Delicate ― Kevin Day

01. into the foxhole

[trigger warnings: allusions to child abuse; mentions of scars, past drug use, past addiction & withdrawal, past overdose, & violence/fighting]

◍

"IT'S VERY... BRIGHT," Bonnie offered.

"That is the ugliest shade of orange I have ever seen in my life, " Violet declared, much to the chagrin of her mother.

"It's a nice-looking stadium," Logan said, pulling the obnoxiously sleek rental car into the almost barren parking lot. He sounded genuinely surprised.

Hadley rolled her eyes, opening the backdoor as soon as Logan stopped the car. She ignored his offer to join her, cutting him off with a slam of the door before making her way into the stadium. She punched in the code from her coach's email, and tugged the heavy door open, letting it fall shut loudly behind her to announce her presence.

She made her way through the hall, finding the office of her collegiate coach. The door was propped open with a doorstop, but Hadley stopped in front of it, not going in.

David Wymack was already looking up, looking as impressed with her as her stepsister with the stadium. "Dyer," he said. "Glad you could make it."

Hadley said nothing. Coming to Palmetto already felt like enough of a defeat without her coach's surprise that she'd done so.

Coach Wymack took her silence in stride, opening up one of his desk drawers. "Is your family helping you move in?"

"Unfortunately," Hadley mumbled.

He tossed her a key, and she caught it in both hands. "Your roommates moved in earlier," he informed her. "You got one of the last move-in slots."

"Lucky me."

He hardly batted an eye at her blank tone. "Team meeting's at two," he said. "Matt Boyd already offered to give you a ride—he's already taking your roommates, and there's room in his truck."

"Great. Is that it?"

Wymack nodded. "I'll see you at two, Dyer."

Hadley spun on her heel and made her way back outside, getting back into the car. "Let's go."

Logan pulled the car back out of the parking spot and started the short drive to Fox Tower—Hadley's home for the next year. Or week. It was a waiting game to see how long she would last.

This parking lot only had a few more cars than the stadium. Logan pulled up to the curb, looking up questionably at the dorm building—he's had reservations about Palmetto State since Wymack's initial recruitment, and those reservations seemed to double as he spotted a guy in a PSU Exy t-shirt smoking a cigarette smack in front of the NO SMOKING sign.

"It may not be too late for USC," he said as he stopped the car, keeping the engine idling.

"USC didn't offer me a full-ride," Hadley said.

He looked at her through the rearview mirror. "I told you, Hadley, you don't need a full-ride—"

Hadley had heard the lecture several times since her commitment to Palmetto and was wholly uninterested in hearing it again. She opened the door again and got out before he could finish his sentence.

Violet was the first one out to follow, bouncing from the balls of her feet to the tips of her toes. She was a whooping four years younger than Hadley, but anyone who looked at them would think the age difference was bigger. Violet had been spared of the rough-and-tumble childhood her older stepsister had been subjected to, and it showed in her easy smile and relatively lighthearted nature.