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Adam chuckled. “If you don’t bleed, you don’t lead?”
“No…” I drew a slow breath. “You said your dad said that.”
“Yep.”
“Adam…you told me your high school coach said that.”
72
Piper
I Don’t Want Your Pity
I must’ve been wrong. Maybe someone else had told me something similar during the semester and I accidentally attributed it to Adam’s high school coach. But the more I gazed at the linebacker, the more I saw his grin disappear, piece by piece, and a purposely blank face look back at me.
Oh no.
Neither of us said anything.
“I didn’t…mean to say that,” he said, his words careful.
My fingers curled into my palms for a different reason. A horrible, sickly feeling carried through my blood. The implication of Adam’s father being the same high school coach who put him through everything was too much for my hungover brain to understand.
I swallowed. “Adam…?”
“Let’s go order coffee,” he urged. “We can listen to a book or watch a movie and just fuck off for the rest of your shift.”
My head hurt. “I don’t…understand.”
Adam didn’t say anything to help. He was frozen in place, just like I was.
All of our conversations came back. Adam, telling me what a horrible coach he had, all the belittling things his coach told him. The long practices, the sayings, the accident.
The question from Kassie hung over my head. What else did he tell you?
Those six words vibrated in my skull. Kassie wasn’t asking about the accident. She was asking if Adam had really and truly told me everything about his coach. Back then, I’d just written it off to Adam being taken off the team. But now…
“Was your high school coach…your dad?”
Adam didn’t say anything at all, but his face confirmed it.
I wanted to throw up. His own father refused to call the ambulance. I couldn’t believe it. If my dad heard about anyone treating me like that, there’d be blood to pay.
And I couldn’t stop thinking about that lanky boy from high school who helped me with my heels. The boy that everyone abandoned. Ryan aside, Adam had no one in his corner. Not even his parents.
Oh my god.
My lower lip wobbled. “I’m—I’m—”
“Stop.”
Adam tried to smile, and it broke my heart.
My parents and I texted all the time, they were always involved in my life. They even came in the middle of the night when Thomas kicked me out after I’d broke up with him.
I couldn’t remember Adam mentioning anything about his own parents before today. The realization shocked me. I wanted to hug him so tight, nobody could hurt him like they did ever again. I wanted to do something. But Adam’s attempt at a smile disappeared. It was replaced by something cold.
“I’m so sorry—”
