Page 4 of The Golden Goalie

“Sorry,” she mumbles.

“It’s okay,” I manage to say. Wanting to give her a moment to fully wake up, I climb out of my truck and take my time walking around to the passenger side. I open her door and put out my hand to help her down. She ignores it and drops to the ground beside me. I catch the slightest whiff of her perfume and try to take it deep into my lungs.

“I don’t have a key,” she says, looking up at the big house.

“Aiden told me where it is.” I’m surprised my voice works at all. I start towards the house, simply so I don’t say or do something stupid. I find the spare key easily and unlock the front door and step inside, turning on the lights as I go. “Aiden said you know where the guest room is.” I turn back to her, but she avoids my gaze. Her head is down, her hair hiding her face from my view.

“Um, okay. Thank you for the ride. I’m sorry you had to drive me all over creation. Oh, wow. I didn’t realize it was so late. I’m sorry.”

I will her to look at me, but she doesn’t. “It’s really not a problem,” I tell her, meaning it. I just wish she would let me in. When she still doesn’t look at me, I know it’s time for me to leave. I blow out a breath. “You, uh, sure you’re going to be good here?”

“Yeah.” Her voice is quiet. Then she’s gone. One minute, she’s in front of me; the next she disappears. I stare in the direction she went before I make myself head towards the front door. She doesn’t want me around; she’s made no bones about it. She’ll be okay here, and it’s best for me just to leave. If only I could get myself to believe that. I force myself to walk towards the front door. Right before I open it, I hear a sound. I pause, and then it comes again. Before I know it, my feet are headed in the direction of the bathroom.

I knock on the door. “Amber?”

“Go away.”

Her voice is miserable, and frustration burns inside me. I try to open the door, but it’s locked. I know I could force my way inside if I wanted to, but I’m not going to do that to her. That would make her like me even less. I hear her throw up again, and I shove off the wall and pull out my phone.

Sebastian picks up on the second ring. “Miss me already?” he asks, and I can hear the grin in his voice.

Normally, I would say something smart back; but my heart’s not in it tonight. “Is Stephanie with you?”

“Well, that’s just a dumb question. Of course, my girl is with me. She’s—”

“I need to talk to her,” I say, cutting off whatever he was going to say.

He pauses. “You good, Man?”

I blow out a breath of frustration. “Yeah, it’s just Amber. I don’t know what to do.”

“Hang on. Let me get Stephanie.” His voice is serious now.

“She’s here now,” he says a moment later.

“Hey, Rico, what’s up?” she asks.

“It’s Amber,” I say quietly. “Something’s wrong with her. I picked her up from a party tonight because she needed a ride. She barely said a word. She wouldn’t let me take her to her house. And then when I tried to take her to mine, she panicked. I called Aiden and he told me to bring her here to his house, but now she’s throwing up in the bathroom and won’t let me in. I don’t know what to do.” I know I’m totally panicking, but I really don’t know what to do to help her.

“We’re coming over,” Stephanie says, and relief courses through me. I hang up and listen for Amber. When I don’t hear any sound, I walk over to the door quietly. Part of me wants to ask her to open the door, but the other part of me knows she doesn’t want anything to do with me, especially tonight. And as much as I hate that, I respect her enough to leave her alone. The last thing I want to do is make her uncomfortable. So, I wait. And pace. It takes an eternity for Stephanie and Sebastian to show up. When they finally do, I open the door and let them in. “Where is she?” Stephanie asks as she walks past me.

“Bathroom.” I nod towards the hallway, and she heads there.

“Hey, Man,” Sebastian says, uncharacteristically quiet. We head into the living room, and I strain to hear the conversation in the hallway.

“Amber, it’s Stephanie. Open the door.” I can’t hear her reply, but I can hear Stephanie loud and clear. “Yeah, well, we drove all the way over here to check on you; so that’s not an option.” I hold my breath and then hear the sound of the door opening. It closes again, and silence fills the room.

“So, you picked her up from a party?” Sebastian’s voice breaks the silence.

“Yeah.” I don’t look over at him.

“Must have been some party.” I turn to look at him in confusion. He points at my face, and I suddenly remember the fight I was in earlier.

“Aiden forgot to tell me it was a party full of Devils’ players.”

His eyes widen. “No kidding?”

“Does it look like I’m kidding?” I return.

---