FROM THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHORS OF THE CHEATER.FAKER.TROUBLEMAKER SERIES (WATTY'S 2016, FICTION AWARDS 2016, HACHETTE AUDIO 2017), JENNY ROSEN & KRISTEN MAGLONZO.
After bullies, braces, and brutal heartbreak shatters his faith in love, soon-to-be fre...
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NOTE: Well, the intensity of this performance speaks for itself. Check out kaelking12's awesome performance of this chapter!
CHAPTER 19
Elias
I've never seen Josh move so fast.
Like lightning on his feet.
His body's low, shoulders angled, and aimed right at me. Marcus taught him this move. The "right way" to tackle a guy on the opposing team that would guarantee a take down. I remember that afternoon. The two of us were hanging out in his backyard, throwing a football around, and chasing each other like idiots. Marcus stepped outside of the house in his jersey and a pair of sweatpants and asked us if we wanted to learn how the game worked for real. Ten minutes later, I was laid out in the grass, struggling to catch my breath while Josh stood over me laughing about how easy it was to take me down.
But nobody's laughing now.
I don't feel the impact at first—just the tilt of my feet as they lift up off the ground and the raw panic that comes with the unexpected. A momentary freeze frame suspends us in the air. Floating. I suck in. Then everything afterwards happens so fast. The view above me fast forwards from bleachers to sky. And then the rest of my body reacts. Catching up in real-time. My lungs lose all of their air while the rest of me goes flying backwards like I don't weigh a thing.
But nothing floats forever.
Gravity reaches out and slams my spine against the gravel so hard I stop breathing. I don't even have a minute to catch my breath. Josh comes crashing down on top of me and wastes no time crushing my collar in one hand and cocking back the other.
I open my mouth to say something to stop him. To say anything that'll buy a couple seconds to explain the unexplainable, but his knuckles smash my could-have-been apology to pieces.
I don't even brace myself.
I don't fight back.
I let blood splatter out of my lips and across the concrete without any thought of making him stop.
Maybe he shouldn't.
Maybe this is the only way he can know that I'm sorry, and I didn't mean for any of this to happen.
Or maybe I need to stop letting the silence speak for me and expose Trish for what she is. For what she did to me. For everything she's done.
I shake off the sting of Josh's right hook, grab him by the jersey, and shove him off me. The kid's built like a brick wall, but I manage to catch him off guard and send him stumbling backwards further into the open.
