Play The Part (Player Next Door Book 3)

11 | So. Many. Names.

Double chapter update coming to make up for lost time.  But I write this chapter with a heavy heart...

Chapter 11: So. Many. Names.

911 is the number you call with a life-or-death emergency. What's a high school girl's equivalent when her heart gets chewed out and spat out on the floor of O'Conner's barbecue by a blackmailer who reveals proof of her boyfriend's past? 

Is that too specific?

So no broken hearts hotline I can call then?

Maybe I can start one... but then do I call myself? That doesn't sound right...

"Millie," Luke interrupted my thoughts.

I had been standing in complete silence for almost a minute, with pages gripped in my hands. I peered down at them, wrinkled from how tightly I was gripping the paper.

"Can you share what you're looking at?" Luke asked, coaxing me out of my own thoughts.

He knew I was buried in my own mind, totally frozen into inaction. He knows that when I'm faced with something I can't deal with, I just freeze up.

I stared at Luke almost like I didn't recognize him. This was my boyfriend. A handsome boy with a charming smile and intelligent eyes. The sun was starting to set, and he looked like he was ready to step foot into another photoshoot. Dressed up in a button-down, his skin perfectly clear and his eyes practically sparkle in the sunset.

"I think..." I exhaled, trying to keep as neutral as possible, "I am holding printed copies of texts you have shared with other women."

"My texts?" Luke pointed at himself.

I nodded.

I watched him pat his pockets down and check for his phone. I waited patiently, trying not to re-read the words on the pages in front of me. 

There were so many pages.

Girls and more girls, having romantic liaisons with my boyfriend.

He grabbed his phone and furrowed his brows, looking confused. "Millie, what do the texts say?"

I opened my mouth and exhaled loudly, "Do you really want me to read them to you?"

"No, I can read them myself if you hand it over."

I handed the pages over with a steely gaze. I watched Luke's frown deepen as he skimmed the pages way quicker than I did.

"How did they get hold of these?" he asked incredulously. 

The sounds of the barbecue inside reminded me of where we were. I had totally forgotten that we were thirty minutes away from home, stuck at his teammate's place without my car. I wanted nothing more than to crawl into my bedroom and stay under the covers.

Finally, Luke looked back at me, "Millie, don't pay attention to these. I have a history, you knew that. These are all... casual and they were before you."

"No, they weren't."

"They were."

"Luke, I saw the time stamps. One of them was around the time we had our first kiss."

Luke's jaw locked. He didn't say anything, but he didn't need to.

Handsome, charming Luke who goes around and can sleep with... basically anyone.

And I was so blind to notice. 

I took the pages out of his hands and flicked through to find the one that caught my attention.