Page 58 of Campus Heat

Malik stepped forward, and he was so calm that it felt judgmental. “Let’s face it. You're trying to force things. You have been since we started out, but it isn’t working and eventually we have to accept that.”

“I’m trying to help us win.“

“And what do you think the rest of us are doing here?”

“If that’s the case, then play like you mean it.”

And that was the line I was never supposed to cross until I just trampled right over it. I stood there like an idiot watching it land. I saw the way Dylan’s jaw tightened, and then there was the flicker in Malik’s eyes. It wasn’t sadness or anger. No, it was a lot worse than that. What he showed me was disappointment.

“There’s no point to any of this,” Malik said quietly. “If you don’t trust the guys next to you, you’ll never succeed as a team.”

I let out a sharp, humorless laugh. “I’ll start trusting them when they give me a valid reason to do so.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, I knew I shouldn’t have said them, but I was tired of carrying the weight of the team by myself. I was tired of scrambling when the protection broke down. But most of all, I was tired of watching plays die in the hands of other people.

The punch landed before I even thought it would come. Dylan’s fist cracked against my mouth, and for a split second everything was consumed by a bright white light. The taste of blood flooded in, and then my instincts just took over.

I hit back harder than I meant to, but I only realized it when I felt my knuckles connect with his cheekbone. I heard someone shout in the distance and then felt a body slam into my side. Someone else shoved me from behind, and suddenly it wasn’t about the play anymore. It was weeks’ worth of frustration boiling over, and it detonated in the most epic way.

Helmets hit the turf as the guys jumped into a full-blown saloon-style brawl. Someone swung wildly and caught me across the eye. The sting was bright and hot, but I kept standing my ground and taking out my own frustration. I lunged forward again, adrenaline drowning out any reasoning that might’ve come to mind. Drowning out the only part of me that understood that the situation was spiraling.

I wasn’t just fighting Dylan. I was fighting all of our losses and doubts. I was fighting the whisper that maybe I wasn’t enough to carry the team after all. Hands grabbed me from behind, but I shoved them off. Someone drove a shoulder into my ribs, but I barely felt it.

“Enough,” Harris roared.

It took a moment for the word to press through the rage, but when it finally did, we pulled bodies apart. My chest was heaving, my vision was slightly blurred on one side, my lip throbbed, and my eye was already swelling. Malik avoided eye contact with me, and that hurt even more than all the punches I took.

Of course practice ended early because none of us would go onto that field without causing another fight. But there were no speeches or running drills. Just silence and the echo of cleats against the pavement. The quiet stretched into the locker room and hovered over us while we changed. The tension could still be felt in the air, but no one said anything.

I sat in front of my locker and took in my reflection. Blood trickled out of my split lip, and my eye got hurt so badly that it had already started bruising. Then I had someone else’s blood covering my knuckles. It wasn’t all that bad, but it wasn’t really good either. I looked unhinged, and I felt even worse because underneath all that anger there was something colder. Fear…

What if Malik was right? What if I didn’t trust them because trusting them would mean admitting that I couldn’t do it all on my own? Bile rose in my throat, so I quickly pushed the thought away and stood up. As if the universe were trying to rub the day in, I still had a test to take. So I had a quick shower and changed before heading to my class.

The campus air that hit my face was sharp and cold, but it didn’t clear anything. My head was still buzzing with what happened and replaying the fight in fractured flashes. The punch, the shove, and that look in Malik’s eyes. I was so wrapped up in the details that I almost didn’t hear her calling my name.

“Ethan?” she said again.

I stopped mid-step. Elizabeth was standing near the science building steps. The sunlight was catching in her hair, and for a moment, something in my chest eased. Then she saw my face, and things took a turn.

Her expression fell, and she gasped. “Oh, my God. What happened?”

“It’s nothing. I’m fine.”

“You’re bleeding.”

“And you need to let it go.”

She stepped closer anyway. Her fingers hovered near my mouth, warm but cautious. Then she touched me, and the softness made my heart tighten painfully.

“Who did this to you?” She finally asked.

“I just got out of practice and things were a little intense. It’s nothing serious.”

“That doesn’t really answer the question, now does it?”

I stepped back before I could stop myself. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to be close to her. It was the complete opposite. I wanted her too much.

“Please don’t,” I groaned.