Page 72 of Bad Teammate
The worst part about doing that? When she touched both of our hearts, I feltsomething. Plain as day. And yet I had to act as if I hadn’t. I had to convince her that I didn’t care about her.
I hated myself for that … but what choice did I have?
Something she’d said echoed in my mind.
You’re a coward.
***
I was still sitting at the center island when Niko came home with Julia by his side. He saw the chaos on the kitchen floor and gasped with surprise.
He pointed at the food. “Katya?” he muttered, raising an eyebrow at me.
“Yup.” I shook my head, disgusted with us both.
He crouched down, grabbed one of those meat and potato pastries off the floor, and tossed it into his mouth. He must’ve liked it, because he scooped up a handful more.
“Where is she?” Julia asked.
“She left,” I said. “I don’t know where she went. But she took her suitcase with her, so I imagine she’s not coming back.”
Julia translated my comments and Niko began to smirk.
“Yeah, laugh it up,” I said. “I hope you’re happy. I broke your sister’s heart.”
Julia translated again. “Aleksander says, you never should’ve had her heart in the first place.”
I rolled my eyes. “You know, I think I liked Niko better when I had no idea what he was saying.”
I was done with them. I walked into the living room, sat in my recliner, and put the Boston–Nashville game on TV. Niko grabbed one of the food trays off the floor, a couple of beers from the fridge, and joined me in the living room to watch the game. Julia followed him.
I scowled at the two of them. “Really?”
Niko shrugged at me, universal language for “What?” as he kicked his feet up on the coffee table.
“You’re just going to sit there and act like nothing ever happened, huh?” I asked. “You think we’re cool now?”
Julia became Niko’s voice. “Wearecool now, Derek. You should be happy I’m moving on so quickly. Or would you rather me hold a grudge?”
I huffed. “You’re unbelievable, kid.”
A tension hung in the air as we watched the Brawlers and the Fury battle on the giant television. Something more needed to be said but I wasn’t sure what the right words were.
I muted the television during a commercial break. I looked over at Niko as he happily scarfed down his floor food and chased it with a big swig of his beer. He looked like he didn’t have a concern in the world.
But I couldn’t sit there another minute and pretend everything was normal.
“Don’t youcare?” I finally blurted out.
“Care about what?”
“Your sister, man.”
He gave a wave of his hand. “Of course I care about Katya.”
“Doesn’t seem like it. She came all this way to visityou, and you don’t even give a fuck where she’s at or what she’s up to right now.” I stared at him. “Do you?”
“She’ll call me if she wants to talk.” He stuffed another handful of pastries into his mouth and pointed at the TV. “The game’s back on. Unmute the TV.”
