Chapter 12: Lost Everything
1035 Words
I was too late to chase Lila from the nightmare I created.
The second I saw her face in that doorway, I knew I f****d up in a way I couldn’t fix with words.
She didn’t scream or cry, worse, she just looked at me like I was exactly the guy she should’ve stayed away from from the beginning.
“Lila! Listen to me!” I shouted, shoving Brianna off me so hard she stumbled into the lockers. I didn’t even look back. I just bolted after her, my heart slamming against my ribs like it was trying to break out of my chest. I had never felt this kind of fear before. Not even when my dad threatened to cut off my card back then.
“s**t!”
The hallway was empty. Her heels had already disappeared around the corner. By the time I burst through the side doors of the arena, the sky had opened up. Rain poured down in heavy sheets, cold and brutal, soaking through my practice jersey in seconds. I didn’t feel it. I just kept running.
“Lila!” My voice cracked as I sprinted across the parking lot. The rain blurred everything. I couldn’t see s**t, and the thought of her out there alone in this downpour made something twist violently inside my chest.
I should’ve called her, but my phone was still in the locker room. I ran back to get it, and thankfully Brianna was already gone. Good. But I didn’t feel any relief. Not even close.
I doubled over near the edge of the parking lot, rain mixing with the sweat on my face, and for the first time in a long time, I felt something dangerously close to real fear.
She was gone.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. I yanked it out, water dripping off the screen.
There was a text.
Matthews:
Happy Birthday, Capt! I have a present for you.
Then a video came through.
My blood ran cold the moment I saw it. It was footage of Lila breaking into the admin’s office. She was trying to fix her younger brother’s grade. I didn’t even know the full story, but she once mentioned how important it was, how his perfect grades were the only way to secure his university offer.
Lila’s brother was actually really smart, like, genuinely brilliant. But Mrs. Amora had been f*****g with his grades because of her racist bullshit. Lila didn’t have a choice. She felt like she had to do something dirty just to push back against that unfair s**t.
What made the knife twist even deeper, that video was mine. How the hell did Matty get it?
I called the number immediately. It went straight to voicemail.
“f**k!” I tried again, but nothing. Another text came through before I could even type anything.
Matthews:
Don’t be stupid, Harlan.
You throw the game tomorrow night and she walks away clean.
You play to win and I make sure she never walks again in pride.
“Damn it!” I slammed my phone against the steering wheel and gripped it so tightly my knuckles turned white.
Matty used to be my teammate. Same line. Same stupid inside jokes after practice. Then he transferred mid-season to Westridge because his dad got some big promotion.
Now he was their captain and apparently, he’d decided the best way to beat me was to take the one thing that actually mattered to me.
I stared at the screen until the words started to blur. Something stung hard behind my eyes, and for a second I thought I might actually lose it right there in the truck.
The rain was still coming down hard, slamming against the windows like it was trying to break in, but I didn’t move.
I didn’t even turn the engine on.
Find Lila or find Matty first?
The question kept looping in my head, over and over, making it hard to think straight.
Part of me wanted to drive straight to Westridge and beat the s**t out of that bastard until he deleted every single copy of that video. But the other part was screaming at me to find Lila first. She was out there somewhere in this f*****g storm, probably thinking the worst about me after what she saw in the locker room.
“Jesus!” I wanted to find Matty first and break every bone in his body but I couldn’t move. Because deep down, I knew he wasn’t bluffing.
High school hockey didn’t have the same spotlight as college or the NHL, but tomorrow night’s game did. It was the conference championship. The winner goes to state. Scouts from a couple of D1 schools were supposed to be there, including one from Denver.
For Matty, beating us meant cementing his spot as the guy who took down Jax Harlan. For me, it was supposed to be the game that proved I wasn’t just some hot-headed captain with a bad reputation.
Now it was the game that decided whether Lila’s future got ruined or not.
Me:
If you dare to stream that video, I will f*****g kill you.
Matthews:
Then lose the game, captain. Simple.
I sat there in the deafening sound of the pouring rain, staring at my phone like it had personally betrayed me. Lila was gone, and her future was on the line because of a guy I used to call a brother on the ice.
I never thought the only way to protect her would be to throw the biggest game of my high school career.
I slammed my fist into the steering wheel again. It hurt like hell, but I didn’t care. I had spent weeks trying to be better, f*****g trying to be someone she could actually trust. And in one night, I managed to destroy every ounce of progress I’d made.
For the first time in my life, I had no idea what the f**k I was supposed to do.
Because if I lost on purpose, I lost everything I’d worked for.
But if I played to win… I might ruin her… forever…
And I wasn’t sure I could survive either option.
Matthews:
Clock’s ticking, Capt!
- Writer
