Page 129 of The Trophy

The stress I’m under must be messing with my head. There’s no other explanation for the fact that now the four short sentences make total sense.

My hard work is about to pay off; we have a championship final tomorrow, and depending on the amount of damage caused by that post, I might sign a pro contract next week, without even having to wait for the draft.

The second sentence almost makes me choke; I always say that my family is the most important thing for me. I just realized something in the past few months. When I say family, I don’t just mean Mom and my siblings; Lake, Blaze and Luca are my family just as much, even if we aren’t blood.

Who dares wins.

Well fuck, if that isn’t true. I thought I couldn’t compete with Blaze and Luca when it came to Lakyn but they weren’t winning her over because they have more money than I do. All I needed to do was to believe in myself. I had to dare open my heart in order to win hers.

Sharing is caring.

Well fuck, if that isn’t true. Who would’ve known that the best way to show Lakyn how much we all care about her is to accept that she cares for all three of us? Sharing her doesn’t make our love less important, it makes it more encompassing, more meaningful.

My smile widens at the thought that a silly prediction from a fortune telling machine at the pier could be so insightful.

I look up, staring at the ceiling of my room, as an incredulous laugh rumbles through my chest. “Is this the sign I just asked for? Huh, Dad?”

Lightning illuminates my room like it’s daylight and the loudest thunderclap I’ve ever heard shakes the glass in the window panes.

As a torrential downpour starts pelting the house, I wonder. “But what kind of sign is this? A sign that we were on the right track and now we fucked it all up—Lakyn!”

How didn’t I think about this before? She loved the pier so much during our date, she said she couldn’t wait to go back. What if that’s where she went?

Judging by the radio silence from Blaze and Luca, I assume they haven’t found her.

Certainty settles in my heart that this is it and I pocket that piece of paper, shooting a quick text to Blaze and Luca as I run down the stairs and turn the key in the ignition of my truck.

Me: I think I know where she is. Meet me at the pier asap.

The roads are empty due to the late hour and the storm that’s infuriating around me.

I don’t care, I drive like a maniac, like I have the devil on my heels. I need to get to her, and I know I have protection from above.

“Thanks, Dad.”

LAKYN

The lights of the pier draw me in like a moth to a flame.

It’s still too early in the season for most of the attractions of the pier to be opened; but some, like Joe’s Shack are popular with the locals and stay open year round.

My stomach is in knots as I walk aimlessly on the boardwalk. But it isn’t my stomach that causes the worst pain I’ve ever felt. It’s my heart.

Is it possible to die from a broken heart?

I snicker at the thought that when I came back to campus, after my breakup with Jon, I thought I was heartbroken.

That was nothing.

Maybe my pride was hurt, maybe it was the rejection from someone I had always considered a friend.

What I know with crystal clear certainty, is that I wasn’t in love with my ex.

I didn’t even know what love was and not just because we had never gone beyond a kiss.

I had no idea how love consumes you every minute of every day, how the man—or in my case men—you love fill your heart, your head and your body with a fire that never goes out.

Or at least I thought it didn’t.

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