by Rina Kent
Ronan and Cole stare at us with stupefaction just like the rest of the team. Only Xander laughs and shouts “A hundred that a King will kill a King today.”
I think he even got a few bets from the other team members, Ronan and Dan included.
My breath hitches when Levi steps out with Coach Larson.
Something inside me ignites at seeing him again after the time we spent all tangled around each other.
I should be mad at him, but I can’t help noticing how his athletic body looks in the royal blue jersey and shorts. How his tousled blond hair falls on his forehead and how his pale blue eyes glint under the sun.
Damn how irresistible he is.
He pulls his legs back, stretching while listening to the coach.
He switches to stretching his arm behind his head and turns around. His gaze meets mine.
I swallow, the urge to remove Aiden consumes me, but I resist it.
I want to see Levi’s reaction. I want to see him lose it like he did with Jerry and at the party.
At least that proves it isn’t a game for him.
Levi pauses mid-stretching and my heart thumps so loud, I can’t hear anything past it.
As if a robot took over his body, Levi turns around and continues walking with the coach towards the other players.
Something breaks in my chest.
If he hadn’t meet my gaze, I would assume I’m invisible.
Am I invisible?
“Huh.” Aiden drops his arm. “That failed.”
A sob catches in my throat.
Was everything that happened between us a stupid game?
How… could he?
I stand up and stride to the railings. My temper boils, and I know the moment I clutch the metal railings that I’ll say something stupid.
“Levi!” I call.
He doesn’t turn around or acknowledge me, but the entire team’s attention is on me. Dan shakes his head and Xander elbows Levi.
“King!” I shout. “If you don’t turn around this second, we’re over. Completely over, do you hear me?”
I wish I never said that. I wish he doesn’t turn around.
When he does, his eyes are completely washed out. I don’t recognise this Levi. Not at all.
It’s like an alien sucked his soul and left this person behind.
He smirks in that cruel, sadistic way. His next words undo me.
“We were never something to be over.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Levi
Losing a battle doesn’t mean ending the war.
* * *
The moment Aiden strolls into the locker room, I throw him against the wall with my forearm crushing his trachea.
“What the fuck were you doing?” I snarl in his emotionless face.
Murmurs break out around us from the rest of the team members. I should’ve left it alone until we got home, but the fire inside would’ve consumed me by then.
I was barely able to stop myself from climbing the fence and smashing Aiden’s face to the ground during practice.
He dared touch her.
He put his fucking hands on her.
The corner of his lips curls in a smirk. “It didn’t fail after all.”
I grab his arm — the same fucking arm he had around her shoulder — and twist it. “Do you want a cast?”
“Captain…” Cole approaches slowly. “We can talk it out. No need to break things....or bones.”
“Tell. Me,” I growl in my cousin’s poker face. “What the fuck were you doing?”
He remains silent, meeting my stare with one of his own. My hold tightens around his already twisted arm. I’m going to fucking break it and to hell if Jonathan makes me his slave.
I am, anyway.
Xander kicks Aiden’s leg. “Whatever it is, tell him, you little shit.”
“He’ll really break your arm,” Cole hisses.
Aiden’s expression doesn’t change no matter how much pressure I apply. The fucking psycho has become abnormally resistant to pain since that incident nine years ago.
“Yo, King.” Ronan stares at him with bugged eyes. “Mais tu es fous ou quoi? Do you want your arm broken?”
He doesn’t. But if a broken arm gets him what he wants, he wouldn’t mind.
“Who told you to keep your conversation with my father a secret?” Aiden finally speaks.
“Go near Astrid again, and I’ll fucking kill you.”
“Tell me the secret.”
“Pass.”
He smiles in a taunting way. “If you don’t give me what I want. I won’t give you what you want, either. Guess what, Lev. The game always starts with two kings on the chessboard.”
“One to nil, Aiden!” Ronan shouts, then says, “Ouch,” when Cole smacks the back of his head.
I smile and push Aiden against the locker with a shove.
I can punch him to death and cut him limb from limb, but physical strength doesn’t work on this little shit.
He said it himself, Smarter, not stronger.
To win, I have to play his way.
“So this is a game, huh?” I ask.
“Sure is.” He smirks, dusting his jacket.
“Very well. I’m making my first move today. Meet me in the car park.”
“Make it count, Lev.” With one last taunting smirk, he disappears behind the door.
I face the rest of the team and speak in my most authoritative tone, “If anyone goes near Astrid, they’ll have a personal problem with me. Do I need to repeat myself?”
“No, Captain.”
“Make that apply to the entire school.”
“Yes, captain.”
I throw a hand dismissing them and everyone goes back to their tasks.
All except for one.
Daniel glares at me and pushes my shoulder on his way out. “I don’t take orders from a coward captain.”
I grind my teeth, but I let it go. It’s not my midfielder speaking, it’s Astrid’s best friend.
After changing my clothes, I stop in front of the locker room with my back against the wall.
