Page 13 of Breakaway Goal

Maddie

I overheard some amusing speculation today

I grin at my phone.

Do tell

Maddie

I was waiting in line for coffee and some girls in front of me talking about you

Nothing unusual so far

Maddie

They were wondering how you got your scar

A laugh rumbles in my chest.

Maddie

One girl thought it was a fight on the ice. Another thought you got it in a bar fight defending a girl from a handsy drunk. You took on him and three of his friends and only got a cut above your eye to show for it

Dang, they make me sound cool as hell

I hope you didn’t tell them the truth

Maddie

Of course not. Your shameful secret is safe with me

I’m eternally grateful

I bring my hand up to run my finger across the pale scar that sits above my right eye.

I definitely didn’t get this scar in a bar fight. I got it from wearing high heels.

Maddie was in seventh grade and thinking about wearing high heels to an upcoming school dance. She’d never really worn a pair beyond trying out her mom’s as a kid, so she was testing them out, walking up and down the hall on unsteady legs while I was over hanging out with Lane after school.

Did we tease her about it? Of course we did.

“Like either of you could walk in these,” she grumbled, putting one foot shakily in front of the other.

“Of course I could,” I quipped. “I could probably run a mile in them.”

“I’d run it faster,” Lane piled on without missing a beat.

“Would not,” I retorted.

Suddenly, instead of goofing on Maddie, we were arguing over which of us would win a race wearing high-heeled shoes.

The debate reached such a fevered pitch that it had to be resolved.

Lane and I walked down to a big second-hand store in our hometown that had a clothing section, and we found two pairsof unusually large high-heeled shoes that we could just barely squeeze our feet into.

Squeeze our feet into them is what we did, back at Lane’s house with Maddie watching. Our racing track was to be the length of Lane’s driveway.

We lined up, readied ourselves for a burst of speed, and at Maddie’s signal, took off.

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