*FREE WITH PAID BONUS CHAPTER*After being dumped by her boyfriend, Elodie Shepherd resigns herself to loving her older brother's best friend from afar, just like she always has, even though he only sees her as his best friend's immature kid sister.
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Elodie's first week of school had, apparently, gone off without a hitch if our nightly conversations were anything to go by.
They weren't full of too much substance, our late night talks, but they helped me fill in some of the blanks regarding her life and her likes and her wants and her dreams for the future.
She was majoring in women's studies, and she had at first wanted to go to school to be a therapist and help those working through problems similar to her own, but something changed in her after something happened a year ago.
She didn't say what, but I could bet that it had to do with that underground fight with that man twice her size that left her broken and blue.
Her favorite color was purple, but not royal purple, more like a soft, pastel lavender, her favorite movie was Dirty Dancing, and her favorite flowers were lilacs.
She unfurled my own favorites, teasing me when I revealed my Transformers movie obsession, but we never dug underneath the surface like we had in the confines of the car after her dirt bike wreck.
She hadn't spoken about returning or going back to her equally reckless behavior, but I hope it wasn't just a matter of time before she went right back.
"Matthew, I'm sorry, I just don't see any way around this," my lawyer spoke on the other end of the phone as I left my most recent workout, sweat still slipping down my forehead and dripping in the cracks between my skin and the phone.
"You'll just have to submit to every drug test, the blood tests, and you'll need to do it soon. Tomorrow is when they've decided to have you come in to the doctor's office of their choosing. Mark has told me-"
"Mark doesn't need to be part of this conversation."
Mark, a.k.a. my manager, a.k.a. my father, was the least of my worries at this point.
My worries list went as follows:
1. Elodie's safety at that damned school 2. My spot on the team being forfeited by Eli's lies 3. Every damn thing else under the sky
So, no, my father didn't count until technically the very last bullet point in my head.
"You're officially suspended as of this point, and it doesn't seem like this will blow over by the time preseason is over. I'm sorry, sir, hopefully this will be cleared up by the end of the season and you'll be back in good standing, where you were last season."
I didn't want to be off an entire damn season. I'd rather be traded to another team than deal with that, but with the way the rumors are spreading, no one was going to want me, so it was up to me to stick it out and wait until they deemed me cleared.
"And when Eli comes out and tells the truth, will it even matter then?"
"I'm not sure. Once claims like these are out there, it can be hard to keep the lid on them, especially if someone as prominent as Mr. Shepherd comes to your defense. It could come off as a friend trying to save the other one, like he would be lying for your benefit to return to the team. Either way, it's a juvenile criminal record and there is proof. I'm sorry."
