Because the moment we get to the front and have a clear view of the field, somehow,someway, he sees me.
His eyes fall on me through the incoming crowd, through all the chaos, and I don’t know what I see in the depths of them.
I don’t understand the intense emotion reflected in them and it scares me even more.
It scares me that as he runs his eyes over my body it feels like the last time. Like he’ll never see me again after this.
Like this is goodbye.
Before I can do anything about it, jump the fence and run to him or something like that, my brother turns to look at me too.
And as soon ashiseyes fall on me, that dark brown that I’ve known for as long as I’ve lived and that has never ever looked at me with anything less than affection even when we’ve fought, I take a step back.
My knees tremble.
There’s such hatred in them.
Such thick and pervasive betrayal that I don’t know how to breathe.
I don’t know how to live on to the next moment, and then he turns back around and before I can even blink, he punches Reed in the face.
That punch is all it takes.
It makes the already wild crowd go wilder and crazier and a riot breaks out.
On the field, in the bleachers and like yesterday at practice, everyone is on everyone. Only this is much, much bigger in scale and much more horrifying.
So much so that I think I’ll get crushed under it.
Under the mad crowd and the insanity.
Somehow I don’t though because Tempest grabs my hand and pulls me away. She drags me through the crowd, dodging people and keeping a firm grip on my hand.
I’m thankful for it.
Because if it wasn’t for her, I’d be on the ground. My legs wouldn’t hold me under the weight of my brother’s gaze.
Under the weight ofhisgaze too.
The guy I’m in love with.
I’m in love with him, aren’t I?
I love Reed andGod, I don’t know what just happened and I…
Finally, I can breathe because we’re out at the entrance now. It’s not as if the crowd has thinned out but the space is more open and air is easier to get.
I see security flooding onto the field, where the fight is still going on.
I can’t see Ledger or Reed and I turn to Tempest, with a pounding heart. “I need to go find them.”
“Wait, what about your show?” she asks, still holding on to my arm.
Oh.
My show.
That’s about to start in less than ten minutes and they must be wondering where I went.
