Ryan Hunter

FROM NICK, WHO HEARD IT FROM ALEX WINTER, WHO HEARD IT FROM MITCHELL HIMSELF, THAT LIZA TURNED MITCHELL DOWN THIS MORNING.
    Staring at this goddamn message for over thirty minutes, I wondered what Tony had tried with Liza and how the story managed to work a circuit. But what did I care as long as the outcome was the same? If Mitchell failed, maybe I had a chance after all…
    With my thumb hovering over Liza’s name on the display, I battled my heart back into place. Calling her suddenly seemed like the right thing to do. Trying to get things straight between us. I’d do as Rachel had suggested and apologize. I’d make Liza understand that I wasn’t fooling around with her—but that I loved her.
    I wiped my thumb over the call button and waited for the line to connect. It rang once, twice. God, please let her answer. Three times. Four. My hope turned into fear then frustration. Five. Six. The call went to voice mail. Fuck.
    A small part of me hoped that this was not her evading my call on purpose but that she just didn’t have her phone with her right then and would answer later, when she got back. It was also that small part of me that made me call her a couple more times that day. With the same result; only to reach her voice mail again.
    Before I went to bed that night, I decided to give it one last try with a text message. PLEASE TALK TO ME.
    Nothing came back…right away. But at three o’clock in the morning, my cell went off on vibration on my nightstand, ripping me out of a light sleep. A text had come in, and it was from Liza. My heart lurch to my throat as I opened it. Hopefully she had forgiven me. Heck, she must. A text in the middle of the night could only mean that one thing. Or could it? There were three words on the display. Words that stopped my heart for a couple of seconds and that made me want to break everything in my room.
    GO TO HELL.

Chapter 13
     
    ON TUESDAY, I went to soccer training in the afternoon. Everyone stared at me. And this wasn’t me being paranoid. They stared so blatantly that it hurt. Lacing my cleats gave me a moment where I could ignore them, but when it was time to set up teams, I faced a crowd that screamed for answers with their quizzical glares when their mumbling behind cupped hands got fast on my nerves.
    “All right,” I growled after I had named Winter captain of the opposite team and had picked Frederickson, Torres, and Miller to play with me. “You wanna know what happened? I was out with Matthews, it was a nice evening, but apparently we’re not made for each other. Period. Can we please play soccer now?”
    “What did you do to her that she left the team?” Audrey Hollister demanded with furrowed brows. “Did you…I mean, were you two—”
    “Of course not,” Mitchell snarled before Audrey could ask me if Liza and I had had sex. He cast an annihilating scowl in my direction. “Liz would never do that with him . He fucking kissed her is all.”
    I fully turned to face him. “That’s a lot more than you ever worked the nerve up to do with her.”
    “That’s because she’s been my friend, and I appreciate her.” Mitchell strode forward until we glared at each other from a foot away. “I’m not desperate to get every girl in town into my bed.”
    The damn idiot hit a nerve with me that clenched the muscles in my gut. “Oh, but I am, right?” I sucker punched his shoulders, making him stumble back a few steps.
    Tony steadied fast and returned the shove. “Liza is the only one you could never have, and that’s driving you crazy.”
    “She’d be with me now if you hadn’t burped that bullshit about me playing with her!”
    “Liza is way beyond your level. She would never choose you.” Mitchell cast me a scornful look. “Because she doesn’t hang out with rats.”
    The next thing I knew was that we were on the ground fighting for a truth that we both knew and that no one else needed to hear. I took a hard punch to my ribs, but I gave Mitchell a black eye in turn. Alex and Frederickson dragged me off of Tony before he turned blue in my headlock.
    “Dudes, get a grip!” Alex shouted at us. “You’re on the same team, if you like it right now or not. No fighting a team mate.”
    I tried to battle myself free from his and Frederickson’s hold, but they only fastened on my arms harder, twisting them behind my back.
    “I said no fighting , Hunter!” Alex snarled next to my ear. “Take it out in the game. But if you want to stay