I might put up the facade, but I’m feeling too much chaos, it’s beginning to numb me.
I tried drowning in alcohol, but that shit’s never good. Not to mention that Coach will have my arse if I come to practice with a hangover.
Smoking is also off the table after the last erotic smoke I had with Astrid.
So I spent the entire night in a room I haven’t visited for years.
A room that’s changed fucking everything
The look on Astrid’s face when I told her we’re nothing still cuts through me like fucking knives.
Jonathan had to screw up my life in a completely different way.
I need time to figure this whole shitty situation out, but that doesn’t mean anyone can have Astrid.
Not Aiden.
Not Zachariah.
No. Fucking. One.
Chris trudges in the opposite direction towards Coach Larson’s office. I watch him from behind, tilting my head and narrowing my eyes.
I’ll deal with his drunken arse later. He’s off the team until he shows up without hangovers or as high as a kite.
Once I arrive at the car park, I spot Dan driving out. Alone.
Astrid must’ve gone home first.
She’s strong. She fucking has to be.
Because since the eye-opening chat with Jonathan, I’m starting to think I’m broken beyond repair.
“Interesting location for a battle.” Aiden’s mocking tone reaches me first before he slides against his car that’s parked opposite mine.
I throw my bag in the backseat and lean against the driver door, facing him and crossing my arms over my chest.
“What do you want Aiden?”
“Simple. Tell me what Father told you that you became so volatile.”
“Why do you want to know?”
“No one keeps me in the dark,” he shrugs.
“Seriously? You�
��re bringing out your guns for something as insignificant as this?”
“Insignificant battles win the war.” He pauses. “Now tell me what I need to know.”
“No.”
“I’m going after Astrid, then. Careful King, your own queen will bring you to your knees.”
My jerk reaction is to punch him in the face.
I don’t.
I should’ve known that Aiden will pine for my weakness. But the thing with Jonathan is none of his fucking business and it’ll remain that way.
“I look forward to spending more time with Clifford. Maybe I should join her and Sterling in bowling?”
“You do that.”
His narrows his eyes. “If you’re testing my bluff, then it’s your loss. You know I will do it.”
“I’m sure you will.” I nod in the opposite direction where a tall blonde walks in the direction of a small green car with her friend. “In exchange, I’ll have a go at Ice Princess.”
His smirk falls and his shoulders crowd with tension.
“I heard she can be fun and not so icy underneath the exterior.”
His right eye twitches.
Checkmate.
I slam my shoulder into his. “Stay the fuck away from Astrid.”
I climb into my car as he continues staring at her with darkened, angry eyes.
I don’t trust Aiden, but I trust whatever fucked up fixation he has on that girl since the first time he saw her last year.
She’s the same girl he’s been stalking on Instagram like a stage five creeper.
Now that Aiden’s taken care of, it’s time I focus on more pressing matters.
Like Jonathan and his fucking secret from hell.
Chapter Forty-Three
Astrid
If life punches you, punch right back.
* * *
A week passes and life goes on.
I guess.
I’ve been focusing on my therapy with Dr Edmonds. We even have two sessions in the same week now.
I still can't remember but talking to the doctor helps. I get to focus on something that’s not the arsehole who shall not be named.
Since the day he pretended he doesn't even know me, he has erased me from his existence. When he walks by me, he doesn’t spare me a glance.
It’s like I’ve become invisible again.
In exchange, I erased him from my existence, too.
Dr Edmonds says that I’m evading my problems. He said the same about the fact that I haven’t spoken to my father since he flew to Russia last week.
But well, the shrink doesn't know everything. He just needs to focus on helping me regain my memories.
I know, deep down, that Levi is hiding something from the day of my hit and run. That’s why he’s been so hell bent that I drop the case.
For months, I’ve been blinded by his wickedness and charm that I didn’t look harder into it.
Now, I’m not.
Now, I won’t stop until I uncover everything that has to do with my accident.
I’ll pluck that crown off his head and push him to the edge.
Maybe then, he’ll realise how it feels like to have your heart broken and watch as it bleeds out.
On Saturday, the home team wins and Ronan throws his usual party. Dan invited me to the game. I passed, but I didn’t pass on the party.
I don't run away anymore.
When any of Levi’s groupies calls me a slut, I call her a slut right back.
If anyone attempts to touch me, I punch them in the face.
I’m done being tolerable to their ridiculous bullying.
Dan stopped me from punching Jerry when he started talking shit again last week. He said, my artist hands need to be protected. Instead, he punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground on my behalf. He almost got suspended if it weren’t for my testimony.
“Best friends are made to punch people for you,” he said when I found him in detention that day.
“No, they don’t, bug.” I laughed.
“Well, they should. I’m totally adding it to the manual.”
Currently, I put my arm in Dan’s as we walk into Ronan’s mansion. Drunk teenagers fall on either side making out or cannonballing into the kidney-shaped pool.
A loud pop song I don’t recognise thumps through the speakers and many kids dance to it, spilling alcohol all around.
