Page 219 of Skate the Line

My heart races.

“Is he here? Did he find me?”

The disheveled bun on top of her head bounces back and forth with her answer. “No, and I don’t think he’s going to.”

She pulls me out of bed and drags me to the living room.

Some guy is on the couch, wearing nothing but a low pair of pants with his feet propped up on the coffee table.

“Never mind him,” she whispers. “Turn it up, Preston!”

The guy—I’m assuming one of her “friends”—grabs the remote and turns up the volume. My eyes burn from the sudden brightness of the TV, but they adjust quickly when I spot a shade of blue that I’m all too familiar with.

“What the hell?” I rasp.

My eyes open wider.

It’s a brawl.

I’m too confused to sit. I stand behind the couch and stare at the fight unfolding on the TV.

The commenters are at a loss. Stunned with silence. Clearly, they’re confused as well.

“Tell her what you told me,” Ruby urges in Preston’s direction.

He tips his head back at me from the couch. “The fight isn’t between the two teams. It’s the Blue Devils against one of their coaches.”

Oh no.

My hands dig into my hair. I pull on the strands and begin to panic.

Did Nicholas attack Rhodes, and the team responded and attacked him?

“It looked like one of the Blue Devils…” The announcer on TV pauses. A replay comes on the screen.

I’m going to be sick.

I wrap my arm around my waist from the sudden nausea.

“One of the Blue Devils grabbed a coach… Is that Nicholas Tarvo from Washington?”

“Looks like it, Pete.”

“It looks to be Volkova as the instigator. He pulled Tarvo off the bench and threw him down. Then the entire team seemed to join in.”

Eventually, they cut to commercial as the refs and other coaches sweep in and pull their players off the two stars of the fight: Rhodes and Nicholas.

This isn’t good.

I slowly sink to the floor and wrap my arms around my knees. Preston sits up taller and mutters, “I think that is my cue to go.”

Ruby whispers back to him, “I think that’d be a good idea.”

“Call me if you need anything, yeah?”

She walks him to the door, handing him his shirt on his way out.

When the door shuts, our eyes crash.

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