Page 190 of The Head Game

Alarmed, Nico sat up, wrapping his arms tightly around August.

“Be helpless to fix it,” August finished against his hair.

“You said that before,” Nico said as he coaxed August to stretch out beside him until they lay face-to-face. “But I thought it was when you were pretending to be my fiancé. Playing it up.”

August propped himself up on one elbow. “I did say that then. But the fear I felt was real. That’s just it, Nico. I wasn’t your fiancé then. I wasn’t your boyfriend or your family or anyone who knew you and loved you, yet and I was still impacted by it. I was still terrified for you and felt helpless and … if it was that bad for me, think about what it was like for the people who did love you.”

Nico nodded slowly.

“Have you watched the footage?”

He swallowed. “No. I’ve thought about it though.”

“Well, that’s your choice. I can understand why you might not want to. But if you do watch it, I think it’ll give you a better idea of what that experience was like for everyone else. I’m not saying your parents’ reactions are … always right, exactly, but I can understand it. They almost lost you and I can understand why they’ve been a little overprotective at times.”

Nodding, Nico reached out and grasped the front of August’s shirt. “I’ll watch. Will you watch with me?”

August hesitated, tensing. “I don’t know if I can. It was bad enough the first time.”

“Okay. Will you stay here with me while I watch?” he asked.

The tension left August’s body. “Yeah, I can definitely do that.”

Nico fumbled for his phone, found his earbuds, then got everything set up.

It wasn’t hard to find the video. It was everywhere, with lurid headlines and warnings about the content.

August tugged Nico closer, running a palm up and down his spine. Nico positioned the phone between their bodies so August didn’t have to look at the screen, then hit play.

The video started with some game footage. The first hit from Leo Hawkins, then the second one from Jeremiah Keller.

Nico winced at the one from Keller. Oof. No wonder he’d felt like he’d been hit by a train when he was in the hospital.

And then his stomach dropped because he could see the jerk of his body as the seizure started.

And the announcers. God, the horror in their voices as they described what was happening sent a shudder through Nico.

It felt surreal, like Nico was watching something happen to someone else but that stomach-churning feeling grew with every passing second.

Nico imagined it was Matty or Dustin or any of his teammates jerking like that on the ice and immediately felt sick.

The seizure seemed to go on and on and he caught a glimpse of August’s horror-stricken face. A shot of his teammates all huddled together, clutching one another, as they watched Nico’s lifeless body get loaded onto the backboard.

Tears sprang into Nico’s eyes and he shoved the phone away, ripping the earbuds out. One went flying, pinging off the wood floors.

“I’m sorry,” Nico choked out. “I didn’t …”

“Hey.” August pulled him close. “You don’t have to be sorry.”

“I didn’t realize …” Nico’s eyes burned and he pressed his face against August’s chest, his sweater soft and comforting. “God, that was awful.”

“Yeah, it was.” August sighed against the top of his head and Nico felt the brush of August’s lips. “But you’re okay. You’re okay now.”

It sounded like he was reminding them both.

Nico lifted his head, blinking away the wetness. “Charlie said something to me a while ago. About how when it happened, it left scars on everyone.”

August nodded. “Yeah, it did.”

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