UNRAVELING 1
1838 Words
KLAUS'S POV
"What is going on with you today, Brennan?"
Coach Leo's voice filled the locker room as he looked between me and Sean, who was clutching his shoulder with a grimace stretched across his face. The sight should not have been as satisfying as it was, and yet here we were.
"Nothing," I said.
He gave me the look of someone who knew he was being lied to straight to his face. "You kept crashing into him out there. His shoulder could be dislocated and you're never this reckless during practice. What is going on with you?"
If he had any idea what had been running through my head the entire game, he'd realise reckless wasn't even close to the right word. The bastard deserved every single hit — for going anywhere near Adriana. For letting her kiss his ugly face in that hallway. For handing her that shirt. For smirking at me every single time I lost focus on the ice because he knew exactly what he was doing and enjoyed every second of it.
I dragged a hand over my face and tried to pull myself together because the urge to finish what I'd started with Sean on that ice was getting worse the longer I stood here.
Coach exhaled sharply. "Sean, go to the medical room and get some ice on that shoulder." He turned back to me. "You go home. You're not in the right headspace today and I'll speak to your father."
Of course he would.
I grabbed my bag and headed for the exit before anyone else could say another word.
"Klaus—" Tyler called after me.
"Not now, Ty." I didn't slow down. "I've got something to handle."
And that something had amber eyes, a sharp mouth, and was still somewhere in this school wearing Sean's f*****g jersey like she hadn't personally derailed my entire afternoon with it.
The hallway buzzed with students and overlapping conversations, but the whispers started almost the second I appeared.
"Did you see how he kept losing focus during the game?" a girl whispered.
"He slammed into Sean like three different times—"
"I heard he used to go to therapy or something—"
I stopped walking and turned my head just enough for them to catch the look on my face.
"Don't you people ever get tired of talking like squeaking rats?"
They scattered fast enough after that.
Satisfied, I kept walking.
People always talked — about hockey, about my father, about my life — but they knew nothing about what I'd been through or how close I'd once come to completely losing my mind. I shoved the memories back down before they could settle because I already had too much sitting in my head today.
Dad had started with me at breakfast this morning and our usual argument had followed me through the entire day.
Focus, Klaus. Protect your reputation.
Everything with him was about the future he'd already mapped out for me without once asking whether I wanted to live in it. Every conversation felt like standing in front of a dictator instead of a father and I was exhausted.
Then Julia had shown up at my front door and casually turned out to be a neighbour making my entire morning into a bigger mess.
Driving her to school had already soured my mood, but seeing Adriana's face when she spotted Julia and me together in the hallway had made everything worse. I'd watched the hurt move through her eyes before she buried it, and I'd carried that look with me all morning while she turned around and kissed Sean's cheek in retaliation.
Her hand on his arm. That look she threw at me after. His smug expression. Then the jersey on top of all of it.
By the time practice started, my head was already wrecked.
I rounded the corner and spotted her slipping into the library, still wearing his jersey, and followed without a second thought.
🪷🪷🪷
The library was warm and quiet, shelves towering around the room packed with books. I moved through the aisles until I finally found her sitting between the last two rows with a book open in front of her, very absorbed.
Sean's name stretched across her chest like a personal insult aimed straight at me.
I scoffed under my breath and scanned the room.
A student sat a few shelves away with his head bent over his notes. I crossed to him and tapped the table.
He looked up and almost choked when he recognised me.
"Oh my God. Senior Klaus."
"What's your name?" I asked.
"Theo," he managed, scrambling to his feet.
"Theo." I leaned against the edge of the table. "I need a favour."
His eyes lit up with excitement. "What kind of favour?"
"I need you to stand outside those doors for five minutes and make sure nobody comes in."
His confidence faltered. "The librarian probably won't like that and students might—"
I pulled some notes from my pocket and dropped them onto his notebook.
His eyes widened.
"I'll take a photo with you too," I added. "In case you need proof your favourite hockey captain spoke to you."
That did it.
Theo shoved the money into his pocket, grabbed his bag and announced that he would defend the library with his life before disappearing through the doors so fast it almost made me laugh.
I turned back toward Adriana.
Still reading. Still unaware. Still wearing another man's name on her body while I stood here losing my f*****g mind over her.
