Page 37 of Echoes of Us

EIGHT

AFTER

Noah had been back for two weeks, and I still avoided him like the plague. He had moved back into his old apartment. The thought of running into him on campus terrified me. It wasn’t like I was exactly the most stealthy person; you could spot me a mile away. I even flirted with the middle-aged woman in admissions to try to get his class schedule. She didn’t give it to me—something about school policy—so I had to settle for knowing he had signed up as an English major. That counted for something, considering how much of a slob he was with school. At least I knew which building to avoid.

I asked Colin and Ezra to go ahead without me to practice, while I stayed back and waited for their all-clear that he wasn’t there. I jogged with my hoodie over my head, avoiding eye contact with everyone. Going through all this trouble made me drop my Zen attitude towards him. Now Iwas just pissed. My life was going great, but he had to return and ruin everything.

Again.

Then the worst came.

Hank pulled me aside after practice to chat. I sat beside him on the bench, and he stared at me.

“What?” I asked.

“I have some news.”

“Okay,” I replied.

“Noah-related news.”

My anger spiked at the mention of his name. “No, Hank,” I said, shaking my head.

“He’s asked to join the team,” he told me.

I kept shaking my head. “No.”

“Look, I know this is complicated between you two. It was a bad breakup, but Noah’s an outstanding player, Att. Ezra is graduating in four months, and the team needs a new ace. He’s got three years in him. We need to think about that,” he explained.

I pushed up from the bench, still shaking my head. Hank sat patiently.

“Hank, I can’t—I’d have to quit the team,” I told him.

He was startled at my words. “You can’t do that. We need you, Att.”

“I can’t be around or talk to him. How do you figure we’d be good teammates?” I asked. “I can’t quit the team. I’m in a scholarship program,” I said, a little panicked, “and I don’t want to quit. I love it here. It’s not fair.”

“Att, I would never ask you to quit. You’re an important part of this team. We just need to think about the future and not one person. We need to think about the whole. I’ve only heard great things about him from his school, and you’ve seen him play. He’s terrific.”

“He’s out of shape,” I said dismissively.

“Hewasout of shape. He’s better now. The coach knows about his application. He’s going to accept it.”

“I don’t know how you’re planning on working around it, but I’m not setting foot on the court with him in it,” I told him and stormed out.

This fucking asshole. How did he work up the nerve to think he could return and take this from me? I was so pissed I didn’t even change from my uniform. I walked until I reached his familiar building and looked up, scowling at it. I recognized the man at the entrance.

“Mr. King, nice to see you again,” he said with a smile. His freaking doorman still liked me.

“Hi, Harold, is he in? Could you tell him to come down?”

His smile disappeared. “You don’t want to go up?”

“No, I’m not going up there. I’ll be outside,” I said, stepping back outside.

I paced in front of the building until the door opened and my heart stopped. I turned to look at him. He had a smile on his face. He gave me a once-over and wrinkled his forehead, confused by the uniform.

“Hey, Atty,” he said, and my chest clenched painfully at the sound of his voice. I hated how that single word could stir up so many emotions. “I didn’t expect to see you here.” He was surprised but not unhappy about it.

---