AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I prickle with anxiety all over. Would Liam ever forgive me if I become the reason that he gets kicked off the team, putting his future in the sport in jeopardy? I don’t even care about the trouble I could get in right now.
“But I won’t do that,” my dad finishes. I let out a big, heavy breath that I wasn’t even aware I was holding. But the relief doesn’t last long. “As long as this ends. Now.”
“But … but …” I stammer. Right now, I can’t accept that condition. I don’t even care that I could end up failing a major class and lose valuable recommendations that I need to start my career.
The only thing I care about losing, is Liam.
I turn to look at him. My breath stops in my throat when I see his face. He doesn’t look down at me with supportive eyes, he doesn’t open his mouth to join me in arguing with my father—he doesn’t try to fight for us.
His sharp features are frozen, his lips are tight, and his eyes are in an intense lock with my father’s.
Sobs swell in my chest, but I clamp down on my jaw to keep them at bay.
My father narrows his gaze on Liam. “Get out of my sight, Newcastle, before I change my mind.”
For a second, I let myself expect that Liam will wrap his arm around me, take a step closer, pull me tight against his side, and declare that he’s willing to suffer any consequences for us to be together.
But that’s just a fantasy—and we’re in the real world.
Instead, he takes a step away from me. He turns towards me. A sorrowful look gleams in his eyes.
Then, he turns to my father. He nods his head, and without another word, he walks away.
30
LIAM
Anger courses through my veins. Anger so hot and fierce that my hands are curled into tight fists; it takes everything in me not to walk to the closest tree or the closest brick wall and punch it so hard that I break bones.
Anger at Coach?
No.
Anger at myself.
I felt like I was going to shatter into pieces when Coach looked at me with accusing eyes and let me have it for putting Zoey’s future at risk.
Because that’s exactly what I did.
I’m not the only one whose future is wrapped up with this team right now. Hers is, too. I know how important this class is for her major; I know how important it is for her to make a good impression on people like Megan and her professor.
She has incredible ambitions, and she won’t be able to accomplish them if she tanks one of the best opportunities she’s been given so far—an opportunity that even I can see she’s knocked out of the fucking park.
I consciously put that future at risk just because I couldn’t keep my hormones under control.
And after everything Zoey did for me …
She encouraged me to stand up to my dad. She made me feel good about my art, helping me get over the fucked up emotions about it I had thanks to how I grew up that made me feel like it was something I needed to hide. She gave me the strength and self-confidence I needed to share it with my teammates.
She gave me all that—and what do I have to offer her in return? Nothing. Nothing other than being a threat to her future.
Walking away from Zoey in that hallway was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. It felt like walking away from a warm, roaring fire, out into the vastness of a freezing tundra with whipping winds, not knowing if I’ll ever run into a source of warmth again.
But I had to do it. Tanking her future career, something I know she cares so much about and is working so hard for, isn’t something I can ever accept being responsible for.
Right now, I don’t even care if Coach kicks me off the team, if he benches me for the rest of the season. I just hope he doesn’t report us, for Zoey’s sake.
Once I get home and into my room, some of my self-anger subsides.
