Page 57 of Chasing Headlines
About that time, Eberhardt waved me into the room. I needed to get around these two. Schorr muttered something under his breath and pushed past me. My blood formed icy lumps in my veins. My whole body went numb.He barely acknowledged me? Shit. This is bad.My stomach twisted into a large, frozen pretzel.
“You sure you want to be left out of my highlight reel?” Milline tilted her head. The ends of her ponytail brushed the exposed flesh of her neck. “Pretty sure even Rally gave me a better interview.” A wry twist of her lips. “And he's a hawk.”
“Go away.”
Her eyes lowered. She nodded slowly, her hands gripping the strap of her bag with white knuckles. I tried to move around her, but she stepped into my path.
“What?”
“I rooted for you.”
I needed to talk to coach, to plead my case. I couldn't be cut. Not now. And she was in my way. What the hell was she even saying?
“Not Tanner, you. I’d hoped, despite how difficult the year had been, that you and the Wildcats would find a way to rise above. But it was too much to put on your shoulders. You were still . . .” Her brows contracted in a pained expression. That same fuckin expression people gave me when they said they were sorry about my mom.
I didn't need her pity. “I told you to leave me alone.” I considered physically moving her aside. “But you couldn't do that could you? You just had to write that fuckin article.”
“It was my job, Cooper. I took the assignment before I knew what an asshole you were. Are. Still . . . are.”
“Oh, I’m the asshole? Not the person who has no respect for boundaries. Or anyone. Ever.”
“Pretty sure if we had a show of hands—of your own teammates no less—the vote would be unanimous. Narcissistic hothead and primo jerkwad’s the Breslin Cooper special.”
“Why, cause you flashed your tits at them, too?” I winced, regretting the words as soon as they left my mouth. She turned white. Her hand shook where it gripped the strap of her bag.
A throat cleared from somewhere behind me. A locker door creaked.
“Wow.” She shuffled so that she was backing away from the coaches’ office. Around me.
I shouldn’t have said that. I had done something nice for someone. It had made me feel like a good human—for the first time in so long.
“You know.” Her chin wobbled. My chest tightened at the thought she might cry. “I don’t claim to know much about mothers. But I really wonder?—”
“Don’t you say a God damned word about my mother.” My gut started to cave in. I couldn’t breathe.
“I was grateful for your help that day. I respected you as a ballplayer. Hell, I even considered myself a fan. And if someonelike me could be this disappointed in you?” Her eyes flashed in the light—jaw set, chin raised. She should have hit me. I wanted her to. Because I fuckin deserved it.
Instead, she smiled and waved at the small group of freshmen behind me, then moved toward the exit.
The locker room door hedged open. She tossed her blond hair as she turned and met my gaze. Tears escaped even as she continued to battle for control. She didn't have to let me witness it, she could have been long gone. Or at least safely on the other side of that wall—instead of sharing that I had wounded her.
“What would she think of you, Cooper?”
Chapter Fifteen
Breslin POV
“And if someone like me could be this disappointed in you? What would she think of you, Cooper?”
A cold pit formed in my abdomen. It pulled at my stomach, my guts, my lungs. My thoughts swirled into a jumble.How dare she?
She's right.
I don't know. And I've been swimming in that toxic, raging stew for months.
I pressed my eyes closed, but all I could see was her face.She should've just hit me.The cold pit swallowed me whole.
A smack to the back of my head jarred my skull. Coach.Dammit.