Chapter 45
Ethan
‘If you’re going to get the academy spot, you’ll have to do better than that,’ Assad shouts as he tackles me cleanly, stealing the ball and racing away down the pitch.
‘And you’re gonna have to do better than that,’ I say when he pegs the ball at the net, right into Michael’s open arms. ‘Good try though, another six or seven years’ practice and you’ll get there.’
‘Ah, fuck off.’ Doubled over, digging his hands into his side, he jerks his chin behind me. ‘Isn’t that the fabled roommate? Did you leave your dishes in the sink again, you filthy hound?’
‘Mia!’
Spinning on the studs in my boots, my heart jumps when I see her, ripped jeans, blue button-down, hair pulled back. But something’s wrong. She doesn’t return my smile.
‘Is it true?’ she demands, walking right up to me, knuckles white on both hands.
‘Hey,’ I start to say, but the ground is already out from underneath me.
Unless she found out about that time I broke into my high school coach’s house and took photos in his wife’s wedding dress on a dare, there’s only one thing she could be talking about.
‘Is it true?’ she asks again, yelling this time.
The world slants to one side and it’s a struggle to stay on my feet as everything I thought I had a hold of slides out of reach and straight into the trash. The look on her face is agonizing. There’s no point asking, no point trying to defend myself. She knows.
It’s all over.
‘Depends what you’ve heard,’ I say coolly. ‘But yeah, I’m guessing it is.’