I started toward her.
"Reading?"
She jumped so hard the book almost fell off the table. Her hand flew to her chest as she spun around.
"Jesus Christ, Klaus. What the hell?"
I laughed at the glare she threw at me and reached over to snap the book shut before leaning down until we were eye level.
"You really want to ask me that while wearing his shirt?"
Her expression changed and all the fire from this morning came rushing back into her eyes.
"You had Julia pinned against a wall."
The jealousy in her voice hit me straight in the chest.
"It wasn't like that."
She scoffed. "Standing in a hallway with her looking that comfortable around you gave a very different impression, Klaus."
My jaw tightened. "You think I wanted her there?" I asked. "You think I wanted to drive her to school? That whole morning was already a f*****g disaster before I even saw you."
Her expression flickered but she folded her arms tighter like she was trying to keep herself together.
"I saw your face when you looked at me and Julia," I said, stepping closer. "Don't lie to me and say it didn't hurt you."
Her throat bobbed.
"It did," she admitted. "And I hated that it did."
Something hot twisted low in my heart.
"You kissed Sean."
Her eyes flashed. "Because I wanted you angry."
That caught me off guard enough to almost laugh.
"I wanted you jealous," she continued, frustration spilling out faster now. "You were standing there with another girl touching you and looking at you like she still had some claim over you and you just stood there looking so unaffected and I hated it."
"Ana—"
"No." She shook her head. "You don't get to say my name in that voice and pretend you haven't been driving me insane for weeks."
I stared at her.
"I keep trying not to want you," she whispered. "I keep telling myself Molly would hate me for this and that I should stop and every single time I almost get there you look at me and it starts all over again."
Every word coming out of her mouth was wrecking me.
"I hated seeing Julia touch you," she admitted, eyes glassy now. "So I kissed Sean because I wanted to hurt you back. I wanted you to look at me the way I've been looking at you."
Fuck.
Something in me snapped so hard it almost hurt.
I closed the distance and caught her face in my hand before crashing my mouth against hers.
She gasped into the kiss, fingers tightening around my shirt, and for one second she stayed frozen from the force of it before her lips parted for me with a shaky breath. My tongue slid into her mouth and she made the softest sound low in her throat before kissing me back just as hard.
There it was.
All that tension. All that fighting. Finally breaking.
I kissed her deeper and she melted against me piece by piece, her fingers twisting harder into my shirt while her tongue brushed against mine in slow strokes that nearly destroyed what was left of my self-control. A rough sound dragged out of my chest and I pulled her flush against me until there wasn't a single inch of space left between us.
She tasted addictive. Warm. Dangerous.
Like something I could spend the rest of my life ruining myself over.
My hand slid down her waist and over her hip before gripping harder and she broke the kiss with a breathless gasp that went straight through me.
"See?" I muttered against her mouth. "You do s**t like that to me and expect me to stay sane?"
"Klaus—"
"You wore another man's name on your body to watch me play."
I kissed her again before she could answer, slower this time but somehow deeper, my tongue dragging against hers until her knees buckled.
"You have any idea what that did to me?"
Her breathing fell apart against my mouth.
"I couldn't think the entire game. Every time I looked at the stands all I saw was you in his f*****g jersey."
A broken moan slipped out when my palm closed over her breast and squeezed gently and my head spun from hearing it.
"There she is," I groaned.
Her cheeks burned and she buried her face against my neck like she was embarrassed by the sound she'd made.
That only made me worse.
I dragged my mouth along her jaw before kissing just below her ear and felt her shiver hard against me.
"I wanted to kill him for touching you," I whispered against her skin. "Wanted to drag that shirt off you the second I saw it."
Her breathing turned uneven.
"And the worst part?" I pulled back enough to look at her. "You knew exactly what you were doing to me."
Her breath caught and something in her expression gave way right in front of me. The fight. The stubbornness. It started slipping piece by piece while her fingers tightened in my shirt.
"I wanted you jealous," she admitted softly.
I brushed my thumb across her swollen bottom lip and watched her shiver.
"Yeah?" My voice came out raw. "Well congratulations, doll."
I leaned closer until my mouth was right beside her ear.
"Because now I'm going to punish you for it.”
- Writer
