CHOICES (Completed)

A DAY WORTH REMEMBERING

I don’t know what possesses me as I throw the ball violently against the tree nearby. I hear a unanimous gasp and watch on to see the ball hit the trunk with a loud thud and possibly some branch or thorn has punctured it. It falls deflated on the ground resembling my face right now.

Shit. That was not the plan.

I turn back to see a shocked Lily, Trevor mirroring her expression while Mr. not-so-invisible-anymore stands clenching his jaw, fuming and radiating sheer fury that makes me almost choke. From the looks of it, it seems I did manage to attract trouble after all.

“Are you fucking crazy?!” Hardin holds both of my upper arms too roughly as he jerks me upwards and towards himself. His raging and excessively loud yell makes me jump as a silent terror begins to grow within me, at his sudden rise in volume.

“I-I didn’t mean to-“

“You don’t have the slightest idea what you’ve done, do you?” His voice has raised higher and his eye bore deep hateful glares into me.

“Buddy, let it go. Doesn’t matter. Hardin.”

“Leave her, she’s getting hurt.” Lily protests behind me as she tries uselessly to loosen his hold on me.

“For what you’ve done…” He whispers slowly, as if fighting hard to control his anger.

It was just a ball, Hardin. I don’t get why he’s getting so touchy about it. And it’s just deflated. It’s not like it can’t be repaired.

When I was the one hit in the face, by it. Talk about overreaction.

“You don’t know me when I’m bad, Theresa…” My eyes widen. Because as a matter of fact, I do.

I’ve seen him get bad, up close and personal and it really isn’t a fascinating area to revisit. And his taking my full name somehow manages to manoeuvre me exactly there. He doesn’t take the full name except when he’s dead serious. His fingers digging into my arms start to pain as my eyes squint at the sensation.

“Hardin, you’re hurting me.” I croak out the words fighting back the sting that slowly travels up my arm.

“You’re going to have to pay for this. You’re so going to have to pay for this.”

“Hardin, relax!” Trevor shouts out as he untangles me from his hurtful clutches. I stumble back as I get released suddenly and rub my arms fast to ease the pain.

“Let’s go. Come on.” Trevor speaks after a final look at me and Hardin simply stares, with a murderous look that clearly says that this isn’t over yet.

The boys leave soon after and I take time to register the events unfolding too fast for me to keep track. I almost knew something like this would happen.

“You okay?” Lily keeps a hand on my shoulder as I silently nod my head.

“Let’s just head to the wing.” I don’t want to discuss anything about this, or any other matter that somehow concerned Hardin Scott.

If this was his level of anger at my puncturing a basketball, I don’t even want to think about the other worse situations Hardin handles.

This guy makes me mad. God.