Page 109 of Lovesick
“I…I know what it’s like to have someone close to you be hospitalized. It’s fucking scary, and the fact that you had to watch everything happen in front of you—I understand the paralyzing fear you felt in that moment,” he explains, nudging the toe of his sneaker against a crack in the sidewalk.
I realize that whatever IthoughtI knew about Knox isn’t true in the least.
Call it character development, but in that truth-bearing instant, all the loathing takes a long hike. As depressing as it is, a part of me is relieved that someone else in the world understands how scary almost losing your favorite person is. And if there’s one thing I learned through Merit’s hospitalization, it’s that trauma can bring anyone together, no matter the hostility that existed beforehand.
“Shit, man. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s alright. I just wish I had made things right with you sooner,” Knox confesses, roughing the front of his hair with his hand as embarrassment slopes down the thick of his neck and shoals over his collarbone.
Harlan’s head is on a constant swivel.
“I should’ve tried to talk to you when I first joined the team. I never wanted you to feel like I was stealing your spotlight. You’re a great player, Knox. Honestly, you’re far more fit to be captain than I am.”
“I don’t know, Calloway. This season has been pretty decent for your debut.”
I smirk. “What can I say? I’ve got a great team.”
Maybe Merit’s kindness and general like for the human population is rubbing off on me because I pull Knox into a hug before he can protest, and the stress from our rivalry melts off my shoulders like wax off a candle.
“If you ever need someone to talk to, I’m always here,” I whisper, hoping that maybe one day, he’ll take me up on my offer.
He only nods before drawing back, and if I didn’t know any better, I’d think Harlan is about ready to bring out the confetti popper and start celebrating.
“It only took a few months, but you guys finally aren’t at each other’s throats anymore,” Harlan praises, aSee, isn’t this better?expression on his face.
Relief flickers in the Baltic-blue depths of Knox’s eyes. “It does feel good to be on the same side for once,” he agrees.
I wish I’d tried harder to understand Knox. He’s not a bad guy—we just got off on the wrong foot. I guess I have a bad habit of making enemies before friends.
“Where are you headed?” Harlan questions.
“Muller Hall.”
A surge of restless, happy energy zings through me, and I extend the first metaphorical olive branch. “We have to pick up some classwork for Merit over there. Do you want to join us?”
Knox perks up. “Yeah, sure.”
As we continue to potter across campus—dodging bicyclists and trying not to get mowed down by perpetually late students—our new amigo apparently still has a taste for watching me squirm, because he brings up a topic that always makes my heart march.
“So, you and Coach’s daughter, huh?”
I go as stiff as a board, my thoughts getting lost in the catacombs of my brain, and my whole body superheats with hellfire.
“You know about that?” I croak around the shards of glass lodged in my throat.
“Dude, everyone on the team knows,” he chuckles.
Keeping my relationship with Merit a secret has been a Sisyphean effort, so the reality that everyone on my team—and probably everyone in the entire school—knows about us is nerve-racking to say the least.
“That’s…terrifying.”
“Are you kidding me? You guys are all over MU’s news outlets. You’re the hottest thing since Rudy Blankenburg knocked up three different girls and denied being the father.”
“Shit, I remember that. They all took him to court for child support,” Harlan adds.
Fear pollutes my lungs in a thick, opaque smog, and my vision brightens like floodlights on a football field.
Ironic, isn’t it? The guy with the reputation doesn’t want to walk in the limelight anymore. Things are different now because I feel the need to protect Merit from the world—gossip vultures included.
