Page 6 of Breaking Point
My eyes bug out of my head, pain thundering across my skullas I stand too quickly and spin to face Coach’s thunderous expression.
“What part ofmy office nowdid you not understand?” The look he sends me after finishing that statement tells me he doesn’t want a response.
Kieran claps me on the back. “Just breathe through the pain.”
No amount of breathing will get me through one of Coach’s talks.
I doubt even alcohol will.
Andthatis saying something.
“You look like shit.”
It’s the first thing Coach has said to me since I stepped into his office twenty minutes ago.
Twenty. Minutes.
I thought I was going to walk in here, get screamed at a little where he’d tell me to knock it off and never come to practice drunk again, I’d apologize, and then go on my merry way. What I didn’t expect was for him to spend a grueling one thousand and two hundred seconds staring at me.
It was as if the man was trying to see all the way into my broken soul.
It was unnerving to say the least.
“I… apologize?”
His brows rise sky-high. “Was that a question or a statement?”
Rubbing a hand over my face, I relent, “I’m not quite sure what you want to hear from me, Coach.”
Without missing a beat, he leans forward. “I want an apology, but all you seem to hand out these days are fake ones until you can turn around and do the next stupid thing that piques your interest.”
I don’t have a response to that because it’s true.
It’s all true.
“What happened, Grayson?”
My head snaps up at his tone, at the sadness in his gaze, at the use of my first name. Coach can’t do that. He can’t go soft on me, cannot give me a reason to feel a single thing.
“You know exactly what happened,” I answer gruffly.
“He wouldn’t have?—”
“Don’t finish that sentence,” I practically growl, my temper rising.
Shock flickers across his gray eyes. He leans back in his chair and assesses me once more, except the disappointment is so evident in his gaze it begins to crush me. I can’t help but let my eyes stray to the clock. My skin feels like it’s crawling with a thousand ants. I’ve never felt so uncomfortable sitting in this office before.
Coach is a hard ass but he feels like family.
Perhaps that’s why this hurts so much.
“I can’t keep giving you free rein to piss on this team. Not only is it a disservice to your teammates, it’s a disservice to you.”
At the seriousness in his tone, my spine straightens.
“What are you saying, Coach?”
“That you no longer act like a team captainora team player.”
