Page 54 of Foul & Fake
Yeah, I’m screwed.
Very screwed.
When I sit down again, he bumps me gently with his arm. “You’re so fucked.”
The second half kicks off a lot like the first. The guys shove at each other like they have something to prove, and they only grow more aggressive as the clock ticks on.
“People don’t normally get hurt playing soccer, do they?” I ask uselessly. Almost everyone in our vicinity turns around to side-eye me like that was the dumbest question I could’ve asked, but I find myself worried for him for the first time this season.
My fears are warranted when someone elbows him hard in the nose, his head whipping back as the whole crowd gets to their feet, and when no one calls a foul the anger around us is palpable.
Blood drips down those plump lips that were just on mine, and it takes everything I’ve got not to stomp my little ass onto that field and elbow the bitch back.
I fucking jinxed him.
“He’s fine,” Juliana says more to herself than anyone. “It’s not the first time he’s had a black eye and it won’t be the last.”
That’s not very comforting.
The game goes on as if one player isn’t currently spitting blood onto the grass, and Eli bounces back a lot faster than I do. He’s got his eyes on the ball as mine follow only him, and it isn’t until Josh is tossing an arm over my shoulders that I realize everyone can see how worried I am. “Oh, babe. You’re done for.”
God damnit.
Exhaling hard, I close my eyes for a moment and try to reel it back in, but I can’t. He’s right. If I really hated Elias for everything he’s done, I’d have been happy when he got hit. It would’ve felt like karma. Instead, my chest tightened and all I wanted to do was go down there, hurt the guy who did it, and take care of him. “Hush. I’m fine.”
“Mmhm. So how much would you hate me if I went down there to check on Luca?”
Raising my eyebrows, I glance at him, thankful for the change of subject. “Something you want to tell me there?”
Biting back a grin, Josh shrugs. “Maybe you’re not the only one that’s fucked over a soccer player.”
Grabbing his hand, I squeeze gently. “I hope yours has a better ending than mine.”
It takes us both a second to realize what I said, and my attempts to blabber through an explanation are entirely drowned out by the crowd as Gomez scores for the Vipers again. Number eleven slides along his knees in celebration as the team jumps all around him, and Josh hugs me tightly before disappearing.
Which leaves me up here with my not-future not-sister-in-law and her weird, jealous friend. Maybe I should’ve gone with him.
But the game moves so quickly after that it’s hard to focus on anything but the ball and my bleeding future ex boyfriend.
There are so many “almost” scores I’m practically shaking with anxiety, and when another penalty on Eli puts them in a scoring position I find myself squeezing the life out of Juliana’s hand. “Shit. Shit. Shit,” she repeats under her breath, a scream ripping from her throat when they miss the shot.
Thank fuck.
It’s a relief for more than one reason when I hear the three whistles stop the game. They won, and while I now remember this is far from the end of their season, at least we’re close.
We’re close to a lot of things, actually, and fucked or not… I have an article to turn in tonight.
I guess I’ll flip a coin.
Chapter 22
Say That You Will
ELIAS
Idon’t stay and celebrate with my team after our last game of the season. I don’t even shower before I’m grabbing all my shit and rushing home before anyone else can show up. I have to do this before I bitch out and talk myself out of it, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that it needs to be done.
After sending Riley a text to let her know I’ll come over in a bit, I prop my phone up on my dresser and hit record. I stare at myself in the front facing camera for a few moments, immediately noting how I look far too defeated for someone who just won a game. My disheveled jersey from the match is stained from grass and blood, and I spot some bruising forming under my left eye from that elbow, but I don’t care. She needs to see me like this, she needs to know I mean every word.
