Chapter 16 — The Scholarship Offer
982 Words
Lena Carter
Lena should’ve known happiness wouldn’t last long.
Things with Ethan had become dangerously good over the past two weeks.
Too good.
Which meant the universe was obviously preparing to ruin everything.
It started during Friday afternoon practice.
The volleyball team was running defensive drills while Lena yelled instructions from across the court, exhaustion already pulling at her muscles.
“Again!” she shouted.
Her teammates groaned loudly.
“No complaints,” Lena warned. “Nationals are in three weeks.”
“Remind me why we let you become captain?” Ava muttered dramatically.
“Because you’d all fall apart without me.”
“Unfortunately true,” someone admitted.
Lena smirked slightly before tossing another ball into play.
Then the gym doors opened.
Ethan walked in mid-practice carrying a sports bottle and looking entirely too distracting.
Immediately Lena lost track of the ball flying toward her.
The volleyball smacked directly into her shoulder.
Hard.
Her entire team burst into laughter.
Ethan looked deeply entertained.
“You good, Captain?”
Lena glared. “This is your fault.”
“You literally got distracted.”
“You’re distracting.”
The words slipped out accidentally.
Silence followed for half a second.
Then her teammates collectively lost their minds.
“Oh my GOD.”
“No way.”
“AHA!”
Lena immediately regretted existing.
Ethan, meanwhile, looked unbearably smug.
“You think I’m distracting?” he repeated slowly.
“I hate everyone here.”
Ava pointed dramatically between them. “You’re absolutely together.”
“We’re not discussing this,” Lena snapped.
“Suspicious answer,” Ethan commented helpfully.
She threw a towel directly at his face.
Unfortunately the damage was done.
The rumors around school exploded even more afterward.
And somehow Ethan loved every second of it.
Lena hated how much she secretly loved it too.
Later that evening, Lena headed toward the swim building to meet Ethan after practice.
The halls were mostly empty now, lights dimmed low while rain tapped softly against the windows outside.
She found Ethan near the locker rooms talking to Coach Daniels.
Neither of them noticed her immediately.
“…full scholarship,” Coach Daniels was saying.
Lena slowed slightly.
Scholarship?
“You’d be insane to turn this down, Ethan,” the coach continued. “Blackwood Academy practically guarantees Olympic training access.”
Lena froze completely.
Blackwood Academy.
A professional sports academy in Manchester.
Several hours away.
Far away.
Ethan rubbed the back of his neck tiredly. “I know.”
“You need to think about your future carefully.”
Future.
The word twisted painfully in Lena’s chest.
Because suddenly she understood something terrifying:
Ethan might leave.
And he hadn’t told her.
The conversation ended moments later.
Coach Daniels walked away while Ethan headed toward the locker room alone.
Lena stayed hidden around the corner, heart pounding painfully.
Why didn’t he tell her?
The question burned harder than expected.
Because over the past few weeks Ethan had become the one person she trusted most.
And somehow he still kept this from her.
Lena turned and walked away before he could see her.
By the time Ethan found her later that night sitting alone in the empty gym, she’d already overthought everything at least fifty times.
“You disappeared,” he said quietly.
Lena didn’t answer.
Ethan frowned slightly before sitting beside her on the bleachers.
“What happened?”
Still silence.
Then finally—
“You got a scholarship offer.”
The tension shifted instantly.
Ethan went still beside her.
Right.
That.
“You heard?”
“You weren’t going to tell me?”
His jaw tightened slightly.
“I was.”
“When?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Lena laughed softly.
But there was no humor in it.
“That’s not exactly reassuring.”
Ethan looked at her carefully.
Something vulnerable flickered briefly across his face before disappearing again.
“It’s complicated.”
“No,” Lena replied quietly. “It’s actually pretty simple.”
“That’s not fair.”
“Then explain it to me.”
The frustration in her voice hit him harder than expected.
Because honestly?
Ethan didn’t know how to explain this.
How could he tell her:
his family needed the money
professional training could change his entire future
he was terrified of his injury ruining everything
and somehow leaving Lena suddenly felt impossible too
So instead—
he stayed silent.
Big mistake.
Because Lena interpreted the silence immediately.
“Oh.”
The hurt in her voice nearly wrecked him.
“That’s not what this is.”
“Then what is it, Ethan?”
He stood abruptly, frustrated energy radiating off him now.
“I don’t know!”
The words echoed sharply through the empty gym.
Both froze afterward.
Lena looked away first.
And somehow that hurt more than yelling ever could.
“You know what the problem is?” she asked quietly.
Ethan ran a hand through his hair. “Lena—”
“You let me believe this was becoming real.”
“It is real.”
“Then why does it feel like you already have one foot out the door?”
That hit directly where it hurt.
Because part of Ethan had been thinking exactly that.
Preparing himself for leaving before he got too attached.
Too late now, obviously.
He walked closer carefully.
“Lena.”
She stepped back immediately.
The distance between them suddenly felt enormous.
“I can’t be another thing you eventually leave behind,” she whispered.
Something inside Ethan cracked slightly hearing that.
Because Lena genuinely believed people always left her eventually.
And honestly?
He hated the fact that maybe she was right.
His voice softened immediately.
“I’m trying here.”
“So am I.”
Silence stretched painfully between them.
Neither knew how to fix this.
And for the first time since everything started—
being together suddenly felt fragile.
- Writer
