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Nix
“Wilder, my office. Now,”Coach boomed down the hallway.
“I told you to stay at home today,” Kye murmured.
“Yeah, well, couldn’t fucking do that.” I gritted my teeth trying to swallow the pain radiating through me. “I’ll figure it out.”
“Don’t think Coach will fall for the old ‘I ran into a door’ story. You look like shit.” Kye reached for me, and I swatted his hand away.
“Fuck off. I’ll see you later.”
“Yeah,” he called after me. “If Coach doesn’t kill you first.”
People gave me a wide berth as I shuffled down the hall. Kye had a point. I probably should have stayed at home, or in Zane’s trailer at least. But his gran would have fussed over me like a child, and for as much as I loved the old woman, she was sick. She didn’t need my sorry ass making her life any harder than it already was. And going back home wasn’t an option.
So here I was, at school, trying my best not to seek out Paul Odell, school’s resident dealer, and beg him to give me some hardcore pills to make the pain go away.
By the time I got to Coach’s office, I was in agony. My ribs were an ugly patchwork of bruises, and my face was a gruesome mess despite Mrs. Washington’s attempts at cleaning me up last night.
“Sit,” Coach Farringdon said the second I entered. He leaned back in his chair, crossing one leg over the other and resting his hand on his ankle. “Is the other kid alive? Or do I need to prepare to bail my star player out of jail because he couldn’t keep himself in fucking check?”
“It’s not what you think, Coach.” My leg jostled with nervous energy. “I wasn’t fighting. I mean, I was… at the gym.”
“At the gym? You’re telling me that piece of shit Bryson let you step in the ring after I explicitly—”
“I messed up.”
“Damn right you did, son. Damn fucking right.” He blew out a thin breath. “Look, Nix, let me level with you. You’re my best player. You have what it takes to use your talent and get the fuck out of this place. But you have to want it, son. You have to believe it. After last season, I’d hoped this year would be different. I’d hoped—”
“I saw her.”
The words pierced the air like the crack of gunfire.
“You saw… Harleigh Wren?”
I nodded. “She’s back. At her father’s house, I mean. She started DA yesterday.”
“I see.” He leaned forward, steepling his fingers and looked me dead in the eye. “I know you don’t want to hear this, Phoenix. But maybe it’s for the best. She got out of The Row. She made it out and maybe she’s where she belongs now.”
Did he think I didn’t know that?
Did he think I didn’t spend weeks, months even, obsessing over the fact she was gone, swinging between hating her for leaving me and being so fucking relieved that she got out?
In those early days, when she’d first left, it had messed with my head. I couldn’t think. Couldn’t focus or get my head in the game. I’d gotten into more fights last season than my entire high school football career.
All because of her.
She left and it was like she took some vital part of me with her leaving a gaping hole that had only festered over time.
I clenched my fist against my thigh, trying to rein myself in. Breathing in long and slow, forcing my heart to calm the fuck down.
“Nix,” Coach sighed. “This life is hard, kid. The Row, it’s brutal. If you’re lucky it’ll chew you up and spit you out with enough wits to survive. But if you’re really lucky, if you have the talent you have… you can escape this place, son. Put it behind you and never look back.
“Now this is what’s going to happen.” He opened his hands and pressed his palms flat against the desk. “You’re going to head straight to medical and get checked out. You better pray to God nothing is broken. Assuming it isn’t, you’re going to sit out of practice for the rest of the week—”
“Coach, I—”
“Shut it. When and only when I say you can start practicing again will it happen. Until then, stay out of trouble. Think about what you want, Nix. And I mean really think long and hard about it, and put Miss Maguire out of your goddamn head, son. She got out. You could too one day. But it won’t happen unless you show up, do the work, and stop being so goddamn reckless.”
