How To Play the Player (COMPLETED)

Stop and Stare

It took Bryan a little longer than I would have thought to catch me at school the next morning.

I was able to dodge him until a little after third period. He caught me on my way to the cafeteria, his eyes roaming my face in a prompting manner, he clearly wanted me to explain what the hell happened without him having to ask.

"What the hell happened, Reese?" he heaved out an exhausted sigh. "Who do I have to kill?"

I fiddled with the zipper on my jacket. "I spent the night with Liam, everything is fine, Bry."

It registered in him immediately. His lips curled back in distaste and he grew rigid. "Your father did this to you? Why the hell didn't you call me?"

"Because I didn't want you on the next episode of the First 48, bryan. I knew you'd kill him before I could convince you not to."

"You're right." He didn't even try to deny it. "I'm amazed that Liam didn't do anything."

I crossed my arms over my chest as a freshman and her friends passed, eyes glued to the eye sore in the middle of my face. "He tried, but I was able to get him to stay with me instead of hunting him down."

"I'll take you back home after school to pick some stuff up." Bry whispered, closing the gap between us and hugging me against him. "You can come stay with us for a few days. I'm sure Mom and Dad wouldn't mind, they love you."

I buried my face deeper against him, my nails digging into his back as I blinked rapidly to stop tears from breaking out. "Thank you, Bry."

He nodded against me before kissing my forehead and meeting my eyes again. As if he can tell I'm hanging on by a very thin, loose thread, he hugged me back against him without another word.

**

I had thought being Jay's girlfriend had drawn a lot of attention, but dragging myself through the halls with a very bruised nose and black eye had everyone sneaking looks in my direction. I nearly ran to the field and started to run around it. To be out of the center of attention was a relief, and running helped prevent me from overthinking. It wasn't until I was caught roughly by the elbow after a couple laps.

Liam spun me around and forced his finger under my jaw so I was forced to stare up at him. My anger over being stopped was gone as soon as I saw his blurred image. I was crying.

"You're going to kill yourself doing this, Reese." He said softly, concerned eyes burning into my own. "I understand that it helps you escape, trust me. But you don't stop for water, you're overrunning yourself, and you're crying. That's not a good mix."

I averted my eyes quickly to the bleachers. "I have the next Play if you want it."

He looked ready to protest my redirection of the topic, but nodded and kept a tight grip on my arm our entire trek to the bleachers. It was as if he were afraid I'd take off crying again if he let go. As soon as I rummaged through my bag and pulled it out he stared at it hard, his eyebrows drawing in confusion.

"I don't even know if I'm afraid of anything." He muttered, more to himself than me, then added. "Are you okay, Reese? You've been dodging me all day."

"I'm okay." I assured him. "I'm going to be staying with Bry and Brianna for a while. Don't worry about me, Liam. You need to worry about the game tomorrow. That game determines if you are in the Championship game or not. Focus."

He closed my notebook and dropped his head as he spoke. "You've missed the last couple games, which I expected given everything that happened with Jay, but are you coming tomorrow? We could really use our good luck charm there."