Chapter 7
Willa
“I don’t want to talk about that.” Vic stands from his bed and pulls his jeans on. “We have months to figure that shit out.”
All I said was that the team in Utah was interested in signing me. I didn’t even mention anything about graduation or ask what his plans are.
“I’m not.” I pull the sheet up to cover my bare chest. “I was just excited.”
He picks up his shirt and gives me that look that he knows exactly what I’m thinking about.
“You’ve been finding ways to bring it up and are ruining our last fall semester.” He pulls his shirt on and sits on the edge of my bed. “We have less than a month left before winter break. I have to worry about the ski trip and finals. This discussion can wait.” He pouts and smooths my hair back away from my face.
Last week it was Drake’s birthday he was planning for, and now with that done, it’s something else.
“And we have that party tonight.” He smiles at something on his phone.
“I have a game tonight.”
“Huh?” He’s not even listening.
“You said you’d be there.” I attempt to get his attention by rubbing his knee. “You’re coming to my game, right?”
“I thought it was a day game.” Vic puts his phone down and runs his hand through his thick dark unruly hair. I used to think the messy look was sexy. Now, it just looks lazy.
“It’s a night game. The guys have a day game.” Getting annoyed, I sit up to find my clothes. “You said you’d be there.”
Vic hasn’t made one game this semester. Not a single one.
“We have that party. You know I have to be home for it.” He stands over me and rubs my shoulders.
“There’s always a party.” I move his hands off me. “You guys have a party almost every day. You haven’t been to a game yet.”
Vic opens his mouth, but a knock on my door interrupts him.
“Come in,” I say once I have my shirt and shorts on.
“This came for you.” Jocelyn sticks her head in and passes me a brown paper bag and a paper cup of what smells like coffee. “I told Luca you were busy, but he left these on the porch for you.”
Inside the bag is a rainbow bagel with walnut raisin cream cheese, and there’s definitely coffee in the cup. It’s Luca’s way of apologizing, but I can’t deal with him right now.
“Vic.” Jocelyn nods to greet him. “I think this is the first time I’ve seen you sober in a while.”
“Good morning, Jocelyn.” He smirks. “I’m sad we haven’t seen more of each other.”
“Thanks for dropping this off.” I stand between them and guide Jocelyn out to finish our conversation. “She’s right. You barely come around and are always drunk for these parties you can’t miss.”
“It’s our senior year, Willa.” He shakes his head with a heavy scoff. “I don’t know what you want from me. I spent the night here.”
“Because you were too drunk to make it home.” I toss my bagel on my desk. I’m mad at Luca, but I’m going to need that bagel after this conversation.
“Don’t start a fight.” He lowers his chin to peer down at me. “We had fun last night. Let’s just have fun. What more do you want?”
“I want you to come to my game.” It’s the least he could do for me. I want so much more from him, but if he can do this, then there’s hope for more. “It’s a big game against our rivals that we need to win. I want you there.”
“Fine.” He pulls me in and kisses my forehead. “I’ll be there.”
“You will?” I look up at him, hopeful that he may actually realize how important this is to me.
“If that’s all you want.” His bottom lip sticks out as he pulls me in for a kiss. “I love you, Willa. I thought I proved that already.”
“You have.” I rub his thick arms. “This game is important to me, but so is figuring out where we’ll be after graduation.”
“Willa,” Vic groans and pulls away from me to get his shoes on.
“We don’t have to talk about it now, but can we after finals? Before winter break?” I sit next to him and beg.
“We’ll see.” He touches his finger to my nose. “I have… stuff to do today.” He slips his jacket on. “Last night was good.” The shrug he gives tells me otherwise. “I’ll text you later when I’m at your game.”
Vic isn’t anywhere in the stands as we warm up for our game.
He said he’d be here, but he’s broken his promise several times before.
“Where is he?” I mutter to myself.
Everything feels off. I haven’t been playing like myself lately and everyone sees it. This was supposed to be my best semester. I’d be lucky to get an offer from the Bobcats at this point.
“He’s not coming.” Jocelyn stretches down next to me. “Focus on the game.”
I nod to agree with her, but I’m the first one off the ice and immediately pull out my phone once we’re back in the locker room. I don’t have much time before we have to go back out again for the start of the first period.
Me: Vic, where are you?
Vic: Something came up. I’m not going to make it.
I quickly call him to figure out what’s going on.
“Vic, you promised you’d come,” I whisper into the phone as he answers and music blasts in the background.
“The party started earlier. I can’t drive.” That’s such crap. We’re close enough that he could walk if he really wanted to be here.
“You could walk.” My desperation cracks through the phone as I try not to cry.
“I can barely stand, baby.”
He muffles the phone, but I still hear the female voice talking to him. “I can help you to your room,” she says in a muffled tone.
I close my eyes, hoping I’m just hearing things.
“Come over later.” Vic comes back on. “I have to go.”
