Runaway - A DEVIL'S NIGHT FANFICTION (PTBR + ENG)

Chapter 7 - Ivar

Nowadays...

Holy shit.

For the past four years, I had no problem sticking to my plan. I promised to take care of Mads and the others, and I did.

I got my grades up, started talking to everyone even if in a forced interest, joined the basketball team, trained day and night - and not only with my teammates, but with my father and my uncles as well - until I became captain of the team, went to parties and dances and did everything I had to do, and when Beth came into my life, I considered it more of a consequence or a reward for my efforts.

We had been each other's first, but the more we had sex the more Beth became enthusiastic about what we were doing while I seemed increasingly numb.

At first, I remember being excited with each advance and each "base" we surpassed, as if this was also another game I had to win, but by our second time, I remember wondering if this was all it could be and after that I put myself more and more on autopilot each day.

And I never told anyone how I felt, but the day my father caught us in my car, on the last Devil's Night – while he was having "the talk" with me – I came close to talking to him about it.

The problem is that my father always managed to decode me very well, and for someone who had a father as shitty as his, he could be proud, because he was very good at it. Sometimes even too good. So, when he asked if I felt good and comfortable when I was with Beth, I knew he was seeing the problem that I was purposely trying to ignore, so I lied, assuring him that we were fine and that we were being responsible.

And after I promised him that I wouldn't make him a grandfather until he was in his fifties, he seemed satisfied, letting the matter die.

But I knew the difference between my parents' relationship - which to this day made my brothers and me knock at least three times on their bedroom door before considering entering - and my relationship with Beth.

Still, I continued to play my part and be the best boyfriend I could be, as well as the best player on the team and the guy my teammates looked up to when they needed a best friend.

One of these guys was Ryan Brown, who joined the team the same year I did, and who stuck by me in the same gradual way that Beth did. Ryan was a nice guy, but he didn't know when to stop and I always ended up being responsible for bringing him back home when we went to parties. And he really loved parties. Almost as much as girls, having already hung out with Beth's entire team and having played with every single girl in the band.

Now, however, he was going to have to make an exception. There was no way I was going to let him do what he did with the other girls, with Nini.

"Man, I think I'm in love," he says as he sits down next to me again, after having stood up to applaud Nini who is still staring at me in the middle of the court.

Although this is a record time for him to say this, this is not the first time I have seen him declare his passion for a girl he has just met.

"Hook, get a hold of yourself, man," I warn him, unable to move.

"Come on, Ivar! Did you see what she did? How she was looking at me while dancing? - he declares, completely deluded. – "And don't worry, I'm sure you're hard too. Fuck, man, can you imagine being a cousin to a hot chick like that and not being able to do anything about it?"

"We're not cousins," I immediately deny, sitting up and taking a deep breath, bending my body so he can't see that he's right.

I am hard.

"Is that why you said she was Mads' girlfriend when we were in the cafeteria?" - Ryan asks, standing up and stepping off the bleachers. – "Were you trying to protect your little cousin from me? Don't worry, man. She'll have nothing to complain about and will be well taken care of, trust me."