Page 77 of Trick Play
But that doesn’t make any sense. I shake my head. “She won’t talk to him. Or she hasn’t been. Not since Thanksgiving. I’m guessing he tried to convince her of that then.” I level a glare at Ellie. “Which wasn’t true then, either, in case you care. But why would she believe him now?”
Something in Ellie’s face tells me that it’s not Kilpatrick who ruined everything. “What do you know, Ellie? You went over there to find out what happened and help me out. So help me out.”
Her face turns mutinous, her arms crossing again as she stares me down. “I went over there to find out what was going on withmy friend. Who also wouldn’t answer my texts and my call went straight to voicemail like her phone is off. Which it is. Because she doesn’t want to talk to you or anyone else. She’s devastated.”
I take a step closer. “Ellie.” I’m barely holding my temper in check now. She knows exactly what went down, and she’s not telling me. How can I fix this if I don’t even know whose head to bash in?
Simon holds up a hand to me and turns Ellie to face him, running his hands up and down her arms. “I think I can say with confidence that the last thing Cal wants to do at this point is hurt Piper. Right?” The last word is accompanied by an edge and a meaningful glance in my direction.
“Right,” I confirm. At leastsomeone’s on my side, even if I did kinda throw him under the bus this afternoon. Still, if he can datemysister, and I can get over myself and be more or less okay with it, Kilpatrick should be able to get over himself and not hold me dating his sister against me. Even if nothing about our relationship has gone as I’d planned or hoped.
It’s been better.
“See?” he says to Ellie. “Cal just wants a chance to fix what’s wrong. He’s …” he hesitates, looking up at me. “He has feelings for her. Serious feelings.”
She glances at me too. “It wasn’t just an act? Because to Piper it all seems like just an act. And I can’t blame her, either. After what—” She clamps her lips shut, cutting off whatever else she was going to say.
“After what?” Simon prompts.
Ellie sags, her eyes closing as she rubs her forehead with one hand. “Her roommate Dani is good friends with some of your teammates.”
Simon nods. “Yeah. She’s a cool chick. She works out with us sometimes too.”
“Yeah, well, Eli Foster texted Dani that you’re using Piper to get at her brother.” She looks back and forth between us. “I’m guessing he heard whatever happened in the tape room? I don’t know what that means exactly, but Dani showed me the texts. She showed them to Piper too, because who wouldn’t if you got a text like that about your friend?”
My fists clench at my side. “Fucking Foster,” I mutter under my breath. Nosy little shit butting in where he doesn’t belong. Closing my eyes, I shake my head. Frustration at him, at the situation, but mostly at myself bubbles up inside me.
“Thanks for telling us,” Simon murmurs to Ellie. They move into the hall, exchanging a few more quiet words, and then my door closes.
But I’m not alone. “What’re you gonna do?” Simon asks.
Lifting my hands in a gesture of helplessness, I let them fall back to my sides. “I don’t know.”
Because what can I do? She won’t talk to me. And even if she would, based on Ellie’s reaction, I’m not sure,I was only interested in you to begin with to get back at your brother for stealing my starting spot but I fell in love with you somewhere along the way, is enough of an explanation or apology. The fact that the part of that statement I’m most worried about isn’t the L-word part is also saying something.
But the last guy she trusted used her too. For something far worse, in my opinion, but the fact that I tried to use her at all isn’t going to do much for her trust in me or anything else I have to say.
And telling her she was never supposed to find out won’t do any good either. How could it? If someone said that to me after screwing me over, it’d feel like a slap in the face, not an apology.
Sitting on my bed, I drop my head in my hands. “I have no fucking clue what to do, man. I’m not sure there’s any way to actually fix this.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Piper
True to my word, I get up the next morning and go to my final. I spend the afternoon in my room studying. I’d normally go to the library, but after turning my phone back on and seeing all the calls and texts from Cal and thinking back over how persistent he was in the beginning, the library’s dangerous. He knows I tend to go there, so odds are he’ll be looking for me there. He clearly wants to talk to me.
But I don’t want to talk to him.
I don’t want to hear whatever he has to say to try to make something okay that’s just not.
I also have another voicemail from my brother. But I delete that as well. I don’t need anI told you soany more than I need whatever half-assed apology or explanation I’ll get from Cal.
Dani gave me Eli’s number last night when I eventually emerged from my room. He filled me in on the conversation he witnessed. There’s no disputing the truth. He doesn’t have an angle to play and sounded genuinely apologetic to be the one to have to tell me. But he considers me a friend now, and he’d tell any of his friends if someone they were dating was using them like that. Which I really appreciate, even if it guts me. It’s hard to find friends who’ll stand by you with so much honesty and conviction. Though I guess even if Cal finds out that Eli’s the one who told me about his little plan, this is Cal’s last season. There’s not a lot he can do to Eli in the next month before the postseason is over. And after that, they’ll go their separate ways.
Still. I appreciate Eli telling me. He could’ve decided his loyalty is with his teammates, not some random chick who lives with his best friend.
When I get off the phone with Eli, I tip my head back against the couch and stare at the ceiling, drained. Everything about this is exhausting. All I want to do is go curl up in my bed and stare at the wall until I go to sleep. Just turn off my brain and ignore the world.
