Breaking The Ice

Fight

TJ's POV

I groaned to myself as I approached the athletic building, the last thing I felt like doing was talking to Tanner of all people after the day I'd had, hoping he would get whatever bullshit he had to say over with. I'd woken up that morning to an argument with Harry about whether or not to tell the police I'd been attacked, gone home to find Yates and Rollins interrogating my roommates, been interrogated myself, then groped by my Coach before practice, seriously hurt my hand punching Lundy in the face, unexpectedly run into my Zayn, failed at getting through to Brielle and then Harry decided to give me shit about letting Zayn take me home.

It appeared another conversation with Tanner was the perfect way to end my day.

I had to admit that I wasn't super comfortable with the fact that it was 7:30pm and I was being called to his office for some unknown reason when there wouldn't be too many people around, which to me just spoke to how creeped out I really was by him. Everything about him made me uneasy, but unfortunately if I wanted to play he wasn't exactly someone I could avoid. And I think he liked it that way.

I was mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted as I made my way down the halls of the athletic department, passing the gym and locker room, before I found myself outside Tanner's door and took a deep breath. I still hated seeing his name on the outside where Coach Bell's should be, and I figured after everything else was sorted out my next mission was to see if I could talk Coach Bell out of retirement. But unfortunately, at that moment, it was the least of my worries.

"Come in." Tanner said from the other side of the door after I knocked lightly, and I opened the door and stepped inside.

"What's up?" I sighed.

"Close the door. Take a seat." He said, not even bothering to look up from whatever paper he was reading.

I did as he asked, closing the door behind me and sat down in one of the seats in front of his desk, thankful that there was at least a piece of furniture between us considering he obviously had no problem touching me inappropriately. I stared at him, waiting for him to speak, not having the energy to make small talk.

"Rough day?" He chuckled, looking over at me, obviously amused.

"Yes, actually." I said. "I'd like to go home and go to bed, so if we could make this quick I'd appreciate it."

"Well that depends entirely on you, Sweetheart." He smirked.

I just looked at him, not in the mood for his games, waiting for him to elaborate and get to his point. He watched me carefully for a minute, as if gauging how I would react to his next statement, before he leaned back in his chair and smirked at me.

"You're being suspended." He said simply, his words taking me completely by surprise.

I laughed lightly, sure I'd heard him wrong, and he just stared back at me. I studied him for any sign that he was joking, and there didn't seem to be one.

"Excuse me?" I gawped.

"I said...you're being suspended." He repeated.

I felt the warm sensation of rage start in my feet, slowly making its way up through my body, tingling through every inch of me before it finally shot out of my mouth.

"What the fuck for?!" I snapped, standing up and leaning over his desk.

He laughed to himself as I stood in front of him, both of my hands balled into fists as I felt my heart starting to race, the complete and utter hatred I felt for him taking over to the point that I was scared of what I might do. I couldn't remember a time where I'd felt so much anger boiling inside of me, and I was just trying to keep myself from completely losing it. I'd played his stupid games, let him treat me like shit, and on top of it all he had the balls to try to suspend me for absolutely no reason?