Nathan Northwood is simply living the perfect life every teenage boy dreams of. He is rich, handsome, captain and star player of the basketball team, could have any girl he wants and is basically the king of EverGreen High. However, Nathan wears a c...
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NATHAN
It was suffocating to be surrounded by happiness, but not be able to feel it.
My birthday party was filled with beaming smiles and overjoyed laughter, but I felt so heavy on the inside. Kind of like lying in a grave deep under layers and layers of dirt, the darkness pressing down on me, making it so hard to simply breathe.
Hope Lance beat me at beer pong the two first two rounds. When the third round began, she said she was getting hungry and wanted to go back to the brownies. I won the third round.
"Let's talk about those dares later," she said before she was striding to the table of snacks and drinks while the crowd surrounding me stared after her. Confusion of what a forgotten legend was doing at the golden king's birthday party was plaguing their faces.
Hope Lance was EverGreen's ex-star swimmer. Just like the basketball team did with tournaments against other schools, the swim team also won many contests for this town. Hope Lance, who from when she was fourteen in freshman year and until she was sixteen and a sophomore, was a legendary swimmer. The swimming coach, other swimmers on the team and practically the whole town believed she'd go far with being a professional competitor in swimming. Scouts from famous colleges already had their eyes set on her.
However, tragedy struck when she was sixteen and went to pick up her dad from work in the evening and lost control of the car. She had apparently been drunk as she was at a party when her dad called her. It was during winter and the main road people entered and exited this town with, was icy. She lost control of the car and it went flying down a cliff. Her dad had been in a coma for two years. Hope injured her arm for good and all her swimming dreams and goals crumbled to pieces.
After Hope disappeared behind the dancing crowd that had taken up most of the living room floor, I slumped down on a nearby couch.
Trent Raymond, a blue-eyed and sandy blond-haired teammate, and "friend" of mine dropped down next to me with a can of beer in his hand. "Hope Lance, huh? I think she wants to hook up with you, bro."
Connor Landon, a green-eyed and chestnut brown-haired teammate and "friend" of mine, dropped his butt down on my other side. "What is she doing here anyway? Beating you at beer pong and eating brownies? Doesn't she like, have two jobs?"
"After being off the swim team for two years, she still has that hot body though," Trent added, his eyes searching the dancing crowd to spot her.
Unfortunately, my mind was plagued with other things than a forgotten star swimmer's hot body.
"I don't know. She didn't flirt or anything. She was too focused on beating me at beer pong. I have no idea what she's doing here," I replied, giving the plastic cup of beer in my hand a swirl before taking a sip.