“Please, stop doing this.” I mutter through my tears, but I’m not sad. I’m angry. “If you do this, we’re over.”
“We’ll talk later.” The music in the background of his party gets lower. “After you’ve calmed down, you’ll be ok.”
He hangs up before I can say anything, and Jocelyn pats my back to warn me that our head coach has come in to give us his usual pre-game speech.
I’m so mad that he couldn’t do this one thing for me. I know exactly what he’s doing right now, and it involves the woman I heard through the phone. I’m such a fool for letting it happen.
He’s humiliating me. Everyone sees it.
I zone out through Coach Higgins’ speech and through most of the game. I’m on autopilot, but even my muscle memory of skills isn’t helping me get through this.
We’re getting creamed. One of the goals scored against us had been tipped off my stick. It was a scramble in front of the net and no one else saw it, but while trying to get the puck out from the crease, I accidentally tipped it into our team’s net.
Getting desperate, I attempt to stop a player with my stick and nearly take her head off. It’s the first penalty I’ve gotten all year.
I sit in the sin bin, feeling nothing. The small penalty box is where I should stay all game. My team is playing better without me.
Jocelyn keeps passing me by with a shake of her head and then proceeds to focus on rallying everyone else up to come back from my horrible game.
Coach Higgins keeps me on the bench for the first half of the third period, but we’re already losing by two. He puts me back in, and I’m on the ice for less than ten seconds when the other team gets a breakaway and another goal. I was right there. She skated past me and I froze.
All I had to do was chase after her and put on some kind of pressure so she’d miss the goal. I did nothing.
“Fuck,” I scream as the lamp lights up for her goal. In a fit of rage, I wind back and break my stick against the side of the boards. The bottom half goes flying as the wood splinters.
The closest referee blows his whistle in my face, and I’m taken out of the game for unsportsmanlike conduct. They should’ve taken me out sooner.
Carter
Pieces of Willa’s stick fly out across the ice after she angrily slams it into the boards.
“Oh,” all the guys in our house howl as we watch the game from our living room.
“Fuck,” Luca grumbles as his best friend gets taken out of the game over the television.
“She’s going to get suspended for that.” Alex shakes his head.
“Something isn’t right.” Luca gnaws on his lip.
“Aye, that’s not like her,” Finn agrees.
They all have something to say about their friend, but neither one of them moves from the couch to go and find out what’s really going on.
Without saying a word, I slip out of the house and head straight to the source of Willa’s pain. I’ve seen that look on her face many times before, only it’s when I’m looking in the mirror and thinking of the man that ruins my life.
I’m not surprised there’s a party at the Kappa house. They always find an excuse to celebrate. Whether it’s a birthday or someone took a good sized shit, they’d memorialize the occasion with funnels of beer until they pass out.
“Hey, Carter.” A chick slides her hand down my arm as I scan the large open room. “You played a great game today.”
We barely squeaked out our win and I couldn’t score a goal if my life depended on it. But sure, we played great.
“Not tonight.” I brush her hand off my torso.
There’s no sign of Vic inside and they didn’t set up any tables out front. I double check the back, but there are only a few guys bearing the cold, and none of them are Willa’s shithead boyfriend. That leaves his bedroom.
“Which one is Vic’s room?” I stop a girl coming out from the hallway off the kitchen.
“Second door on the left.” She doesn’t hesitate to answer.
I give the door two quick raps of my fist and give him a chance to pull his pants up.
“Go away,” he shouts from inside over the sound of soft moans.
Nope, I don’t think I will go away.
Stepping back, I lift my heel up and give the door a hard kick with my heavy boot like I’ve done many times before when clearing a house while a fire rages somewhere inside. The only fire raging tonight is the one boiling the blood in my veins.
The girl who is not Willa in his bed screams and covers her bare breasts with her hands.
“What the fuck?” Vic pulls his dick out of her.
It’s interesting to see it from this side, barging in on two people fucking rather than being the one interrupted.
I rush in and shove Vic against the wall, spearing my shoulder into his midsection. His fists come down hard against my back. I pull away to come back into him, but his raised knee stops me as it meets my mouth.
I step back with a laugh and wipe blood from my lip, waiting for Vic to pull on his boxers to go back for more.
“What’s your fucking problem?” He looks from me to Deanna in his bed, scrambling to get her tight dress back on.
“You.” I swing my fist against his cheek.
He comes at me in full force, knocking me back against his dresser.
“You don’t fucking deserve her,” I shout and grapple him to the floor as we both throw punches.
He’s a better fighter than I thought he’d be.
“I’ll date and fuck whoever I fucking want.” He matches me hit for hit. “You don’t have a shot in hell with her.”
I don’t, but Willa deserves better than either of us.
The music from inside has turned off and several guys come running in to either watch or stop us.
Drake jumps onto the floor between us as Braxton pulls me back.
“Knock it off,” Braxton barks out orders and shoves me toward the door.
