Nets and Lies(51)

“Will?”

He leaned forward. In the faint bedside light, I could see tears streaming down his cheeks.

“Is it really you? Am I still dreaming?” I asked, reaching out my hand. I didn’t believe it until my fingers touched his.

“No, it’s me,” he whispered.

I shook my head. “I’ve dreamed about you all night. I-I’ve missed you so much.”

He didn’t respond.

“I-I’m sorry, Will. I’m so, so sorry!” I cried.

At my apology, his head snapped up. He was at the bed in an instant, grabbing me into his arms. “Don’t you dare say that! You have nothing to be sorry for!”

For the first time since being in the hospital, I felt safe. I wrapped my arms around Will’s back and squeezed until I thought I couldn’t breathe. When he started to pull away, I grabbed him. “No! No, please don’t stop. Please, just hold me,” I begged.

He nodded. Slipping off his boots, he climbed into the bed beside me and gathered me into his arms.

And then I lost it. Sobs shook my body as my tears soaked through his shirt. “Shh, don’t cry, Mel. Please don’t cry,” he murmured in my ear.

“I thought I’d lost you,” I said, my voice muffled in his neck. He hadn’t shaved, and the stubble felt rough against my cheek.

“No, you’ll never lose me,” he replied.

I stared up into his face. “But why haven’t you been to see me?”

Will refused to meet my gaze. “I was afraid you wouldn’t want me.”

“How could you think that? You’re everything to me!” I protested.

Tears spilled over his cheeks. “But I was afraid that every time you looked at me, you’d think of him and what he did to you.”

“No, you’re wrong. I don’t think that at all, Will. When you weren’t here…” I shuddered. “I didn’t want to live anymore.”

Anger flashed in his eyes. “Don’t say that, Mel. You have so much to live for besides me!” he argued. “Besides, if you took your life, then that bastard would have taken everything from me!”

Somehow I found the courage to ask the question I was dying to know. “Does he know what happened to me?” But what I really wanted to ask was if Coach T knew I’d told the truth.

Will understood what I meant. “Yes, he knows.”

I closed my eyes. “What did he say?”

“Mel…”

“Please, Will, I want to know.”

He drew in a ragged breath. “He called you a lying bitch. He told me you’d come on to him—that you’d told him you’d always loved him…”

My voice was barely a whisper. “What else?”

“No,” he countered. “It’s too awful.” When I continued staring intently at him, Will sighed. “He said you begged him to be your first—that you wanted to be with a real man, not me.”

Instead of Will’s voice, I heard Coach T’s ringing in my ear, “Will’s just a boy. You need a man to teach you about love.” My hand flew to my mouth. Then I raced from the bed. I made it to the toilet just in time to throw up. Over and over I heaved. It was like a bad deja vu moment of the last time Will and I had been together.

Just like before, he was at my side. But this time was different. This was a different Will—a broken and defeated one. After I rinsed my mouth, his haunted eyes met mine in the mirror. “Why, Mel? Why did you make me tell you that?” He shook his head. “I can’t be with you if I’m only going to cause you pain!”

I turned around to face him. “No, you had to tell me. There can’t be anymore secrets between us.”

His face paled. “There’s something I need to tell you. And after I say it, you may not want to be with me anymore.”

My heart shuddered to a stop in my chest. “W-What are you talking about?”

Will swayed back and forth in the doorway. His hesitation drove me to the brink of what sanity I had left. “Tell me!” I demanded.

“It happened before.”

“What happened?”

Will’s expression pained. “My dad and a young girl.”

I stared at him in disbelief. “When?”

“When I was in middle school.”

I gasped. “Did he get brought in on charges?”

“No, she never came forward.”

“Well, if she never came forward, how do you know?”

Will pinched his eyes shut. “Because I caught them.”

My hand involuntarily covered my mouth. “You did?”

“Yes,” he croaked. He whirled out of the bathroom. I followed close behind him. He sank down on the bed and put his head in his hands. I sat down beside him and draped my arm over his shoulders.

“Will, tell me what happened.”

“It was late after one of my games. Dad said he couldn’t come watch me because he had a special practice for the upcoming tournaments. Instead of riding the bus back with the team, I caught a ride home with Paul. My grandfather was dying of cancer, so my mom was out of town a lot. When I unlocked the front door, I heard these noises…And then I saw him.” He met my horrified gaze. “She was a senior and his star.”