Page 75 of Need You to Choose Me

“I’m not yell—”

“How dare you treat me this way, after everything I’ve done for you this week!” she bellows, backing into the house.

“Mom, come on. I’m just trying to be reasonable. There’s no way I can eat all of these.”

She grabs ahold of the door. “You’re so ungrateful sometimes. I’ve only ever thought of you, and you throw it in my face.”

She slams the door, and when the lock slides into place, I squeeze my eyes shut. The spare key is only good for the lock on the doorknob, not the deadbolt she just twisted.

Rubbing my jaw, I sit down on the front step and stare at the boxes encasing me like one of those old box forts I used to build as a child.

Blowing out a breath, I remember to be grateful for the window I keep unlocked in my bedroom to sneak back inside when she’s calmed down.

Whenever that may be.

“I’ll let her know,” Pam tells me softly, reminding me I’m on the phone. “I’m sure she’ll want you focusing on getting better. We all do.”

“Thank you,” I tell her, feeling the headache radiate in my skull.

The crinkling fruit snacks wrapper in my hand lets the old memory fade as I hang up the phone. I’m not fourteen anymore trying to figure out how to return hundreds of dollars of food I’ll never be able to eat. I’m pretty sure it took me a week to get somebody to come pick them up to bring back.

I look from the empty wrapper to my phone screen again to make sure I’m not seeing things when the memory fades.

The doctor told me to limit screentime to help with the concussion recovery, which isn’t that hard to do since I don’t watch that much television. But my phone has always been my lifeline, and one of the reasons is staring me in the face.

Olive:Saw the news. Hope you’re okay

Kyle said they were broadcasting the incident on the news, but I didn’t think it would have reached her. And I definitely didn’t think she’d reach out about it.

“What’s the face for? Is your head hurting? Do you need more ibuprofen or ice?” Belle asks with worry thick in her voice.

She’s been coddling me since Clarkson found me in the alleyway outside Belle’s Place. He called his stepsister, and they rushed me to the hospital. I barely remember them picking me up and getting me into Belle’s tiny ass Prius. What I do recall is the bits and pieces of my captain trying to get cameras out of our faces as we rushed into the emergency room and the horrible headache that echoed in my skull. I’m pretty sure I puked as Belle was filling out what information she could at the front desk.

Yet, here she is.

“I told you it’s not your fault,” I grumble, knowing she feels guilty over this. “It could have happened to anyone, anywhere.”

The officers I talked to told me that they found the guy who attacked me tweaked out of his mind using my credit card. All the cash in my wallet was gone, but they recovered both of my cards and everything else important that was stashed away in there. Not before the douchebag managed to rack up almost a thousand dollars’ worth of charges on my shit. I’m still trying to fight the company on getting that money back.

“But it happened atmyestablishment,” she reminds me with a deep frown weighing on her lips. She takes the garbage from me and tosses it into the kitchen trash before returning. “I feel awful. I mean, I know there’s a drug problem in the area, but we’ve never had that happen before. You could have died, Alex.”

“I didn’t,” I point out. “It’s not a big deal.”

Except, it sort of is. I’m out for the remaining preseason games. Doctors’ orders. It pisses me off that I’ve worked my ass off only to be benched, but there’s nothing I can do about it besides try working out to stay in shape since I’m off the ice temporarily. It’s not Belle’s fault, so I don’t want to show her the anger boiling under my skin or else she’ll be an even bigger pain in my ass trying to make it up to me.

“You don’t have to keep coming over and checking on me,” I say next, leaning back on the couch and wincing when the back of my head hits the pillow Belle propped up for me. “Clarkson is going to assume something is up.”

Belle’s face turns red. “He knows I’m here. He even said it was a good idea in case you needed something.”

He was at practice with the rest of the guys.

WhereIshould be.

That anger settles a little deeper in my chest.

Sighing, I look back down at my phone. “A couple pain pills wouldn’t be a bad idea,” I tell her, needing some space where she’s not suffocating me.

She immediately jumps up. “I’ll get you some water too.”

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