Page 23 of My Brother's Best Friend

“What are you talking about?”

She threw her hands into the air. “First off, you never talk to me. Ever.” She crossed her arms and tilted her head, those blazing eyes suffocating me. “Second, we slept together on Friday night! Then, Oliver said that you weren’t at practice yesterday.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Why not?”

I shrugged. “Because I didn’t want to go.”

More like I couldn’t get myself to leave the hospital.

“What do you mean, you didn’t want to go? You have a game tonight, and if you don’t go to practice the day before, then you can’t play.”

“So what?” I asked, grabbing my backpack and turning toward the door. “I don’t care.”

Honestly, it didn’t really fucking matter anymore. If I had gone to practice, all the guys would have done was tease me about the girl who had fucking drugged and raped me. I hadn’t wanted to go. None of it fucking mattered, especially if that chick had gotten pregnant.

She snatched my shoulder and turned me around. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that I don’t care.”

“You love hockey.”

“Yeah, I do.”

She stared at me like I was completely insane. “Do you hear yourself right now?”

“Loud and clear,” I said.

She stepped closer and lowered her voice. “Is it because of what happened between us?”

I stared at her for a few quiet moments, looking from eye to eye. I had fucking asked her to talk, and now that she was here and asking me what was wrong, I didn’t want to tell her. I was stalling to get a few minutes alone with her to calm myself down.

Because I couldn’t stop thinking about her all night.

“No,” I whispered. “It’s not that.”

She arched a brow. “Then, what is it?”

God, she was too good for me. I had been nothing but a dickhead to her, sleeping around with Sandra just to get her jealous. She even thought that I had slept with someone else, and she was here, shouting at me for missing a game.

“It’s nothing,” I said, mouth dry. “Sorry.”

She froze, hurt crossing her face as the last word left my mouth. She dropped her gaze to the floor between us and chewed on the inside of her cheek. “What are you apologizing for? Wasting my time or sleeping with another girl?”

Fuck.

I closed my eyes, not wanting to think about it. But honestly, it was the only thing Ihadbeen thinking about this entire weekend. She just didn’t understand how much what happened affected me. How much it hurt me.

My chest tightened, the anxiety quickly building inside me.

I didn’t want her to see me like this.

I was toxic Alec Wolfe, not some weak idiot who broke out into panic attacks.

“Leave,” I said, ripping myself away from her.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she said stubbornly, walking around me so that she stood right in front of me again.

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