Page 145 of Broken Ties (Rixon High 4)

“Down there.” She nodded to the field and sure enough Asher appeared at Coach Macintosh’s side.

“You know?” Sofia said.

“Yeah, Jase called the second he heard. Oh, Aaron,” she sighed, bringing a hand to her throat.

“He can’t play like this. He’s a mess,” Sofia said.

“Your dad will talk to him. Make him see there’ll be other opportunities.”

My heart ached for him. He’d been so excited about tonight. And on the night of Homecoming no less.

Dad went back over to them and Asher nodded, squeezing his son’s shoulder. Aaron pulled on his helmet and inhaled a deep breath, walking slowly toward his teammates. The crowd went wild, cheering on their team—their captain—as the referee called the coin toss.

“I’m not sure my heart can take this,” Sofia said, clutching my arm.

I followed Aaron across the field, tracking his every move as I whispered, “Me neither.”

The Raiders lost.

Aaron crumbled under the weight of his disappointment and his bad mood rippled through the team, knocking them down one by one like dominos.

It was painful to watch, and no one was surprised when my dad marched them off the field to a lackluster applause from the crowd to what would no doubt be one hell of a debrief.

“That hurt to watch,” Sofia said, as we filed out of the stadium, disappointment heavy in the air. Mya had her cell phone clutched in her hand, checking for an update from Asher, no doubt. He’d stayed on the sideline watching as Fenn Hill trampled all over our players.

We reached the parking lot and Mya’s phone finally rang. “What do you mean, he’s gone? Well go find him,” she snapped.

“Mom?”

“Aaron took off. Your father, Ezra, and Cole are going to go after him.”

Oh, Aaron.

My heart clenched.

“Maybe we should—”

“No, you girls need to go home and get ready. Asher will talk him around.”

“But, Mom—”

“I mean it, Sofia. Go home, get changed, and then get to Homecoming. That’s an order.”

Sofia rolled her eyes but muttered, “Fine.”

“Try and have fun, okay?” Peyton hugged me. “He’ll come around.”

I wanted to believe her but I wasn’t so sure. I’d never, in all the years of knowing Aaron, seen him so out of control as he had been tonight. It had broken something inside of him, and I wanted nothing more than to find him, pull him into my arms and tell him everything was going to be okay.

But I didn’t know that, and I wasn’t sure he’d want me to be the one to comfort him.

Not anymore.

We said goodbye to everyone and walked to Sofia’s car.

“What an absolute shitshow,” she said, ducking inside. “And Mom thinks we can just go to Homecoming like everything is fine. Where would he even go?”

“I might know,” I said, and her head whipped up.

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