Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 130380 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130380 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
I tried to find reason, tried to remind myself that I was a high school girl and these emotions would pass. That’s what Mom always told me when I was being dramatic. But nothing could pull the hurt, the rage from my heart — not this time.
That day fundamentally changed who I was.
The weak cage I’d tried to live in to please my parents, to be what they and everyone else in my life wanted me to be, was completely obliterated. I clawed at the bars, bending and warping them until I could step through. And on the other side, I was untamed, unfazed, unstoppable.
I decided right then and there that nothing and no one would ever hurt me again.
That evening, when Leo logged on and tried to request for me to play with him, I unfriended him. He called me immediately after, and when I didn’t answer, he sent a text that I didn’t even bother reading.
I blocked him on everything.
I unplugged my Xbox and made a plan to take it and all my games to GameStop and exchange it for a PlayStation, instead.
I shut the world out.
I shut who I used to be out.
And that night, when sleep wouldn’t come, I didn’t know a lot of things.
I didn’t know how much worse things would get at school the next day. I didn’t know that it was possible for an already-fractured heart to break even further. I didn’t know that those asshole friends of Leo’s took a picture of my drawing when I was busy looking at Leo. I didn’t know they’d make copies and plaster it all over school with my hideous freshman school photo, that pimple-faced porn freak would become a nickname I’d never escape in all my high school years. I didn’t know that Leo would laugh with them, that he’d never so much as look my way again, that he’d pretend I didn’t even exist.
The biggest surprise of all?
I didn’t know that six years later, when I was no longer even a semblance of the girl I was that summer I turned fifteen — Leo Hernandez would be my neighbor.
And a year after that… my roommate.
Now… Seven Years Later
Leo
“Coach! Coach!”
I turned, setting my cup of Gatorade down on the folding table just in time to save it before I was run over by three eight-year-old kids in full padding. I scooped one up under my arm while the other two collided with my legs, their little hands around my waist.
“Did you see that?!” Keon said, pointing back at the field. His helmet was a bit too big for him and his head wobbled with the weight of it when he looked back up at me. “I hit him with the stiff arm, just like you said!”
“Did not!” Jordan combatted, releasing his grip on my waist only long enough to shove Keon backward a bit.
“Did, too!”
“I tripped.”
“Yeah, because I pushed you. With my stiff arm.”
“Yeah, but I tackled you, Keon,” the little tyke under my arm pointed out, wiggling until I set him back down. “So that stiff arm doesn’t really matter.”
“I got twenty yards!” Keon combatted.
“Nuh-uh!” the other two said in unison, then they were all fighting, and I chuckled, bending until I was down on one knee and at their level.
“Alright, alright,” I said, grabbing two of them by their shoulders. I gave them each a look until they quieted. “Keon, that was a damn good run. You should be proud of it.”
Keon beamed.
“But,” I added quickly. “There’s a difference in someone who thinks he’s good and someone who knows it — the main one being that when you know it, you don’t need to brag about it.”
“Yeah, Keon,” Jordan said, crossing his arms.
“And Jordan, that was some great defense out there, but don’t be too proud to admit when you could have done better. Why do you think Keon was able to shove you off so easily with that stiff arm?”
Jordan looked down at his cleats. “Because I didn’t wrap him up.”
“You didn’t wrap him up,” I echoed.
“But I did!” Mason beamed.
I swiveled until my eyes were on him. “Twenty yards later.”
That quieted them all, though Keon wore a smirk.
“Look,” I said, pulling them all in a bit closer. “You all did good. But you all could have done better. And I hate to break it to you, but that’s football. In fact, that’s football on a good day. Most of the time, you’ll make mistakes that you know you shouldn’t make, and then you have to dust yourself off and get right back on the line for the next play.”
I pushed my finger into Keon’s chest.
“The most important thing is that you stay humble, remember why you love this game, and put your team above your own personal stats. Instead of ragging on each other, cheer each other on. Jordan, that was a hell of a run Keon had, wasn’t it?”