Page 188 of Puck Prince

But I see her, and I can’t let her leave when she’s upset.

“Callie.” I reach for her, but she snatches her arm away.

I look down the hall towards Coach’s office, wondering if he’s going to come running after her. Head Coach or not, if he just made his niece cry, he should fucking apologize. Instead, I see Miles walking in, his head bowed.

I turn and jog after her. “Callie, wait.”

She flinches, but doesn’t stop. I have to put myself in front of her before she’ll slow down.

“Owen, I’m not in the mood,” she cries.

“What happened?”

“It doesn’t matter. Just get out of my way. I have things to do.”

She tries to step around me, but I block her.

“I swear to God, Owen. If you don’t get out of my way?—”

“I’m not going anywhere until you talk to me.” For the first time, she lets her eyes meet mine. She’s shattered and it breaks me. “Please, Callie. I care about you.”

“You have a very interesting way of showing it.” She sniffles again, and I can practically see her switch flip from sadness to anger. “Everyone says they care, but almost no one means it.”

“What are you talking about?” I ask, desperate for an explanation. “What happened in there?”

“It’s not your business.”

“Callie, I know we aren’t—” My jaw clenches until I think it might shatter. “We still work together. If something is going on, I should?—”

“You don’t have to worry about working together anymore, Owen. You don’t have to worry about running into me at all. Not at work. Not at home. That’s what you wanted, right?” she spits.

All of my better judgment goes out the window, and I grab her, pulling her against me. “You don’t know anything about what I want.”

Callie’s throat catches. When she looks up at me, tears are still streaming from her eyes. She blinks them back. “None of it matters anymore. I was asked to leave.”

My heart drops to the floor. “What? Why? Because of us?”

“No.” She shakes her head, swallowing hard. “This was all my fault. Working here after everything that happened was a mistake.”

“Nothing that happened to you before was your fault, Callie.”

“Getting caught up in you was a mistake. Going along with the lie, believing for five seconds that maybe it wasn’t a lie…” She trails off, and I want—needher to finish that thought. But then she snaps back. “It was a mistake. I’m going to pack up my office now.”

None of this makes sense. Something must have happened. I mean, a lot has happened. But something must have happened here in the last hour to change everything.

Callie starts to pull away when a door slams down the hall followed by the sound of Miles’s voice.

“Hey, Callie. Shouldn't you be gone?”

Callie flinches at the sound like it was a gunshot. Without meaning to, her hand fists in my shirt, clinging to me like her life depends on it.

Certainty settles in my chest like dread, squeezing me tight.

I look from her to Miles, who is walking down the hall towards us.

Callie gives me a pleading look before she whispers, “I’m sorry.”

With that, she rips herself away from me and darts down the hall just as Miles reaches me.

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