The Hardest Fall(76)
It seemed like every time she took a breath, I got hard just watching her chest rise and fall, my hands itching to touch her skin, her lips, her neck, her chin, her hands, her legs, her delectable ass. She was slowly killing me, and from everything I knew about her, she didn’t have a single clue what she was doing.
Every time I saw her, I had more and more trouble remembering why I couldn’t be with her. While I was going crazy for her, day after day, she was still seeing him. I told myself it wasn’t possible, that I was blowing things out of proportion, but all the little clues were there. Just because I hoped I was wrong, hoped it would end any day now, that didn’t change the outcome or the facts. She had something going on with Coach, and it was fucking with my head like nothing else ever had in my entire life. I didn’t believe their families were friends. I didn’t know what to believe, but I didn’t believe that. I couldn’t imagine Zoe being with him; she wasn’t that kind of girl, yet…
On top of everything, I barely had time to do anything. I was either working on a paper or in the weight room, getting my ass kicked by our trainers. It didn’t help that I was keeping a secret from Chris, maybe several. Oh, he knew his dad was seeing someone again—he’d told me that just a week before—but they always knew when his dad was having an affair. The thing he didn’t know was that the apartment I was staying in was actually his father’s, and he didn’t know that Zoe was also staying in his father’s apartment. He had no idea what it all meant.
Weeks had passed since Zoe had photographed our away game, since I’d seen her with another guy and came close to losing it in front of everyone. We still hadn’t sat down and had our talk. Some days I thought she was avoiding me on purpose, some days we just didn’t have the time, and some days I wanted to do nothing but sit down next to her on the floor in front of the couch and just have dinner while talking about nothing in particular. Halloween had passed, we had lost and won more away games and home games, and this crazy thing I was starting to feel for her wasn’t going anywhere, despite the circumstances.
I no longer gave a damn about how wrong it was to mess with someone else’s girl because I couldn’t accept the fact that she either really was someone else’s girl—if she was, I was the world’s biggest fucking idiot for starting to fall for my friend—or she was in a really fucked-up, weird situation with my coach. If that was the case, I was ready to fix it.
The only upside of feeling frustrated to no end when living with the girl I thought should be with me and not some other bastard was that I worked harder than I ever had in my life. All my trainers were impressed. Chris and I were perfectly in sync out on the field, and I was giving it my all. The dream I’d had since I couldn’t even remember when was going to become a reality. I was going to make my family proud.
After a heavy workout session with one of the trainers who was helping me get ready for the combine coming up at the end of February, I headed home, hoping I’d get to see Zoe. I knew her schedule by heart, and if she hadn’t booked a photography job at the last minute, I knew she’d get home a little after me. Ever since the away game, she tried her best not to be alone with me for too long if she could help it, but we lived in the same damn apartment. She slept literally steps away from me, so there was only so much running away she could manage—not that I actually believed she was trying her best at it.
I considered stopping at her favorite pizza place to surprise her but changed my mind and decided to wait for her to come home then convince her to go out for pizza. In my mind, it sounded like a much better plan.
Only it wasn’t.
I realized that once I made it to our floor and found Vicky waiting for me in front of our apartment door.
Standing frozen at the top of the stairs, I thought I’d kill JP if he was the one who’d told her where to find me. Vicky’s head snapped up from her phone when she heard my footsteps and she pushed off of the wall.
“Dylan, I—”
“What the hell are you doing here?”
She pushed her phone into her back pocket, took a step toward me, and then stopped.
“I want to talk to you, just this once. Please, Dylan.”
I got unstuck and walked past her to unlock the door.
“We have nothing to talk about. You shouldn’t have come here, Victoria.”
I looked over my shoulder and caught her subtle flinch at my use of her full name.
She raised her hands then dropped them to her sides. “Well, too bad. You’re not answering my texts or calls so I’m not moving an inch until you talk to me.”
As her voice started to rise steadily, my head flew toward Ms. Hilda’s door. Normally, the grumpy woman would’ve been out that door the second she caught someone coming up the stairs, without fail, but there was no sign of her at the moment, and I wondered if she was watching us through the peephole.
Ignoring Victoria, I opened the door and threw my bag inside before facing her again.
“I have no reason to return your calls, Victoria. It’s been months. There is nothing to say.”
Having said everything I would say on the subject, I went to close the door in her face, but she was faster and slapped her palm against the surface to stop me. The sound echoed off the walls, and if Ms. Hilda, for some unknown reason, hadn’t been aware of what was going on right in front of her doorstep, she definitely would’ve heard that noise and would soon come out to investigate.