Page 39 of My Brother's Best Friend

Dropping my gaze, I stared at the pancakes again. “I don’t know if I should go back.”

“To hockey?” she asked.

“With the guys … and that video …”

She stayed silent for a couple of moments, playing with her food. “Don’t worry about them.”

But I could do nothing but worry. They were the ones who had taken that video of me half-naked after the worst night of my life. They were the only people with access to it. So, one of them must have leaked it.

I balled my hands into fists again, chest tightening. It wasn’t fair. I’d trusted them.

Maddie gently cupped my cheek with her free hand. “If you don’t want to go back, then you don’t have to. They’re jealous they can’t win a match without you. Don’t let them break you. Don’t let them win.”

“It’s hard,” I admitted.

Because I had always dreamed of making it into the NHL, marrying my best friend’s sister, and having a family with her, staring up at the stands to see her and our family of red-haired girls cheering me on from the sidelines.

Now … that dream was so much closer … yet also gone. Because I couldn’t find the motivation to step back on the ice. I feared that I wouldn’t play as well as I used to, that my teammates would fuck around with me again, that my coaches wouldn’t believe me when I needed them the most. And it fucking sucked.

Tears welled up in my eyes. “It’s so hard, Maddie.”

She brushed some away with her thumbs. “I know it is, but … you should think about heading to the doctor or the hospital to get tested at the very least. You don’t know what that girl might’ve had, and I … I doubt she used a condom.”

“I already have,” I said, thinking about the worst-case scenario. “I’m sorry if … if I have an STD or if the girl got pregnant. I don’t remember anything from that night. I don’t know if she used one or not, what she looked like, anything. I’m sorry.”

I wanted to tell her that a thousand times over. I could never make up for this.

“I would never think less of you, Alec Wolfe. Not because you have anxiety or got sexually assaulted, not even if we find out that something is wrong with those test results or that the girl who did it got pregnant.”

While I wanted to respond, I could do nothing but let another tear fall.

“I promise that I’ll be by your side,” she whispered.

“Why?” I asked, partly in disbelief that she would be so supportive after what I had done to her.

“Because I wish I’d had more people on my side when it happened to me.”

CHAPTER23

MADDIE

Alec lay on the couch beside me with his head in my lap, his eyes closed, and his breathing even. I gently ran my hand through his messy brown hair and smiled at the ease on his face. All today, he had been so worried. It was nice to finally see him at peace.

My phone buzzed on the side table next to the clock that read one fifty-four p.m.

Vera: Where are you?

Vera: Is it okay if I bring over your backpack and the work you missed today?

Stirring in my lap, Alec turned over to lie on his back and blinked open his eyes. “What time is it?” he said groggily, rubbing his eyes with his fists. He yawned and stared up at me, pushing some hair behind my ear. “Late?”

“The afternoon,” I said, tugging at the ends of his hair once more. “School will be out in a couple of minutes, but Oliver won’t be home until after hockey practice tonight, so you can sleep a bit longer if you want.”

He turned over once more so his head faced my stomach and wrapped an arm around my waist. “I don’t want to go to practice tonight,” he mumbled against me. “Do you think Coach will punish me for it?”

“No,” I said.

Though … I wasn’t too sure with Coach Leo. From what I had seen, he was harder on Alec than he was on any of the other athletes because he knew Alec could go far. He wanted that pride of having coached a hockey star more than he cared about his players.

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