“And your girl is fucking ugly.”
Lance turns on a dime and spits on the ground just as Mark takes a swing, and Lance leans into it, begging for the contact, for the greenlight. He counters with his right landing squarely on Mark’s jaw, taking him down with one blow.
Channah screams just as Lance charges to get to him, where he lays sprawled on the ground. In the next second, Tony has Lance in his hold, pulling him back. “I’m going to fucking end you,” Lance explodes, fighting Tony’s grasp to get to him.
“Your goddamn fists are deadly weapons!” Tony roars as he hooks Lance around the chest and manages to get him in a lock barely a foot away.
And then he’s in his face, Lance’s deadly stare fixed on Mark where he sits on the ground dazed as Tony commands his attention. “You fight him, and it’s all over! Everything we’ve worked for, over. Wake the fuck up!”
Channah looks over to me, face ashen as she kneels in front of Mark. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” She hoists Mark up, and he sways to his feet before Channah wraps an arm around him. He spits out a mouthful of blood, his satisfaction with the spectacle he created unmistakable. “You’re still a fucking loser Prescott, always will be.”
Tony doesn’t budge in his hold on Lance, his back ramrod straight, his voice laced with venom as he addresses Mark. “You better get the fuck out of here, man. I assure you, you don’t want what you’re asking for.”
“Stay the fuck away from her,” Mark warns, which would be comical since he can barely stand from the weight of Lance’s blow, but it’s anything but. “You were just a means to an end,” Mark spits again, lifting Channah’s hand to showcase the obnoxious rock floating on top of it.
“I’m coming for him next, if you don’t get him out of here,” Tony barks out to Channah, who wastes no time walking him back toward the bar while he continues to mouth off.
Tony steps up to Lance, who’s seething. “If you’re going to throw everything away for that piece of shit, then you’re wasting both our fucking time. Last warning, Lance, wake the fuck up! Or I’m out.”
“Take her home,” Lance grits out, his breaths coming fast.
Tony sweeps his hand out, clear accusation in his eyes. “After you.”
Crippled by the last few seconds, I stand by helplessly as Lance clenches his fists, his eyes roaming with lividity from Mark’s retreating back to Tony.
“You go after him, your life is over,” Tony says in desperate warning.
Lance’s gaze finally drifts to mine, and in his eyes, I see the bite of humiliation. I know that look. I’ve felt what he’s feeling a hundred times over. Heart clawing its way out of my chest, I move toward Lance just as he lashes out.
“You fucking happy? Did you see what you wanted to see? Did you get what you wanted?”
“Lance—”
“It’s a damned shame you had to see what you bought into, isn’t it?”
I shake my head. “I don’t believe that. Not any of it.”
“Yeah, well, you should. Who’s the fool now?”
“D-don’t say anything else. Please.”
He levels me with his cold, dead stare. “You aren’t wanted here. Leave!”
And that’s when the levee breaks, and rage overtakes me.
“I hate you,” the words are guttural, stemming from a hurt I’ve never experienced. It burns like acid, my skin recoiling as bile climbs my throat.
“Good, take care, Harper.”
All at once, I’m broken, sick with grief. This final blow he delivered with precision, and I feel the betrayal to my core.
He moves towards his truck when I charge and begin to pound on his back. “You didn’t have to come back to New York! Why? Why did you do this to me?”
He takes my blows, his steps sure as if he’s not stomping on the remnants of what I believed about us.
He’s not this man, he can’t be this man.
Lance shrugs me off effortlessly, pulling his keys from his pocket. “Get her home.”
“You bastard,” I cry as Tony wraps around me, tugging me away. Sobbing uncontrollably, I let the anger win, and the floodgates open. “Lance!” I scream at his retreating back. Something in my voice has him pausing to turn and look at me. “You’re becoming what you hate!”
Physically, I see him flinch at the truth. “And you win,” I choke out. “I made a mistake. I should have never left Texas! I should have never left you! I didn’t want to! I didn’t want to leave! I had to!”
“What are you talking about?”
“This is what you wanted, right? Well, I’m admitting it.” An eerie calm overtakes me, and I go limp in Tony’s hold before he lets me go. My boots crunch on the gravel beneath my feet before I stop to face him head-on, lifting enraged eyes to his. “I had to leave. They ran me out. They terrorized my sister, my family, me, that’s how my dad found out about us, he was worried about your motives. I was fourteen all over again. But the breaking point was when they assaulted me at the Amhurst game.”
Lance visibly sways, as if struck, while Tony swears behind me. “Jesus Christ.”
“If I hadn’t left, you would have fought them all. I came here to commit to you. I love you, Lance. You. Fucking. Idiot. But being with you made me a target. I fought them then as hard as I could, and I was willing to fight them now to be with you…but now…God,” I sob out, “I hate you.”
His voice is barely a whisper. “They—”
“They—as in your teammates and their girlfriends—they came after me, blaming me for their losing season, or maybe it was just for sport. If Troy—”
“Troy knew?”
“Don’t. I begged him not to tell you. And if he wouldn’t have stopped it that day, it would have been a whole lot worse. You were worth it, then,” I shake my head in disbelief. “I don’t know you anymore.”
“Harper,” he whispers hoarsely, searching my eyes. “They hurt you?”
“Jesus, Lance, despite what you think, you’re one of very few who think I’m beautiful. Your teammates didn’t share the same opinion. Did you not hear that man just call me ugly? Maybe you recognized a part of yourself when you looked at me the first time, or maybe you just loved me too much to see it. But that made you worth it.”
He stands stunned as I wipe my face free of years of humiliation.
Unable to deny it anymore, I admit my truth. “I didn’t want you to be ashamed or be in the position to defend me. You would have blown your shot. And when you came to New York, I got scared. I got so scared that when you again get caught in the spotlight, I will be too. Being with you would, without a doubt, hurt me.”
He stares at me, jaw slack, absorbing the truth.
Body trembling, I fight to get the words out. Words that are too late, words that are the crux of us. His words from years ago. “You see, my love, it’s a cruel world without you in it.”
His face falls as I lift, so my truth hits his lips. “My leaving had little to do with dancing, despite what I promised myself. I wanted your love so much more than the look on your face right now. But what you just did to me…” I lift my chin in defiance, showing him his mirror, “makes you the bully.” All the fight leaves me as I utter my defeat, “no longer worthy of this ugly girl’s love.”