Knee Pads

19 | point of no return

CHAPTER NINETEEN | POINT OF NO RETURN

a line demarcating where the penalty box ends. if a skater passes the point of no return they must skate round the track in the ref lane again to enter the penalty box from a counter-clockwise direction.

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          I couldn't breathe. I couldn't speak. I couldn't think.

          I'd never handled violence too well. I was all growl, no bite, running away from the drama I'd created as soon as things started getting serious, and I'd never expected things to escalate to the point of people getting punched in the face. Though I wasn't proud of it by any means, sometimes taking the passive-aggressive route was the high road, and I would have gotten away with it had no one else gotten involved.

          Then, Corinne was on the floor, blood smeared all over her mouth and chin, and Drew was seconds away from doing the same to the guy who had shoved her to the concrete. She looked up at me, eyes wide open in panic, then at Drew, and I understood what she wanted me to do.

          The main issue was that she and I were pretty much the same height and my upper body and arm strength was laughable, so there wasn't much I could do to pry Drew off that guy before he tore his face off. It was only then that it dawned on me just how massive of a guy Drew was, especially since I mostly saw him sitting down, hunched over a book. I'd never seen him on the field, standing straight, and beating someone black and blue.

          "Stop it!" I pleaded, trying to pull him back with Kat and Marley's help. Drew would have no trouble knocking someone else's front teeth out, and I didn't doubt for a second he'd protect Corinne to the ends of the Earth. However, we were the guests here, which left us a lot more vulnerable to punishment, justified or not, and I wouldn't let them get in trouble or cost us two games over something I should have handled by myself. "Drew, back off!"

          He tried to shrug me off with his shoulder, which wasn't hard to do, and I nearly lost my balance had I not been somewhat expecting him to not care. He was there for one reason only, and that reason was the only person who could bring him back to reality and convince him to stop before he did something stupid.

          It took the combined efforts of three people to pull him back, though most of the guy's friends hadn't even tried to break them up, probably scared they'd also end up getting hurt. Drew and his bloody knuckles were a scary sight and I couldn't blame them for wanting to stay away, but why hadn't they left me alone when it was clear I didn't want to speak to them? Why would they only listen to a man or why would they only react to violence? Why didn't my words and feelings matter to them?

          "Drew, please," Corinne begged, in one last attempt to wake him from his blind fury, and it was like she'd flipped a switch in his brain. He stopped, lowering his arms, and took two steps back, like nothing had happened, but this was something he couldn't pretend wasn't real. "Not before the game."

          The game hardly mattered now, I thought. All of us should have other priorities, including leaving before we got caught, praying no one had seen us or that we wouldn't be ratted out, and get cleaned up. Corinne was shaking when I helped her up, but her facial expression remained blank, as though she was still processing everything that had just happened. I didn't judge her for that, as it was a miracle anyone had had the strength of spirit to react and do something, but it still felt so unlike her.

          "You're done," the guy threatened, pointing his index finger at Drew, and began walking away with his friends. "You're done. It's over."

          "Don't," Kat chimed in, as soon as Drew opened his mouth to answer. Even an insult would be better than launching himself into a fist fight again and, the sooner we got out of there, the better. "You need to go get cleaned up and take a deep breath before the game. We can't win without our quarterback, and we're not losing to Harvard. Get your act together."