Broken Beautiful Hearts(102)

“You put the note and the dead rabbit in my locker, didn’t you?” I should’ve known.

Reed whips around and grabs TJ by the throat. “A dead rabbit? That’s what you put in her locker?”

TJ grabs Reed’s wrist. “You said to scare her.”

Reed shoves him away. “We’ll talk about that bullshit later.”

“You’re a sick bastard.” Owen is starting to lose it.

The Twins step in front of him. “Not here, man.”

“Peyton is right.” Reed heads for the street, with TJ and Billy trailing behind him like stray dogs. “I’ll see you tonight, Owen. Nine o’clock.”

Owen’s chest heaves, rising and falling too fast, as he watches Reed go.

“We’d better get our asses to practice,” Titan tells the Twins. Their coach is still standing out front, watching them.

The guys take off.

“I want to talk to Owen for a minute,” I tell Grace.

“I’ll wait for you by my car,” she says.

“Calm down, Owen. Please.” He looks almost as angry as he did last night.

“I’m calm. I’ll deal with him tonight.”

“You can’t meet him tonight. He’s talking about an underground fight.”

“Whatever. It’s a rematch.”

I stand in front of him and touch his face to get him to look at me. “Have you ever been to an underground fight?”

He shrugs. That’s a no.

“There are no rules, no refs, no cutman, and no paramedics if something happens. It’s last man standing, literally.”

“Then I’ll be the last man standing.”

“Did you hear what I just said?” I ask. “There are no refs. No bell. No doctors. No equipment if something happens to you. If your heart—”

“I don’t care about that.”

“You don’t care if you die? Is that what you’re saying?” I can’t stand it.

“I’ll be fine.”

“You don’t know that. Reed fights dirty. And he has clearly gone off the deep end. He’s on steroids, Owen.”

“I have to go.” Owen’s eyes lock on mine. “He hurt you.” He runs his thumb down the side of my cheek. “I can’t live with that. Whether you want to be with me or not, I can’t just suck up the fact that he pushed you down a flight of steps and pretended like it didn’t happen. He could’ve killed you.”

This isn’t just about me, even if Owen doesn’t realize it.

“I understand why this is so hard for you. You couldn’t protect your mom and we didn’t know each other when Reed pushed me, so you couldn’t protect me, either. But risking your life won’t change what happened to your mom. And she wouldn’t want you to take this kind of a chance.”

“I can’t just let him get away with hurting you.”

My frustration turns to anger. “Don’t act like you’re doing this for me.”

“I’m not doing it for you. I’m doing it because of you. Because of what he did to you.”

“No, you aren’t. You’re doing this for yourself.”

That gets his attention.

Owen looks at me, his eyes full of pain. “I don’t care about myself.”

“That’s the problem. I do. And if you care about what I want and what would hurt me, you won’t go tonight. Because if something happens to you, that would hurt me more than anything Reed has ever done.”

“You can’t say that.”

“I’m saying it. I’m telling you that I don’t want you to go. And if I matter to you as much as you say I do, you won’t.”

Owen drags his hands through his hair, like he wants to yank it out. “What if you can’t play again because of him? What if you lose your spot at UNC?”

“Don’t do that. You don’t have to worry about my knee or what happens with UNC. That hasn’t changed since yesterday. What you should care about are my feelings. And I’m telling you that it will hurt me more than anything if something happens to you—especially if Reed is involved. He wouldn’t ask you to meet him if he didn’t have an ulterior motive. He’s been following me around. His friend put a dead animal in my locker. Doesn’t that show you there’s something seriously wrong with him?”

“I have to do this.”

“If you go there tonight, I won’t be waiting afterward—not as your friend or anything else.” A tear escapes and runs down the side of my face.

“Don’t say that. We’re more than just friends, and no matter what, we’ll always be friends.”

“Not if you do this. I can’t watch you self-destruct.” I’ve been down this road before. Owen is nothing like Reed, but the conversation feels familiar.

“It’s gonna be fine, I promise.” Owen reaches for me, but I pull away.

“It’s me or the fight, Owen. You have to choose.”

The look in his eye gives me the answer before he says it. “Don’t do this, Peyton. I can’t let him get away with what he did to you. He physically hurt you—so bad that you needed surgery.”

“You didn’t hear a word I said.” I back away, and my heart feels like it’s being ripped to pieces.