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“Go on then, ladies. Get out there and smash it,” Coach yells, and the rest of the team cheer and shout along with him as they run out toward the field.
“Jagger, a word.”
I groan, desperate to get out there and focus on something besides the need for revenge that’s been running around my head all day.
“I need your head in the game tonight, son.”
“It will be.” He raises a brow at me, clearly unconvinced by my words. I’m not surprised. I’ve heard the rumors that have gone around today. Everyone knows how I spoke to Hadley earlier and everyone has avoided me since, even my own family. The rest of the team knew something was up long before I walked into the locker room with this angry cloud over my head.
“You don’t need me to say it, but if you fuck this up, Cole, it could be the end. Every game there are scouts out here looking for their next big player. You’re good, good enough to have a real shot at this, but you’ve got to get out of your own head.
“It’s hard, I know. I’ve been there. I get it. But you’ve got to decide what’s the most important thing in the next forty-eight minutes: whatever is going on in that head of yours, or your future.”
He slaps me on the shoulder and sends me on my way.
“Everything okay?” Hayden asks when I come to a stop beside him.
“When is it?” I mutter, but with the roar of the crowd and the music he clearly doesn’t hear me.
“Good. Great. We’ve got this tonight, yeah?” He holds his fist out for me to bump, and reluctantly, I do.
The crowd gets even wilder as we take to the field. I keep my eyes on the ground, not wanting to look to where the squad are jumping around, doing their well-rehearsed routine, but as the music comes to an end, I find my eyes betraying me and I look over.
The second I look up, I find her eyes locked on me, a deep frown between her brows and dark circles around her eyes. She looks as exhausted as I feel.
Good. It’s the least she deserves after what she did to me.
I watch as Lylah and a couple of the others walk over to her. It looks like Lylah attempts to get into it with Hadley, but instead of letting her spit whatever abuse she has, Hadley flips her off and marches away.
Pride washes through me as I watch her stand up for herself, but it’s soon washed away and overtaken by the hate, betrayal and anger that’s been engulfing me all day.
By some miracle not only do we win the game, but I manage not to get sent off. I feel Coach’s hard stare throughout the entire forty-eight minutes, and I’m well aware that his half-time pep talk about keeping our heads in the game was solely aimed at me, because he watched me make more than one dirty tackle in my need to hurt someone.
By the time the final whistle blows, I’m more than ready to get the hell out of here and get drunk, the lure of vodka and numbness too strong to ignore, and I march off the field long before the celebrations have finished.
I shower and dress without talking to anyone—not that any of my teammates even try. Even Hayden and Aaron keep a wide berth of me, for which I’m grateful because I really don’t need either of them trying to befriend me right now.
Conner is already waiting for me at the car when I get out into the lot.
“Good game, bro.”
I grunt in response.
“Not sure how you were lucky enough to stay on the field, though. Are you trying to ruin everything?”
“Shut up, Con. I don’t need a fucking lecture.”
“Well you might want to prepare yourself because you’ve got one coming.”
I drop onto the passenger seat as he starts off on a speech about the opportunities I’ve got and how I need to pull my head out of my ass and talk to Hadley, apologize to her about the way I spoke to her earlier.
I hear some of the words, although most are a blur as he drives up toward the destination for tonight’s party.
The beach.
It’s the last fucking place I want to be after spending last night on one with Hadley, but it’s this or go home alone, and I know for a fact Conner isn’t going to turn the car around and allow me to do that.
Once we’ve parked up, I climb from the car and leave Conner behind.
