bruised || h.g

ch.14 "love is a game"

Hayes Point Of View

I won second place in the track race and the first thing I did was look around for Tess, but she was no where to be found. My smile slowly faded when I looked in the stands because the one person I was excited to see was not there. Tess & Nash were both missing and I was confused to why.

Sky ran from the stands to see me. She hugged me tightly her small body squeezing me.

"Good job!!" Sky cheered.

"Thanks Sky" I kissed her head softly setting her down. I watched as she stood by my side and my parents followed.

"Great job son, Proud of you" My dad said giving me a hug.

"You did amazing kiddo!" My mom kissed my cheek. Naturally I was embarrassed with all my friends around "Mooommm" I whined.

"I'm sorry, We'll be in the car when you're finished" Mom apologized.

"Where's Tess & Nash?" I asked.

"They left about a half hour ago"

I nodded my head slowly kind of hurt. Why would she just leave? It made no sense at all.

When I got home I made sure to text Tess right away.

Me: Why did you leave my race? I was looking for you..😔

I sent the text and was just not having a good time.. I was bored. I didn't want to hangout with the guys all I wanted to do was hangout with Tess but she was ignoring me. I know it seems like I'm just using her, but I'm not anymore. Yeah in the beginning I was, but now I'm actually starting to really like her. The way she smiles when I compliment her, she turns fire truck red and refuses to look me in the eye. The way her dark brown chocolate eyes flicker when she's talking about something she's passionate about is my favorite. How she trusts me with her past, she put herself out there because she believes in me. She trusts me. Along the way of tricking her to fall for me, I think I fell myself. Last night, when she had a nightmare, I watched her sleep not in a creepy way but just how peaceful and pretty she looked, without even trying. She amazes me.

Aubrey never did the thing she does, Tess makes me want to strive to be the best possible me I can. When I was with Aubrey, it was all about keeping my "I get chicks" image. But when I'm with Tess, I feel like I can be with myself.

I checked the message I sent Tess 15 minutes ago, She read it right away but never responded. I texted again.

Sent: Hello?😁 Are you like mad at me or something?

I heard the door open and close when I saw Nash & Tez walk in.

"Whuddup lil dude!" Tez greeted me.

"Hey man" I replied.

"Why'd you & Tess leave my race?" I asked kind of pissed.

Nash rolled his eyes "I'm not talking to you"

"Why? What did I do?" I asked even more confused.

"I know what you're doing, and it's fucked up hayes. You can't just do things to people without thinking how it's going to affect them" Nash said.

"What are you talking about?" I said completely lost.

"You're little bet about Tess, I know about it."

"Wait... What?" I stuttered.

"Yeah. & So does Tess. It's over dude, she's done with you. And frankly, I'm super dissapointed in you. Never thought you would turn out this way, trading girls' feelings for ski passes and twenty bucks. That's low, even for you" Nash answered.