Page 36 of Hate the Game
Slowly I started hearing different things about what’d happened, rumors about The Apex Three’s past dangerous behavior on the field, and finally about the interviews they’d given after the game. They’d supposedly laughed off the injuries and made a joke of it. It was spread around the waiting room like mold and when it got to me, I felt it stick and cover me with the skin-crawling feeling of helpless anger.
The following few months I’d watched my brothers suffer. Weston was in pain constantly and refused the surgery that would help for a reason he didn’t feel like sharing. Hayes struggled to heal and take things slow. Cash struggled with the guilt of being the only one not injured when he didn’t even care about football that much. He just did it because it was expected. To Weston and Hayes, though, it was life.
Everything came storming back as I watched the play. I felt sick to my stomach over the way I’d been acting with the men who’d hurt my brothers. I felt so awful that I forced myself to rewatch the play over and over again, like some kind of self- flagellation. I watched my brothers go down four, five, six times. I forced myself to watch it until my stomach burned and my eyes were so dry they hurt. It was turning into torture when I finally slammed my hand down to stop the video.
The freeze frame showed a wider shot of the endzone and I finally looked at the rest of the field. My breath caught as one of the Texas players drew my attention. He was between Ryder and Weston and he was turned towards Ryder. My hand shook as I played the next few frames. The guy between Ryder and Weston had spotted Ryder coming towards him and he’d twisted out of the way. Ryder, who’d already been tucking his head to take out that player was a train in motion. If Weston hadn’t been where he was Ryder would’ve hit nothing but air. Instead, he’d hit Weston lower than he would’ve hit the other player.
I slammed the laptop shut and jumped out of bed. I paced around my small room, doing my best to block out what I’d seen. Guilt warred inside my body. Just the thought that I was questioning what’d happened would’ve hurt my brothers. They firmly believed The Apex Three had played dirty. I felt like a disgusting traitor for even questioning it.
I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t. I rubbed at my eyes and swore. The quiet whispers that had started after spending more time with Jax, Ryder, and Cole grew louder. Had they meant to hurt my brothers after all?
***Savannah***
Afew days later, a few days I spent feeling sick and hating myself, I was walking across campus after class thinking about the article I’d written for the USC newsletter. Barbie had thought it was a good plan to have me write one, a simple one about their most recent game. If I hadn’t already been ready to throw myself off a tower, the article would’ve pushed me to it. Instead of working on the article meant to expose USC’s football program, I spent my time writing a fluff piece praising the team. The newsletter went out that morning and even though my article was hidden amongst everything else, I felt tense. I hadn’t written anything for public consumption since Charlie and a part of me had been terrified I wouldn’t be able to.
I was getting hit emotionally from every side and I felt exhausted. I was running on fumes. That was why it took me a few seconds to process what I was seeing when I walked towards a small group of guys surrounding Blaire.
Reading their body language, I knew they were being assholes to her. She looked angry but I could tell beneath the bravado thatshe was scared. The fury I’d been feeling towards myself could finally focus somewhere other than me and I leaned into it.
“Hey! What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I dropped my backpack and stalked towards them, running purely on anger and caffeine. “You want to pick on someone? Ooh, big men! Pick on me, assholes. See how that works for you!”
Whatever I’d been planning on doing was cut short by the arrival of the calvary, or what felt like the calvary anyway. Jax and Cole materialized in front of Blaire and they didn’t stop to shout. They just swung. My mouth dropped open as I watched the school’s golden boy start a damn street fight. A few of the guys backed away immediately but the ones that stuck around tried their best to salvage their pride. One of them even snuck a punch while Cole’s back was turned. He managed to get the side of Cole’s face before Jax saw it and hit him with a hard right hook.
It was over almost as quickly as it started. The assholes were either dragged away by their friends or pretended like they’d kicked ass and walked away nursing a busted lip and bleeding nose.
I blinked a few times, wondering if I’d imagined the whole thing, but then Cole turned to me and I saw that his face was already bruising. I gasped and went to his side. “Your face!”
He grinned at me and shrugged. “Should’ve seen the other guys.”
I rolled my eyes and gently prodded his face. “Ididsee the other guys. You’re lucky the guy who punched you was a wimp.”
Jax caught my attention as he faced off with Blaire, his hands on his hips. He was breathing hard, his body still tense.
Blaire didn’t care about that, though. She mimicked his pose and made a bored face at him. “I could’ve handled that. I didn’t need you rushing in here like Captain America to save me, Jax.”
Cole leaned closer to me. “If I ever feel sad that I don’t have a sister I watch these two interact and feel a lot better.”
“Are you kidding, Blaire? Does that happen often? Are those assholes harassing you? Why haven’t you said anything? I know you don’t think I give a shit but you could’ve at least talked to campus security or something. Jesus.” Jax shook his head and then swung his face around to me. “And you! What the hell were you planning on doing?”
I snorted. “I wasn’t sure yet but I think I could’ve kicked a little ass before I got shown I was being too big for my britches.”
Blaire let out a bright laugh and walked over. “I want to paint you. You just came out of nowhere with that southern accent, kicking up dust in your cowboy boots. It was glorious.”
Jax growled as he came over, too. “Why the hell does she get painted when I get nothing?”
I smirked up at him. “Maybe I’m just cuter.”
“That’s true.” Cole winced when Jax poked his bruise. “Hey!”
“You need to get some ice on that. Unless you want to walk around campus looking like you got your ass handed to you.” I walked back to my backpack and grabbed it. When I turned back I saw Blaire slapping both of their arms.
“Perverts. Keep your eyes to yourself.”
I blushed and had to bite my tongue to stop a real giggle from escaping. In no way did I want to sound like the version of myself I’d first brought to USC. Not in front of Blaire. She’d seen the real me and it just didn’t feel right. I wasn’t even sure when I’d last pretended to be a ditzy dumbass. It was probably time to just drop the whole thing.
“I guess I’ve saved the day and can go home happy now.” I pretended to brush off my shoulders. “Remember the ice, Cole.”
Blaire grabbed my hand. “What if instead of ice we got ice cream? There’s this milkshake place that I’ve been obsessed with just off campus.”
