My Bet Is You

by Manuela Ricci

  The heart lacks a beat when I see it, the breath gets stuck in the lungs, and the mouth is burned, dry, with only the memory of its taste that made me feel alive.

  "Carrie?" He says with difficulty, and I see on his face the impressed marks of this long week, his eyes surrounded by dark circles, his eyes almost absent, and his breath smelling of tequila.

  "Hi Logan." She frowned, drawing two deep lines on her forehead.

  "Hi Logan?" He repeats, bewildered, but he has not yet realized the person by my side, too intent on watching me as if I were a vision, a ghost. His eyes run over my body, they penetrate me, pierce me like sharp blades, open my mouth, and close it by snapping my jaw when he sees my hand intertwined with that Drew.

  I wait, as if time had stopped for a moment, and all his pain fell upon me at the same moment he takes me by the arm, drawing me strongly to his chest. I jump, I feel my body crashing into his, which even now, manages to wrap me in the perfect warmth that I remembered for every night we were away.

  "What the fuck does that mean?" He shouts, looking over the music, all eyes are on us.

  "Leave me, you're hurting me!" I try to wriggle away, just not to hold on to his shoulders, cling to his life, and run away with him. I'm just here for a reason, and I can't back out.

  "Come on, you come away with me now!" Drew tries to stand between us, in passing I see the twins coming at a brisk pace, followed by Blaze, and Carter.

  "Take off Drew's ass!" He growls, not taking his wounded gaze from mine, unmoved, as if his hand around my arm weren't tearing at me

  ground from under my feet, as if his voice was not begging me to stop, as if I could no longer breathe, knowing that all the air I need is just a millimeter from my face.

  "Carrie isn't your girl Johnson!" Drew tells him.

  His face contracts into a grimace that freezes the blood in my veins, before anyone can stop him, his head snaps, hitting Drew right in the face. He covers his nose, where streams of blood gush out on his white shirt. Fixed Lex, with his arms folded across his chest, along with the others who dart their threatening eyes across the room, urging anyone not to move a single muscle.

  "You son of a bitch!" Drew lashes out at Logan, and I find myself crushed against the wall, rolling on the floor, Logan lifts his elbow several times in the air, loading his fist into a snap against Drew's jaw.

  "Do something! Stop them! »I cry, clinging to Lex's arm, who looks down at me with enough.

  "Did you really think we could stop him?" Making everyone believe that you fucked him? You're talking about our quaterback, Carrie. "

  I stand alone for a moment, Logan's fury brings out the animal in him. In the room a circle of spectators has formed that holds its breath with every thud that manages to cut through the air. I can only do one thing, and without thinking about it, I'm in their midst, clawing my nails on Logan's shirt. I scream his name with how much breath I have in my throat, until he lets go, and only then he catches his breath and I lean over to Drew's side.

  With his trembling hand I caress his face, and soon after I set eyes on Logan.

  "Go away!" Is all I can say, his peeled hands close in two fists.

  "You want to joke, don't you?" Drew leverages on my shoulder, and the help to stand up, his face is a mask of blood because of me, and I feel disgusted by how everything is slipping from my hands. Only then does Blaze grab his arm.

  "Let's go brother." His eyes do not abandon me, and I feel him shatter in front of my gaze that hides all that I feel for him, the same pain that divides us and unites us at the same time.

  "I'm not going anywhere. You owe me a fucking explanation »he points his finger at me,« Holy shit, you owe me Carrie! »The hands intertwine in his hair in a desperate gesture, the overpass, leaving Drew behind me, I head for the garden. I fix the trees that stand out against the darkness of the night, when his breath presses behind me.

  "You can't do this to me." He doesn't scream anymore, his voice is reduced to a barely perceptible whisper.

  "I'm not doing anything Logan." I squeeze my arms around my chest, pushing the whirlwind of emotions trying to emerge, making me give up, but I can't do it anymore, I gave up once to him, but now it's all changed.

  "You've fucking gone. You said you wouldn't leave me,

  but you did it, and I always knew it. By the time you got out of the car, part of me knew I wouldn't see you again. "

  I hold my breath before putting an end to everything. "I'm sorry, I don't know what else to tell you Logan." With arrogance he makes me turn to him.

  "What game are you playing Murphy?"

  His breath blows against my lips, which I barely open to swallow his taste. The tip of the nose grazes mine, making me lose control, I bite the inside of my cheek before saying: "I've always played!"

  His eyes, dilated, inject themselves with blood, colliding with mine, but it is a barrier that I will not let him break down this time.

  He tilts his head slightly, peering at me as if I were appearing in his eyes for the first time, his fingers sinking into the exposed skin of my shoulders.

  "You're making a mistake, the biggest I could make!"

  He grinds his teeth, before pressing his lips against mine in a forced kiss, full of anger, and disgusting, giving life to tears that start to pinch me at the corners of my eyes.

  I watch him turn his back to me, kick one of the garden chairs that spills onto the ground. He leaves, leaving a trail of pain that sows the path that I know I must take, knowing that I belong to him, with the knowledge that nothing and no one can ever take his place. Because in him I found a way to re-emerge, to return to breathe, and even if now I feel lost, I know I have at least saved myself and from what is inevitably falling into my life.

  "I lost it ..." I say believing that I am alone.

  «No, you still don't know what it means to have lost it. You don't understand what you unleashed. "Blaze stares at me in his eyes, a fear that spreads from his body to mine, making me shrug my shoulders. And before I can say a single word, she leaves me there, alone, under a sky I can't see, with stars that seem to have gone out.

  What did he mean by: You don't know what you unleashed?

  To Be Continued ...

  Acknowledgments

  Where do I start? Writing My Bet Six You, for me it was a real challenge. It's a Romance Sport, it's a story that deals with different themes, in which we don't encounter the usual bad guy, but against someone who isn't afraid to show his feelings. The character of Logan will always remain engraved in my heart. But like any book, we know that it is never written by only one person, so my first thank you goes to those who accompanied me in the publication of this first part of the Larrie story. Thank you Elisa Crescenzi for your patience, your advice, for your invaluable help in the revision of every single chapter. You were a precious help and a friend who supported me, when I believed that everything could be just madness. Thanks to my husband, to still be married to me, it is not easy to be together with a person who spends most of his time writing. Thank you because first, believe in my dreams. Thanks to the light of my eyes, my son. Thanks to my parents, your advice, the teachings you have always given me led me to find the courage to expose myself, to fight for the things I believe in and never to give up. Thanks to the WhatsApp group, born through my stories posted on Wattpad, where I started to introduce myself and make you love a different version of Logan and Carrie, I love you girls. Thanks to every single reader, every comment has been invaluable, spurred me to always give the maximum. Thanks to Ylenia Marini, confronting you is always the right charge that allows me to give my best. Thanks to all the Bloggers who have me and are following me in this adventure. Writing for me is like a train that does not make stops, a story ends and another begins. I love what I do and I thank God for making me discover this passion. As you have noticed this is only the first part of the troubled history between Logan and Carrie, I know that you have hated me in some moments, and loved in others and that you will co
ntinue to do so in the second volume coming out for the end of August. I take this opportunity to tell you that this will be a series, a novel for every football player, so be prepared, because the Mayers twins will arrive with their secrets and torments in the fall. Thanks especially to you who have come to read up to here.