Page 70 of Wicked Serve

I dive across the bed for my phone.

“Isabelle?” I hear Nik ask, his voice rough with sleep.

I fumble to unlock my phone. A dozen missed texts and calls greet me. Victoria, our other teammates, Coach Alexis.

I should have been on that bus three hours ago.

Chapter 34

Izzy

“Do you understand?” Coach Alexis says again. “I expected better of you.”

I dig my teeth into my trembling lip. When we finally got back to campus, I practically threw myself out of Nik’s car in my haste to run to her office. I’ve apologized ten different ways since I sat down, but nothing has made her budge.

You stick with the team during away trips. Always. Plenty of my teammates have snuck out like I did to go to parties or clubs, but they all know that when the bus to campus pulls up the next morning, you have to be on it. I know that, and I fucked it up anyway. No amount of explaining or groveling can erase that fact.

I suppose I ought to be grateful that she’s not suspending me or kicking me off the team, but in a way, this punishment is worse. My second chance, ground to dust. I’m still on the roster, but I’ll never be the starting setter.

It takes me a moment to be able to manage more than a nod. “Yes.”

“I can’t expect someone I don’t trust to lead the team. That’s just how it is.”

I suppress another string of pleas.

“And it’s a shame, because you’ve been playing well. If not for this, we’d be having a very different conversation.”

The only good thing about this conversation is that I haven’t lied. Not once. Yes, I went out with Nik instead of staying with the team. No, I didn’t ask permission. Yes, I missed the bus. I haven’t lied about it, not a single word.

I’m so tired of lying to my family. Tired of pretending that Nik doesn’t mean a thing to me when he’s becoming everything.

Last night shouldn’t have happened, but I can’t bring myself to regret it.

“I understand.” I clear my throat, willing strength into my voice. “And again, I’m sorry.”

“You can go.”

I nearly knock over a side table in my haste to get to the door. By some miracle, I haven’t cried in front of her, but I know that tears will start flowing the moment I’m free from the confines of this stupid, magazine-glossy office.

“Callahan?”

I freeze with my hand on the door handle.

She gives me a look that could crack ice. “I hope that boy was worth it.”

When I shut the door, I press my fist to my mouth, swallowing a sob. I expect to see Nik waiting, but I’m alone. In case Alexis is planning to leave her office, I jog down the hallway, peering around corners for him.

Eventually, I hear his voice. He’s speaking Russian, so I don’t understand a word, but still, I relax at the sound. I enter the gym lobby, making a beeline for him; he’s pacing by the door, face taut.

“No,” he says in English, an edge to his tone, “I didn’t—”

At the sight of me, he stops midsentence and hangs up the phone. I lurch into his arms. He hugs me tightly.

“How did that go?” he asks quietly, into my hair.

“About as well as you’d expect.”

“I could talk to her.”

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