas’s jaw at those words. His head snapped to the side from the blow, blood spurting from his mouth. He wiped it away, stunned, as Carmine shouted, “Stay the fuck away! She’s mine, and I’ll be damned if I’ll let you take her from me!”
“You possessive bastard! If you loved her, you wouldn’t say things like that!”
That set Carmine off. Pouncing, he knocked Nicholas to the ground as Haven clutched the fence and yelled for help. A group of boys intervened at the sound of the commotion, hauling them off the ground and separating the two. Dia forced her way through the crowd as she frantically looked around. “What happened?”
Carmine ignored the question as he turned to glare at Haven. “Out of everybody, why does it have to be him? Are you trying to hurt me? Is that what this shit is about?”
She blinked a few times, stunned by his anger. “What?”
“You heard me. I give you space, thinking that’s what you want. And I get it, Haven. I fucking get it. You’re hurt. But you can talk to him? You can smile at him? Is it me? If you don’t want to be with me, tell me.”
“I do!” His words stung. “I love you!”
“You have a fucking funny way of showing it,” he spat. “I’ve changed my life for you. I’d kill for you. Fuck, I’d die for you! Just tell me what’s wrong. Tell me what to do.”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “I can’t.”
“You can’t?” he asked with disbelief. “You don’t get it, do you? You don’t know what I’ve given up for you. You don’t know what I’ve lost because of you!”
Those words hit her hard. She gasped, everything clouding over as her hand shot out, striking him across the face. He cupped his cheek, the shock from the blow melting his anger. Haven covered her mouth before running for the exit, needing to think, needing to be away from him so she could make sense of what she’d done.
She had hit him. Him. She was going to be sick.
Shoving past people, she hurried out of the stadium, fumbling in her pocket for the keys. A horn blared as she nearly backed into another car, and she slammed the brakes to let them pass, her hands violently shaking. Tears obstructed her vision as she pulled out onto the road and sped through the busy town.
She drove toward the house but was too scared to stop. Too scared to face it. Too scared to lose him. She passed the driveway, continuing down the highway in the dark. It took a few minutes for it to dawn on her where the road led, her shame reaching an all-time high when she drove past the sign that read WELCOME TO AURORA LAKE.
Haven pulled into the small lot and sat in silence for a moment, struggling to breathe. She felt like she had been sucked into a twister, the world spinning as her body shook. She climbed out of the car, thinking she’d be sick, and forced the fresh air in her lungs as she stumbled toward the sand.
She ended up at a dock and strolled down it, glancing out at the lake. Moonlight reflected off the dark water, and she stared into the blackness, soothed by it.
Casual footsteps approached eventually. “Please don’t jump. I really don’t want to go in after you. It’s probably cold.”
