Page 31 of Promise to Break

"Have you spoken to Newt?"

Kai nods, retracting into himself as he always does when this topic comes up.

"Good. Maddox is fine as well. I went to see him the other day."

"How was he?" Liam asks on Kai's behalf. He does that a lot. The connection between Kai and Liam is stronger than the one I have with them. My real friend is behind bars, thanks to Franco.

"Good, I think. I gave him money and some food Marlina sent him. He ate some of it while we talked."

"Good. At least he's doing well."

"He does okay. He's taking business classes, and he looks like a brick. He's bigger than you, Liam. He even asked me about Isabella. I could never understand why he doesn't hate her or me."

"Because his hate should be directed at me," Kai proclaims.

I look at Kai with all the emotions I suppress on a daily basis. "We all know that isn't true. You're paying as well. You're going to marry a woman you don't even know, and from Ukraine, no less. She could kill you in your sleep just for your Russian heritage."

Kai just shrugs like it's nothing.

"I just wanted you to know that Maddox is doing okay. As long as we do as Franco says, they'll both be fine."

I lift my hands in the air, ignoring the dog that comes to console me. Fuck that.

"We'll kill him, eventually," Liam promises, not for the first time, although somehow I doubt that. Franco is like a rat. He knows when to hide and when to spread his bite full of rabies.

"Let's go. The game starts in fifteen minutes." Kai is the only one of us who enjoys running after a freaking ball. He became the captain soon after we signed up. Liam and I see it as a great way for us to be the talk of the school. It's exactly what our parents want from us.

"He speaks more than ever," Liam muses.

"One sentence about soccer doesn't count."

"It does, and you know it. It's Hero. He's good for him."

Fucking Hero. Knowing that Liam's right and admitting it are two different things. Kai wasn't always a silent kid. Our families were rivals until twenty-one years ago, but we all grew up together. I don't know what made the chatty kid from my childhood so silent to the point that strangers started speaking slowly around him like they thought he was deaf as well as mute. They don't know the boy who stood on a stool and recited stories to all of us kids written by Pushkin or Nossov.

Kai was eleven when he stopped speaking. Most think it's due to something his father did. Nikoli is an ominous man, but he isn't a bad person. His youngest came out to him, telling him that it's okay if he has to die for his truth. But Nikolai didn't even blink. He just accepted his son, gay or not. Something happened to Kai, but it has nothing to do with his dad. Something Kai won't divulge, not even to us.

"We have a problem, Captain."

Kai looks at Dave, the son of one of the most important soccer players in the world. The game is everything to him, and still, he took law and computer science. The game is his way of purging energy, or so he says.

"What happened?" I ask.

The poor boy looks at me as if I opened the world and made all the demons from hell appear in front of him. That can't be good.

"I think you should see." We follow him, and my gaze falls on my shirt hanging in the middle of the locker room, covered with blinding neon pink glitter. Liam laughs so hard I fear he'll fall to the floor any second, unable to breathe. The three of us know who did it. It's her, my wild child. She promised retribution.

"You can't play the game all bedazzled." Poor Dave sounds horrified to his core while Liam wheezes. And yep, he's on the floor, just as I expected. "We need you to change the shirt," the boy continues.

"No. It's tradition." Three words. The captain has spoken, and it's a done deal.

Good one, my wild girl.

It's a well-known fact that Kai is all about his Russian superstitions. To the point, he sits on a chair for a minute before he goes out on a long trip, mainly to Russia. When we asked him why he does that, he just said something along the lines of "To protect the house from the Damvoii demon," and that was that. So, yes. Kai is all about his superstitions. And apparently, my silly little girl knows it. And everyone knows we wear the same uniform per season. It's Kai's tradition, after all.

"I think sparkly pink is just my color. Don't you?" Liam just keeps rolling on the floor as his laughter becomes more maniacal. Meanwhile, the other players remain stoic. I pull the blinding thing over my head and slip it on just before Coach enters the locker room. He takes one look at the new uniform, Kai's solemn face, and then Liam is still on the floor, holding his stomach with all his might.

"I don't want to know. We're playing against the local school today. Take their asses down. Even if it's in pink." He grumbles that last sentiment under his breath as he turns and walks out, shaking his head.

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