“You’re a cheating bastard,” I shout over Braxton’s shoulder at a fired up Vic. “If you ever cheat or hurt her again, you’ll have to answer to me each and every time.”
“Go,” Braxton shoves me out of the room, but I get a good look at Vic cleaning his wounds with his debauched best friend licking them. Drake supports Vic’s behavior. They encourage each other to be complete dicks to any woman.
“Jesus Christ,” Braxton rushes me out to the front porch. “What the hell was that about?”
“I don’t like the way he treats his girlfriend.” I spit out the blood from inside my mouth onto a bush over the ledge.
“Neither do I, but you don’t see me trying to beat the shit out of him.” He pulls out a joint and offers me a hit after lighting it up.
“I’m good.” I raise my hand to decline his offer.
“A hit might calm you the fuck down,” he grumbles. “I appreciate the shit you do for us, but you can’t come in here beating the crap out of my brothers.”
If it wasn”t for me, most of the Kappas would be in jail. I talked to Sergeant Calder at the local police department and convinced him to turn a blind eye to all the shit they do, as long as no one gets hurt. In turn, Braxton and a few other Kappa’s keep their parties clean. No hard drugs and respect for every woman. They also paid me.
“He’s disrespecting Willa.” I point back at the house. “I thought you were supposed to stop any of that from happening.”
Being the president of their fraternity, Braxton is to keep watch over his brothers and make sure they aren’t hurting these girls that come in and out of their house.
“Willa, does it to herself.” He takes a long drag before snuffing it out. “I’ve tried to show her, but she doesn’t want to see it. He’s cheating on her. He’s not beating her up.” Braxton tries to calm me. “If he was hurting her, she’d leave him.”
You’d think she’d do that, but there are plenty of tough women out there getting gaslighted every day by weak men that are too insecure in themselves to keep their women any other way.
Braxton leans against the porch ledge with a laugh. “After seeing what she did with that stick, I think she can take care of herself.”
He watches the replay on his phone. It’s going to be all over school. The always cute and tiny Willa has a temper. They’ll spin it however they want.
“I’m going to shove that stick up Vic’s ass.” I grumble and lean over the ledge while letting out a deep breath.
Braxton nudges my arm several times to get my attention and leaps over to block the front door just as Willa storms up the path. Her hair is still wet from her post game shower, and her breath is coming out in large white puffs into the cold.
“Move out of my way,” she huffs with her fists clenched at her sides.
“I can’t let you go in there like this.” Braxton stands his ground.
“Stop protecting him,” she groans out her frustration with a stomp of her foot. “He’s broken too many promises.”
“I’m protecting you too.” He looks to me for help, but I’d rather see her go in there and kick some ass. “I’m sure you’re already in trouble for the stunt at the game.”
“I’m just going to talk to him.” She steps back with a huff. Her hard stance deflates back. “Where is he?”
“Most likely still cleaning off his wounds.” The crack of my knuckles gets her attention.
“What did you do?” Her big blue eyes wildly search my hands and face for any clues.
“What someone should’ve done a long time ago.”
Her mouth drops open.
“He’s fine.” Braxton interrupts us.
It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell her exactly what I walked in on; Vic with his dick buried in Deanna’s pussy, but she’s already visibly upset.
Her hands run through her wet hair as she tries to look around Braxton’s tall frame.
“He’s fine,” I mutter, annoyed at her for worrying over her piece of shit boyfriend.
“I don’t need you to fight for me,” she snaps. “Nothing good ever comes from swinging your fists. I would’ve thought you’d understand that.”
We glare at each other.
Willa doesn’t know anything. It’s a mere guess at what I go through.
“Willa, he’s not worth it.” Jocelyn comes running to the house after her friend. “You’ve already been suspended from playing, don’t make it worse.”
“I’m not.” She shakes her head in disappointment. I’m used to the look, but my gut twists at seeing it now. “Dave Schultz here, has already done that.” She points to me with the mention of arguably hockey’s biggest goon, known for fighting.
“He’s still in his room.” Braxton pockets his phone after sending a text out to warn whoever of Willa’s presence. He steps aside, and she scurries past him to find her precious boyfriend and care for his injuries.
“Did you kick his ass?” Jocelyn leans against the same post I am with a seductive smirk.
“Yup.” I leer at her, but I’m not feeling it tonight. I’d rather sleep it off.
“It felt good, didn’t it?” She grins and peeks her tongue out to lick the corner of her lip.
“Yeah. See ya around.” I straighten myself up to not give her hope of something happening tonight. Jocelyn’s beautiful, but she’s always flirting with me and giving me those looks. I’m not interested in hurting anyone’s feelings.
It felt good to punch the shit out of Vic, but it kills me to think all I did was help Willa and him make up. She’ll take care of him and apologize for my actions rather than finally standing up for herself.
Who knows? Maybe if I didn’t intervene, she would’ve been the one to walk in on him and Deanna.
I ruin everything.