Cheap Shot by Brittney Mulliner
Haley
The girlsand I took a study break to get dinner on Wednesday night. We’d been doing homework in Ella’s room for three straight hours before Krystal complained that her stomach was growling.
Sadie linked her arm around mine as we crossed the courtyard toward the dining hall. “Should we go to the football game on Saturday?”
I shrugged, but Cassie let out a dramatic sigh. “We can. I’m not really into football players though.”
“We wouldn’t be going for them, Cass. They’re on the field, not mingling with the crowd.” Sadie laughed.
“I know, they’re just not as much fun to watch,” she defended herself.
“We’ll go to every basketball game when the season starts, don’t worry.” Ella nudged her and winked at me. “She has a thing for freakishly tall men.”
Cassie rolled her eyes. “No, I just like looking at their arms. All the other sports cover up the goods.”
I laughed with them.
“What about the hockey game tomorrow night?” Ella pointed to a life-size poster of the team next to the pathway. “I heard they’re doing really well this year.”
I tightened my jaw. I hadn’t been to a game and wasn’t planning on attending, no matter how tempted I was to see Reid play. Besides, if Cassie liked seeing skin, hockey was the last thing she would be into. You could barely even see the player’s faces, let alone their physique.
“Ethan Clarkson.” Sadie read the name at the bottom of my brother’s action shot. His helmet was off, and his face was clearly posed with his brooding expression that he probably thought girls would find sexy. I rolled my eyes.
“Are you guys related?” she asked.
I swallowed. I really didn’t want to lie to them, but I didn’t want things to change between all of us either. Maybe it wouldn’t. They weren’t really the puck bunny type. They probably wouldn’t care.
“Yeah, that’s my brother,” I admitted.
Ella’s brows shot up. “You never told us your brother went here.”
I shrugged. “I didn’t really want to be known as his little sister. That’s been my entire life, and I wanted to be my own person here.”
Sadie narrowed her eyes. “If you wanted to be your own person, why did you transfer to his school?”
Krystal elbowed her in the ribs. “Stop,” she whispered.
I eyed them, suspicion building in my gut.
“I’m just curious,” Sadie pressed.
“You never did tell us why you moved here,” Ella added. “At least, not the full story.”
And I wasn’t going to unpack all of that here, in the middle of campus.
“Is that why Reid Bayman came and got you from the party?” Sadie asked.
“Wh-what?” I stuttered. I never told them all of the details of what happened at the party. Just that Jay drugged my drink, and I called a friend to come get me.
“A bunch of people saw him carrying you out,” Sadie challenged. “Why didn’t you just tell us?”
I looked at Ella, Cassie, and Krystal. They all knew and hadn’t said anything? Were they waiting for me to tell them or just waiting for the right moment to gang up on me?
“Why are you keeping a whole part of yourself a secret?” Krystal asked quietly. She seemed hurt, and I wasn’t sure what to say to make her, or any of them, understand.
“Did you think we would use you?” Cassie asked before dropping her eyes to the ground.
“Guys, no. It’s just a really hard thing for me to talk about.” I really didn’t want to be having this discussion out in the open when there were so many other students out walking to dinner and the dorms.
“I thought we were close.” Ella’s voice dropped.
This was a setup. I could feel it now. They planned this. Planned to walk by this poster just so they could bring it up. Did they even want to go to the football game or was that just Sadie’s way of making the transition feel natural?
I felt stuck. Boxed in and cornered. I knew my reaction was over the top and that not wanting Ethan as a known part of my life might seem weird to them, but they didn’t know the full story. That was my fault too. I never told them.
My shoulders fell. “Is it wrong that I wanted a fresh start? That I wanted to move to a place where no one knew me or my past or my family so I could be my own person? I didn’t tell you guys things because it’s painful and I’ve been trying to move on. I don’t want to live with the reminders of what happened. I liked that with you guys, I could be myself. There were no expectations or assumptions.” I sighed. “It’s not like I know everything about any of you guys. We’re still getting to know each other, and eventually, I would have told you guys about my brother, but for once in my life, I wanted to just be me. Not Ethan Clarkson’s little sister.”