One would think that Ronan would try to wind down the chaos, but he’s betting with Xander about who can down more shots.
If the howling and the screaming by the side of the pool are of any sign, Ronan isn’t winding down the party any soon.
Where the hell do his parents disappear to?
I grab a drink from a server — because it’s totally normal to have servers and butlers at teenagers’ parties — and down it in one shot.
“Liquid courage this early?” Dan asks with a slight lift in his lips before he throws one, too.
I submit my hair. “Okay, how do I look?”
“Badass.” He pulls my cheek. “You should’ve gone wild before.”
By going wild, Dan means that I wore the sinfully short denim shorts that he made me buy on a dare last year.
My lips are painted red and my hair is pulled up into a messy ponytail that I spent an hour trying to make it look right.
I wore a strapless black top, but against Dan’s suggestions, I did put on my matching denim jacket.
I might want to feel powerful, but I still want to crawl back into my comfort zone.
Which won’t happen.
Thus liquid courage.
Dan and I down tequila shots for what seems like half an hour before he starts getting fidgety.
I push him in the direction of a second-year girl who’s been watching him the entire time. “Go shag.”
He waggles an eyebrow. “Wanna join?”
I make a face. “You suck, bug.”
“I can suck.”
“Eww, Dan. Now, I need bleach, thanks a bunch.”
He makes two guns as he walks backwards with a grin. “Call me and we’re out of here, okay?”
That’s some commitment for Dan.
Tonight is different. I’m not bailing out.
I down one more shot. Woah. The tequila here is strong enough to make me spin.
Wait. Am I the one spinning, or is the room?
Fun.
I came here to have fun.
Although my feet are unsteady, I keep going on zigzag lines towards the football team where Ronan’s having his drinking competition.
I steal a shot from a passerby and mumble a sorry here and there when I stumble upon someone — or two.
The plan is to watch from afar. Like really afar.
I hide behind a leaf that adds some shadow to my face.
See, not noticeable at all.
Heat creeps up my neck and my arms. It’s freaking hot in here.
I tap someone’s shoulder and give him my shot. “Hold this for me.”
“Sure thing, love.” He’s smiling down at me. I smile back, or I think I do as I take off my jacket and throw it somewhere behind me.
Much better.
“Thanks!” I take back my shot. “Oh, Knight! Go, Elites!”
“Woohoo!” He pauses. “Wait. Was Danny boy right? Do you have a high alcohol tolerance?”
I tap my chest. “I’m the man.”
His eyes glint as he takes me by the arm and drags to the rest of the team.
“No,” I whisper-hiss. “I’m supposed to watch from afar, dummy.”
He chuckles, the sound devious as he winks. “Believe me, love, this will be more fun.”
Xander uses his shoulder to push through the football players before we stop beside Cole and number thirteen.
I giggle.
I forgot the name of the one who threw the party.
“Look who I found!” Xander shouts over the guys hoots. “A competition for Ronan.”
Yup. Ronan. That’s his name.
“Oh, puhleeze, bitch.” Ronan wipes alcohol from his mouth, his cheeks red. “I can drink an entire galloon and still fuck two girls into oblivion.”
“You’re a pig,” I tell him in a semi-slurred tone.
Ooh and Aaah’s erupt around us. Cole clutches Ronan’s shoulder. “You need to prove your worth, little shit.”
“She’s on!” Ronan is in my face. “No one can beat the king.”
“I can beat any king,” I hiss, rolling off my imaginary sleeves.
“Woohoo!” Xander raises my arm. “It’s on, team. Let the bets roll.”
Aiden walks straight to the middle of the scene and pushes both Xander and Ronan off. “Leave, Clifford.”
Determination pumps in my veins as I place a finger on his shoulder and push him away. “No King will tell me what to do.”
“Hashtag burn.” Xander coughs as the others snicker.
I flip my hair back. “Are we doing this or what?”
Ronan offers me his hand. “Yes, my queen.”
I smile at the overdramatic tone he says it with.
Aiden shakes his head at his friends. “It’s your lives.”
In no time, Ronan and I are standing on top of a table with the entire team forming a circle around us.
All of them are chanting “Drink, drink, drink!”
The only rule of the game is that whoever falls is the loser.
My shots supplier is Xander and Cole is Ronan’s reluctant one.
In the beginning, I don’t really know what I’m doing until the buzzing of energy gets into my veins.
During the first shots, almost all the team is on Ronan’s side, chanting his number and his name.
Then, after a few rounds when I keep up with his pace, slamming one glass over the other, many of the team start chanting my name.
There’s something contagious about having so many people shouting my name and cheering me on.
“You’re going down!” Ronan slurs as both of us sway.
“No, you’re going down!” The ceiling is spinning, but I blink, bringing the shot to my lips.
I miss it and break into a fit of giggles when alcohol falls down my neck.
“He’s out!” The entire team yell, catching a falling Ronan.
“Hell yeah!” Xander shouts at a few guys by his side. “Pay up, bitches.”
