She lowers her head, looking down at her hands, which are twisted up in a blanket. “Because you didn’t have faith in me. In us. It was a big blow, Chase. To me. To my heart. And I didn’t want you to get kicked off the team. While I appreciated your help, it kind of wasn’t your battle. It was mine. You never gave me a chance to handle it.”
I throw back the rest of my shot. Rub my hands across my face. Press play.
“Dani, let’s go,” I say to her even though I’m not looking at her. My eyes are still locked with Hunter’s.
“You need to put your little sophomore on a leash,” Hunter says to Dani, standing up and wiping the edge of his mouth on his shirt.
“Shut the fuck up, Lansford.” It’s Damon who speaks this time.
“Oh, am I going to have a problem with you, too, Diamond?” Hunter retorts.
“You’re not worth it,” Damon says, shaking his head. He grabs ahold of my shirt tightly to keep me from lunging at Hunter again.
“Dani, we’re leaving. Now,” I say, looking Dani in the eye.
When she doesn’t move, I wrap my hand around her arm.
“Oh, so that’s what’s going on here?” Hunter calls out with a sharp laugh. “Dani, did you go slumming on the family vacay with your little brother’s best friend? And now, he’s being all possessive? Pathetic.”
“I might need more tequila,” I say desperately as Dani gets ready to say the words that have haunted me since.
“Just go home, Chase. You’ve done enough already.”
I hit pause. Get up. Take a swig straight out of the bottle and then wipe my eyes with the bottom of my shirt. Dani’s going to think I’m a complete baby, but I can’t stop the tears. This is the dream I have. And it always ends here because that’s when I stormed off.
But I’ve seen this part of the video. What comes next.
She ruthlessly turns it back on.
“Chase,” Dani calls out, tears in her eyes.
“More like he hasn’t done enough,” Hunter taunts. “Don’t cry, Dani. I can guarantee you won’t be able to get enough of me.”
And this time, it isn’t me who hits him. It’s Damon.
A second later, Hunter is back on the ground.
Although this isn’t where my dream always ends; it’s where the video Damon presented to the Coach did.
“Is there more?” I ask Dani.
“Yeah, there is. Come sit back down, Chase. Leave the bottle.”
Damon is forcefully dragging Dani off the field.
“I freaking told you,” he growls at her.
“Damon—”
“I could have just gotten kicked off the team. Chase, too.”
“I didn’t ask you to punch him!”
“I couldn’t not. He was talking shit about my sister. Trust me, if Dad had heard what was coming out of that asshole’s mouth, he would have done it himself.”
“Let go of me,” Dani says, stopping and digging in her heels. “I don’t need your or Chase’s help.”
“I told you not to mess with Chase,” Damon says seriously.
“Just leave me alone, okay?”
I watch as tears flow down her beautiful face.
The camera follows her as she works her way through the crowd, where amidst all the chaos, she picks up her backpack, grabs her keys, runs to her car, and peels out of the parking lot, her tires squealing.
A voice says, “Well, that was pretty darn exciting.”
And the video ends.
“All I could think about was that I had to find you. That I had to make it right,” Dani says to me. “And I did find you. You were walking down the sidewalk, still in the red jersey and half pads. I asked if you needed a lift.”
“And I said no. That I’d rather walk five miles than sit next to you. But you,” I say, shaking my head, “are stubborn. You drove ahead, parked, and then tried to stop me on the sidewalk.”
“I told you that you didn’t understand.”
“And I think I said something about understanding perfectly. I thought you had planned it. Thought you had been talking to Hunter the whole trip. When we had been, so close. I felt incredibly betrayed. And not just by the girl I loved, but also by my best friend.”
Knew it was right.
Devaney
Chase is in tears. He’s so upset. And I hate that I’m putting him through this. But I know I have to. I know we have to get past it.
“You asked why I went out for the pass, like that was proof, but as you can see in the video, I had no idea really.”
“And it went downhill from there. I think I told you to forget about the cupcake, about us. Because you wouldn’t walk away with me. You wouldn’t stand up for us.” He puts his head into his hands and cries harder.
When he finally stops, he says, “Do you remember when your mom told you we couldn’t play together anymore after I kissed you?”
“Yeah, we didn’t listen to her.”
“My mom told me about a similar thing that happened between her and my dad when they were kids. They were going to be in trouble, so they were hiding in a tree, holding hands. But her dad found her and pulled her out of the tree. And my mom said they both stayed that way, their arms stretched out for each other because they didn’t want to let go.”
“She told me and Jennifer that story at the lake. She said it was then that she realized that her and your dad never listened to anyone. They hadn’t listened when people told them that girls and boys shouldn’t be friends or when people gave them a hard time about their friendship. They hadn’t listened when the people they dated threatened to leave them if they didn’t stop spending so much time together. She said their relationship had survived over twenty years because they didn’t listen to anyone.”
“Maybe that’s the difference between them and us,” Chase says. “My dad knew they’d never let go. I was afraid to let go, Dani. Because I didn’t think you’d come back to me if I did.”
I think about what else his mom said. The advice she gave me. That if I ended up with Chase, it would be because I came to a time in my life when I was finally ready. When I knew it was right. The problem is, I think she got it wrong. It would be when we both knew it was right.
“I thought it was the start of our forever,” he continues. “And although I appreciate what you did, showing this to me, I’ve blamed you all this time, and I shouldn’t have. I’m to blame, too.”
“Thank you,” I say to him softly. “I know it was painful, but I didn’t want you to not choose the college of your dreams because of this. Because of me.”
“I guess Damon told you?” he asks.
“Yeah, he did.”
“Um, okay. So, uh, thanks for this. I think I’m going to head home. It’s getting late, and—”