Page 103 of Overtime
“Does that mean you’ll cuddle Archie if he’s hurting somewhere?”
I snorted. “Archie can go cuddle himself.”
“Exactly. You could’ve ignored Maddie like you do with everyone else, but here you are. So don’t give me that bullshit, son.” She got up from her seat and walked over to poke my chest hard. “And if you so much as hurt a hair on her head, I’ll come for you.”
So here we are. I guess this is Ryan’s version of coming for me.
“She won’t talk, so you tell me what happened.”
I scoot forward and rest my head back. Drawling, I say, “If she doesn’t want to share, why should I?”
“So I can gauge what kind of bodily harm I will do to you. If I have to serve time, I want it to be fair.”
“Ryan, I’m really not in the mood for this.” Or for anything, really. I toss an arm over my face, wishing her away.
Softly, she asks, “Why did she go to her sister’s wedding on her own when you were supposed to take her?”
The only sounds filling up the living room come from our breathing, mine heavier. Unless she can hear how loud my heart is thumping.
“Shit.” I snarl the word and sit back up. Rubbing my head, I add, “Double shit.”
“Spill.”
“She said she’s in love with me.”
Ryan draws in air through her teeth. “Oh, Maddie.”
“And on a scale of one to ten, I was a jerk about it.”
“Of course you were.”
I glare at her, but the person I really want to punch is me. “YouknowI can’t do relationships, Ryan. I’m just not that kind of guy. I’ve spent the whole week trying to do damage control so no word about what happened at that party with Maddie gets to Coach’s ears. If it does, he’s going to bench my ass. And I’m so damn spent, all I want is to be left alone until the next game. Are you happy now?”
“No, you fool. Of course I’m not happy.” She throws her hands in the air. “I just wish you hadn’t treated her like you cared more than you did.”
Through gritted teeth, I say, “I care. As her friend.”
“You’re pathetic.” Ryan shoots to her feet and marches over to the entrance, picking up her trash bag before she opens the door. She turns around for a moment. “You’re letting the bestgirl you’ll ever meet go because you care more about what your coach thinks than about your own damn feelings. I hope it’s worth it.”
She slams the door shut so hard the walls rattle.
“What the hell do you know about my feelings?” I shout too late. She’s probably climbing down the stairs by now.
I’m left breathing hard, like a horse that tried really hard at a race and still lost it.
A burst of energy propels me to my feet, and I pace the length of the living room back and forth. Before I make a canal on the floor, I go to the kitchen and start taking ingredients out of the fridge and the pantry. Forget the pizza. I need to move my body. That’s the best way to shut down my brain. I’ll make arepa con pernil and pico de gallo from scratch. I will?—
No, that reminds me of her. This is what we ate the night she hit her head. Well, I did. She doesn’t eat meat because of freaking course. She’s too good to even hurt a fly. And I hurt her. And I don’t want her out of my life.
I rest my arms on the kitchen island, just breathing deep and thinking.
Ryan’s wrong. It’s not that I care about what Coach says just because. We’re in the middle of regionals now. Missing two games—hell, missing a single game—could mean we lose. Or let’s say Edwards doesn’t mess up the first two games by some miracle and I get to play the semi-final and final. Recruiters would think he did the work for me.
But I miss her. So damn much. I want to just… be in the same place without her running. I want to at least be her friend. Which is what we should’ve been, but I had to go and be a horndog.
“I need to talk with her,” I mumble to myself.
That’d be a good first step. If I explain myself better, maybe she’ll be less hurt. She’ll definitely see that she didn’t doanything wrong, and it’s entirely a me issue caused by my past shenanigans. And that if things were different…
