AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I dragged the towel through my hair, defeat sitting in my gut like a bowling ball as I finally dressed, nothing else to keep me in here, and the rest of my team had already taken off. I couldhear Coach in his office, talking on the phone, but he’d said everything he needed to say to us before we hit the showers.
My shoulders sunk as I shouldered my gym bag and headed out of the locker room to face the firing squad that was Hank Wade.
Sure enough, the son of a bitch was waiting, leaned back against the brick wall right outside the field house exit, one foot propped up, arms crossed over his chest. As expected, my mom was nowhere in sight. She’d stopped coming to my games my sophomore year, making the excuse that she couldn’t watch her baby boy get tackled, but I knew the truth. She couldn’t stand listening to Dad berate me, however instead of saying something to him or making him stop, she removed herself from the situation.
Out of sight, out of mind, I guess.
“About goddamn time,” were the first words he said to me. “You’re slow as molasses today, boy. Onandoff the field, apparently.”
An ember began to burn in my gut, growing hotter as my rage built higher. Why couldn’t he be supportive? Why couldn’t he clap me on the shoulder and tell me I’d given it my best or that we’d get them next time, like my teammates’ fathers did? “Good to see you too, Dad.”
He lifted a single brow as he pushed off the wall and started toward me. “You getting smart with me?” That was his favorite question to ask, and no matter what I said, he was always more than happy to take it as ayes, and a reason to, in his words,teach me a lesson.
My disdain for my old man had only gotten worse recently, which was really saying something, considering I already hated the bastard. A lifetime of being told I wasn’t good enough had done that. The occasional smacks and punches when he thoughtI was being “unruly” had solidified it. But what he said the day he found Presley Fields and me in my room had set it in stone.
The day we’d been working on the project for Spanish was the first day in longer than I could remember that I’d actually been happy. I’d seen it in her eyes, Presley was finally starting to see the real me. For the first time in years, she hadn’t looked at me with hate, but like maybe she might actually like me. She’d laughed. She’d smiled, for god’s sake.At me. I’d finally gotten one of those beautiful smiles for myself. And it had been the best feeling in the world.
I’d leaned in, unable to help myself. She was so pretty and she smelled so freaking good. Having her sitting on my bed had been a freaking dream come true. My whole room smelled like honeysuckle and oranges—my favorite smell—and it was all because of her. Instead of pulling away, she’d leaned in too. Like she actually wanted me to kiss her. And,god, I wanted that too. It took a lot for me to summon the courage to kiss the girl I’d been obsessed with for nearly six years, but I’d finally managed.
Then he’d come home early, ruining everything.
The words he said that day still played in my mind, over and over, and each time I thought back to them, my hands would clench into fists and a fresh wave of rage would crash right over me.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“It’s not a big deal, Dad. We’re just working on a project for school.”
He scoffed, and I could have sworn he saw right through me to everything I was thinking, everything I was feeling. He saw into my head and understood exactly what the girl sitting on my bed meant to me.
“Bullshit. What’s the matter, Beau? You feel like slumming it with that girl in there?” He lifted his hand, tapping my forehead harshly. “Get this through your head, boy. Wadesdon’t associate with white trash. You wanna get your dick wet, you call up that girl you been seeing. What’s-her-name.”
“Larissa,” I gritted out, my chest rising and falling with each angry breath.
“That’s the one. Her laugh might sound like nails on a chalkboard but at least her dad’s a lawyer, not some pathetic handyman. They might not have as much money as we do, but at least being seen with her won’t be a goddamn embarrassment.”
My top lip curled up in a sneer. “Jesus, Dad. You sound like an asshole,” I clipped, unable to stop myself. “You never seemed to have a problem with Mr. Fields when you had to call him to make a repair here.”
“Because that’s his job. He knows his place,” he seethed, pointing at my bedroom door. “But that girl in there, she sees you as her meal ticket. Mark my words. If you don’t watch yourself, she’ll end up pregnant just to dig her claws in deeper. I won’t let that happen. Not to my boy. You need to focus on football, not chasing tail. You’ve got the NFL to think about.”
My hands curled into fists, and I felt the muscle in my jaw tick. “Presley’s not like that,” I growled, and for the first time in my life, I wanted to fight back. I wanted to defend her. I wanted to make him see how wrong he was, because maybe then I’d be able to keep her.
He laughed, a sound that grated along my spine. “Christ, I didn’t raise you to be this fucking stupid. Of course she is! And I’m not gonna let you throw your future away. Whatever the hell this is, it ends now. I better never see her in this house again.”
My nostrils flared, and I felt like I was seconds away from breathing fire. “You can’t tell me who I can date. I’m eighteen, Dad. I’ll be out of here in a matter of months. If I want to date Presley, there’s nothing you can do about it.”
He smiled then, a slimy, evil smile that slithered beneath my skin and sank deep into my bones, freezing me from the inside and pushing out every bit of warmth my Bubbles had made me feel earlier.
“You think so, huh? Then how about this, hotshot? You either end it with that gutter trash in there, or I’ll ruin her old man.” I wasn’t able to hide my reaction to that fast enough, and he chuckled in victory. “That’s right. You either put a stop to this, or I’ll make sure no one in this town hires Alan Fields ever again. How do you think that relationship’ll work out when they have to pack up and move somewhere else because I saw to it he was blackballed?”
He'd do it too. Not because he was worried about me. But because he saw that Presley made me happy and he got a kick out of ripping that away from me.
My shoulders slumped in defeat. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” He turned on his heel and started down the hall. “I want her out of here in five minutes, Beau. And I better never see her again.”
I could still remember the sick, sour feeling that creeped up in my gut at the sadness and betrayal I saw on her face the next day when I brushed her off like she meant nothing. I tried telling myself it was all right, that we still had the project. That I’d still get a chance to see her. But when I got to Spanish later that day, Ms. Garza informed me I had a new partner. I’d hurt Presley so bad, she’d gone to our teacher to get out of working with me. That freaking gutted me.
God, I hated him for making me do that to her. And I hated myself for hurting her.
But I couldn’t think about that right now. After that day, I’d made damn sure to always keep my guard up. I reasoned that as long as he didn’t know what my weaknesses were, he couldn’t use them against me.
