Page 67 of The Breaking Pointe
As I gather little toys and miscellaneous items from play- time, I put each thing in a little chest in the corner of theroom.I then make my way into my office, listening to the door open behind me, expecting Lauren’s authoritative voice to fill the studio and follow me.
“I’m in the office!”I yell out, listening as the footsteps gain on me. “A lot of appointments today?”I asksonorously so that she can hear me.
Waiting for her response, I’m met with an uncanny silence instead, prompting me to turn around. The uncanny feeling spins into fear exceedingly as soon as my eyes catch wind of who has actually walked in on me. A little hint—it isn’t Lauren.
“I didn’t think you’d still be here so late.Thought you would be home by now,” Daniel says grimly, standing in the doorway of the office.
“Why are you here?” I ask, stalling with a shaky tone of voice.
“What do you mean?Damn, I can’t even pay you a visit now?”he asks deceitfully with an astute chuckle, hellish enough to make my skin crawl.
“No,” I respond dispassionately, thrusting myself back into my workflow—this time needing to finish paperwork. The quicker I get done, the quicker he leaves, and maybe if I’m lucky, Lauren will save me somewhere in the meantime. “So, let’s go over this,” he scoffs.“You come to my match, upon my request, and you don’t even stay to talk to me.I was patient, but then you don’t even reach out after?”His
lipscurlinward.“It’sbeenmorethanamonth,Noelle.”
Agreattimewithoutyouhasslingme,mightIsay.
“Yeah—did you ever think there was a logical reasoning behind that decision, Daniel?”I twist my body around to face him, shooting my words at him as I do. “Or that maybe I don’t want to see you, let alone reach out?”
Without a moment’s notice, one of his hands is on my waist and the other on my jaw, hovering his dirty fingers across my face.
“That’s why I figured I would come here and give you a chancetoredeemyourselffromthatbrainlessdecision.”He
licks his lips with greed.
“I never said that I would speak to you.Nor did I specif- ically show up for you.I wouldn’t be stupid enough to not use free tickets.” I fix my eyes on his gold jewelry dangling from his neck, continuing to avoid eye contact. “I’m glad I did. I got to watch that Kennedy guy beat you like it was on his bucket list.”
“You mean he got lucky because I wasn’t at my full potential,” he bellows, digging his fingers into my face, making my heart feel trapped in my belly.
Fuck full potential. He’s full of shit and can never accept defeat. Colton won.
“You were fuming in that ring, and very obviously moti- vated by something more than your potential, Daniel,” I say as I slowly reach for his hand to remove it from my face. “It doesn’t matter either way, because I don’t care who won. You need to go home, so that I can go home, please.”
Successful in freeing myself of his touch, I step to the side, attempting to walk away.
“We aren’t done talking,” he says strictly, gripping my arm.
Mybodyfliesbacktowardshisspace,stumblinginto mydeskontheway,butIgrabholdoftheedgetostop my trajectory. His grip on my arm proceeds to get tighter, feeling like the tightest blood pressure cuff in the doctor’s office is getting ready to burst around my limb. His face is now centimeters away from mine while he huffs like a crazed bull, waiting for his next move.
“Let go of me…” I exasperate, failing at hiding my pain, realizing that until this moment, I’ve never had to hide my paininaphysicalsense.Forthefirsttime,he’staking
matters to a different height.Maybe hiding it wouldn’t be enough to save me, anyway.Broken up or not, I’m not ignorant to the fact that it doesn’t matter to him if he hurts me, because he knows that he can.He’s bigger, stronger, and I’m weaker.
“Not until you talk to me.You need to tell me why you think it’s okay to just ignore me like…like I’m New York trash or something.”His grip becomes even tighter, as if that’s possible, as his tone becomes more sinister.
“I don’t owe you any explanation, Daniel.”I clench my fists, attempting to muster up strength to escape his handling unsuccessfully.“Why do you get so mad…it’s always so unprovoked, and—” My words cut into a gasp of air as he pushes me down, pinning my back against the top of the desk.
“You don’t listen.You owe me that.”His eyes switch back and forth between mine as I begin trembling, internally begging for this moment to end, for somebody to see me in distress and be kind enough to do something.
“What is it?‘Cause you’re acting brand fucking new, Noelle,” he accuses.
I could say many words, but my entire body is ready to crumble. Any wrong word might cost me much more than just this.
“You found another dick to ride?So you feel confident now? Is that what it is?”
“No…no…”
His eyebrows lock at the top of his forehead as he mentally goes down the list of untrue scenarios he’s already thought up.That’s what he always does.I’m guilty of every accu- sationinhiseyes,buthe’sasaintthatstandsbeforeGod
