Total pages in book: 174
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
Anger.
Guilt, he guessed.
Because fuck, he got to play and now his brother didn’t?
What bullshit.
How was this fair?
How could one mistake on the field cost everything?
He swallowed around the barb in his throat, and his footfalls came harder as he pounded his way up the path.
He missed his first two classes while he was at the hospital. He probably should take the day off. Let himself feel whatever the fuck it was he was feeling.
Deal with it.
Process it.
But he had practice after school and a fucking chemistry test at two.
He didn’t have time to wallow.
He bounded up the five steps to the entrance and tossed open the door to the main hallway, needing to stop by his locker then the office to check in before he’d catch the last of his history class.
It was weird in the hall with the silence. The slew of students that normally had the walls reverberating with laughter had left a strange echo radiating back.
He didn’t know what it was, but he felt that anger surge with the awareness that took him over.
A sense that had him increasing his pace as he stormed down the hall and took the right at the end to the other hall that led to the mathematics classrooms.
Daisy was there, her back and palms plastered to the wall, her head turned all the way to the side to try to shield herself from Jordan, who loomed over her. Fucker laughing and trying to get in her line of sight, muttering something under his breath that Cash knew would be obscene.
Jordan was the scummiest scum Cash had ever met.
He couldn’t stomach the idea of the bastard touching her.
The anger that he’d been feeling swelled into rage, and he dumped his backpack onto the ground and hurled himself in that direction.
Jordan barely had time to swivel his head to the side before Cash was there, grabbing him by the front collar of his shirt to jerk him away from Daisy. With the other hand, he delivered a punch.
Blood splattered, and Cash felt Jordan’s nose crunch beneath the impact.
Daisy gasped and spluttered, her sweet floral scent all around, driving him into chaos.
This thing twisted deep inside him. This strange satisfaction that spurred him forward.
He felt it sometimes on the field. The need to hit harder. Liking it a little too much when he was slammed to the ground.
But this?
He needed it right then.
Jordan cried out in pain and dropped to his knees. Cash jumped on him, pushing him all the way onto his back as he began to pummel his face. Punching him again and again.
The fury all around him.
His sight blearing over as images spun through his brain.
His brother in that pain and the terror radiating from Daisy. The need to protect her unlike anything he’d felt before. The need to stop something bad before it happened. To be the threat that would ensure that nothing terrible would ever happen to her.
“Cash, oh my God.” Daisy grabbed at the back of his shirt.
It didn’t sway him. He just continued to bash in Jordan’s stupid face.
“You stay the fuck away from her, you piece of shit.”
“Cash, stop it!” Daisy cried.
“You even look at her again, and I will end you.”
“Please, Cash, stop. Please.” Daisy’s voice finally penetrated the mayhem, and he realized Jordan wasn’t fighting. The pathetic fucker was just lying there sobbing and trying to shield his face.
Cash let go of a haggard breath, and he shoved at Jordan, grunting, “Stay the fuck away from her,” again before he forced himself to his feet.
Lightheadedness nearly knocked him sideways. Aggression still pounding through his veins. Violence vibrating his hands while something that felt like shame crawled over his flesh when he saw the horror on Daisy’s face.
She dragged him away by the hand, her voice frantic and quiet. “What are you doing? What are you doing?”
“Won’t let anyone hurt you, Daisy. I won’t. Tell me he wasn’t bugging you.”
She dipped her head, and Cash knew Jordan had been, but still she was uttering, “You’re going to get into trouble.”
Disbelief pinched his eyes closed for a beat before he leaned in closer to her. He shouldn’t think she looked so pretty right then.
Shouldn’t think he really wanted to wrap her up in his arms and beg her to take away whatever he was feeling inside.
Because he realized she might be the only one who really could.
He didn’t know what it was about her.
But she made him feel real.
Whole.
Filling him with both a peace and excitement.
And he knew, without a doubt, if he wasn’t this football superstar, she would still be right by his side.
She might be the only person who actually liked him for who he was.
The only one who really knew him.
And he realized right then he always wanted to be wherever she was. That he couldn’t imagine a life without her.