Page 44 of Saving the Halfback

Nolan was talking about all the sugar he’d had that day alone, and Lachlan was calling bullshit on him. Nolan was insisting he wasn’t a health nut, but it was a losing battle. For one, who could recount the exact grams of sugar they had in any given day?

It was then that I noticed Ethan had no food in front of him. I wanted to give him the other half of my mac and cheese, but I wasn’t sure if he would take it from me.

It was Lachlan that shoved his secret stash of breadsticks toward Ethan, stating, “I can’t eat carbs in front of this guy,” indicating Nolan.

I laughed at him, and at his incredulous look, asked, “What? I want your breadsticks. Eth?” I gave my best puppy dog eyes.

Ethan leaned forward, his large body making the table groan slightly. His eyes were sharp, intent on me, and part of me thoughtI could probably ask for anything right now and he would give it to me. “What?” he asked.

I blinked the thought away. “Trade you the rest of my mac and cheese for two sticks.”

He sat back, his eyes relaxing as they went back and forth between Lach and me. He sighed, then pushed two sticks toward me. “Sure thing, B.”

A lump caught in my throat as he used his nickname for me. Tears threatened behind my lids, but I shoved them away, not wanting to scare Ethan. I pushed the rest of the mac and cheese to him and relaxed as he started eating. I nibbled onthe breadsticks. “Can’t believe, one week from today, I’ll be in my first football game. Seriously, though, how screwed am I?” I asked the guys.

Lachlan shook his head. “We have four practices until then. You’ll be good.”

“We have a good line too,” Ethan said around a mouthful of food. He leaned over and tucked his food in, as if he were afraid someone would come by and steal it. He’d always eaten like that, since he was a kid. “It’s going to be a challenge for anyone to get through.”

“I agree,” Nolan said. “I’ve been on a few teams, and Ethan really holds his line well. It helps to have a good center. Sam and Jake are tight too.”

Ethan looked up at Nolan when he heard that, and something passed between the two of them. I smiled and sat back, listening to the football talk, which started with Ethan, Nolan, and Lachlan, but was now drawing in Wes and Sam as well. Everyone was getting psyched for our first game next week.

Chase walked by then. “Hey!” I called out to him. “Seat’s not taken.” I used the same line Lachlan had used with Ethan, pointing to the empty seat next to Ethan. Chase was more hesitant than Ethan had been, though, something dark passing over his face before he robotically sat next to Ethan, his back stiff as a board.

“I have to go,” Ethan grumbled out. He did everything to avoid so much as looking in Chase’s direction.

We watched as Ethan stood and left, cleaning his garbage after himself. Chase buried his face in his hands for a moment, his elbows on the table, before standing. “Sorry for breaking up the team,” he mumbled before walking away.

“What just happened?” Nolan asked quietly.

I didn’t have time to respond to him, because I quickly jumped up and went after Chase. He was already in the hall bythe time I caught up with him. “Hey!” I called out. A few people looked up at us. Chase was headed for the front doors of the school. “Chase,” I said. Did he really not hear me? Or was he ignoring me? My heart hammered in my chest; I couldn’t let him leave.

He stepped through the doors just as I reached him and grabbed his shoulder, but he shrugged me off and walked through the parking lot. “Would you just talk to me?” I yelled at him.

Chase spun around so fast, I nearly ran into him. “What do you want from me, Bailey?!” Chase yelled, losing all control. His eyes were fierce. “What? I’m waiting, tell me.”

“Holy shit, what is wrong?”

He laughed out of frustration. “What isn’t wrong anymore?” He turned back around and headed toward his car.

“What do you mean?” I ran up to him. “Chase, why won’t you talk to me?” I stepped in front of him and leaned against his car door. “Stop running!”

“Stop running? Me? Stop running? Bailey, I have been here the entire time.” He was breathless, but the words kept tumbling out of him in rapid fire. “I have stood and watched each of my friends fucking fall apart and tore myself limb from limb to try and stop it, but I can’t. I can’t fucking stop it, Bails. You want to fix us? You want to bring the gang back together? Well, good fucking luck with that.” His eyes were a whirling storm, mixed with frustration, pain, and anger.

“Please talk to me—what happened? What’s wrong between you and Ethan?”

His voice grew louder again as he took a step toward me. “It’s not just what happened with Ethan and me! What happened with you? Lachlan left, Ethan ditched me, and all I had was you. I fucking tried, for years, Bailey, to talk to you. I tried to make things right, but you were a bitch. You wouldn’t even look at me.What the hell? Tell me what I did to deserve that? What did I do to you?”

Nothing. I had nothing. I was frozen with shock.

“And what, when I finally move on and ignore you, you think you can just walk in, and everything will be back to normal? Do you? I’m not Lachlan. I’m not a fucking Golden Retriever, waiting to roll over and hope to god that today is the day Bailey McCormick gives me a damn treat.”

He took another step toward me, so close, I found myself falling back against his car, my breathing rapid, my heart racing from…fear. My vision blurred, and my mind turned to mush. It took everything in me to even remember how to breathe.

“You have no right chasing me down,” he continued, and my eyes fell to the asphalt, “demanding we talk this out. Our chance to talk this out passed years ago.”

The words tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop them. “Yes, sir.” My head fell in the submissive way I was trained to do. Praying I wouldn’t be hurt. “I’m sorry.”

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