Page 45 of Game Point
The engine’s growl echoing off the brick walls, my phone buzzing again in my pocket. I ignored it, not needing to be any more stressed out. We rounded a corner sharply, and my body lurched to the side, my tight seatbelt suddenly straining across my chest against the sudden force that hit from out of nowhere.
A loud blaring horn sounded as I was flung back in my seat, the car spinning violently. The world was a sudden blur. Everything flew around me. My vision blurred. The car came to a sudden stop, metal crunching. The seatbelt cut across my chest with brutal intensity. Crack. Something in my chest gave way. The pain was immediate, ajarring, sharp pain from a violent jolt that left me winded. Glass was thrown, shards slicing the air as the windows broke. My chest tight, I was left wheezing for breath.
The world finally stopped, but nothing was the same. The windows on the left were smashed. Steam or smoke rising from the front of the car. My bag was thrown from where I’d placed it. A ringing, so intense, screamed in my ear.
I looked forward to the front, finding the driver looking at me, his mouth opening and closing as if to speak. But I heard nothing but that piercing noise.
What the fuck had happened?
15
Oliver
Sober II (Melodrama) – Lorde
I paced back and forth in the training room, waiting for Dylan. She should’ve been here by now. Should’ve been here hours ago. Brooke kept storming around, yelling at attendants, demanding for Dylan to be sent to her as soon as she arrived. It was chaos.
Another glance at the clock told me time was very quickly running out. I dialled Dylan’s number. I expected a few rings, as it had been doing all morning, but this time the dial tone cut off, the phone going straight to voicemail.
Had she turned her phone off? Had she done a runner on the day of the final? I’d known she would be nervous, but not showing up at all? That wasn’t like her at all.
Just as I put my device away, the doors opened. Dylan walked in furiously, and my heart stopped hard in my chest at the sight of her. Her usually perfect hair was messily pulled out of a ponytail, strands falling in front of her face. Her clothes were rumpled, covered in dirt and dust. She looked like shit.
I ran up to her, my hand pulling at her arm. ‘Where were you? Are you okay?’
She didn’t even look at me as she continued ahead, heading straight towards her dressing room. Dylan gritted her teeth as she spoke, ‘I’m fine.’
I looked her up and down. I’d seen Dylan enough to know that this wasn’t her usual state. ‘What happened to you?’
She shook me off, charging into the locker room, but I followed.
‘Dylan …’ I said, watching her as she swung her bag onto the bench, pulling it open to search through it. Clearly something had happened to her.
‘I need to change,’ she ground out.
My hands landed on her shoulders, her gaze shooting up to meet mine. ‘Sit down,’ I said. ‘Can you tell me what happened?’
‘Nothing, I’m fine,’ she replied. ‘I slept in.’
‘Bullshit,’ I swore. ‘What else?’
‘The car.’ She hesitated, her jaw locked as her eyes searched the room. Clearly desperate to give me any excuse but the truth. ‘There was a crash.’
‘Holy shit. You were in a crash?’
‘It was minor.’ She all but waved off my concerns. ‘I was wearing my seatbelt. I didn’t hit my head.’
‘You have a cut on your face.’ I ran my fingers through my hair, the panic debilitating. ‘Have you been to the hospital? You need to get checked out,’ I asked, looking her up and down again.
‘I’m fine,’ Dylan said. ‘There were paramedics. They did a basic check before they let me go. This is more important.’
I lost all control of my body, my arm stretching forward, my hand finding her forearm to hold it softly, stopping her from continuing to ignore me.
‘Dylan. This is serious.’ I pushed my head forward,and despite my panic, tried to keep my voice smooth and calm. ‘You could have internal bleeding; there could be something broken.’
‘I’m fine,’ she repeated. I was getting very sick of hearing those two words over and over. She pressed her lips together. ‘I walked two blocks to get here.’
‘You walked?’