“If that’s what you wanted, why move here?” Sadie asked again.
I snapped. “Because it was my only option. Or the only one I could live with. It was either move back home and go to a local college or transfer here where Ethan would be close by if I needed him.”
Not that he’d been there when I really did need his help.
Ella and Cassie had the decency to look uncomfortable. Sadie was still watching me through narrowed eyes, but Krystal stepped forward and wrapped her arms around me. “I’m sorry. We shouldn’t have ambushed you like this.”
I pulled out of her embrace and looked at each of them. “This was planned?”
She nodded, confirming what I’d suspected, and it was a punch straight through my heart.
“Why?” I asked. “Why was it so important to get me to admit that Ethan is my brother?”
They all shared a look. And Sadie rubbed her arm, finally looking embarrassed.
This couldn’t be happening again. Not with them. I thought they were really my friends. That they were genuinely interested in getting to know me. Not just used me. “You what? Want me to set one of you up with him? Introduce you all to the team?”
Cassie and Sadie shared a flicker of a glance, and I knew.
“That’s it, isn’t it?” I wanted to break down and cry. “How long?”
Ella was the only one to respond. “How long what?”
“How long have you guys known? How long has this been the plan?”
Sadie stared at the ground. “I knew when you moved in. The RA told me.”
I huffed and shook my head. “So, this whole time? Was it just luck that I came out and asked to hang out with you?”
“We were going to invite you that night, actually,” she admitted.
I extended my finger and pointed around our circle. “So, this has all been fake. You were just using me to get to him?”
Krystal and Ella shook their heads, but Cassie looked guilty.
“It might have started out like that, but we all really like you. We are your friends,” Sadie protested.
I couldn’t believe it. No matter what I did, it always came back to my brother.
“I’ve got to go.” I turned and walked away, ignoring their calls. There wasn’t anything they could say to take this back or make it better. They destroyed my trust and admitted to using me. There was no coming back from that.
I didn’t have a plan or destination in mind as I walked. All that mattered was putting space between me and the girls I’d called my friends. As I passed my dorms, Ethan and Reid’s building appeared, and I stopped, debating if it was worth the risk of seeing him. The last thing I needed was to give Ethan another opportunity to tell me how stupid I was.
Then again, there was a chance Reid would be home. I could call him and find out where he was exactly, but that felt too intentional. As if knocking on his door wasn’t. But it was less risky. If no one answered, then there would be no proof I was ever there. No missed call notification letting him know I tried.
My feet took me there before I consciously made the decision to go. I waited in the elevator next to a guy I didn’t recognize and got off alone. The hall was quiet, especially for this time of night. I stopped in front of their door and knocked twice.
There was no noise, no feet hitting the floor after jumping off the bed. No chair scraping the floor. I was about to turn around when the door swung open and Reid stood there, shirtless.
His grin dropped when he saw me. “Haley? Are you okay?”
How many times had he been there when I was on the verge of breaking down? He probably thought I was a basket case.
I shook my head, and he opened the door wider and let me in. I went straight for his desk, pulled the chair out, and sat while he went to his small closet and took out a shirt. The perfect view of his defined abs lasted mere seconds, but the image would forever be ingrained in my brain. I wasn’t sure I could talk to him now. All I could think about was the line on his back and stomach. Long, lean muscles were proof of his dedication to his sport.
Before I could start drooling, he took Ethan’s chair and sat next to me, fully clothed. Unfortunately.
“What’s going on?”
What could I say? My friends hurt my feelings, and my first instinct was to come to you? When I’m sad or angry or lonely, you’re the one I want to talk to? I’m happier when I’m with you? You make me feel like it’s okay to just be me? You make me feel like I’m enough?
I wanted to say all those things, but I was already too vulnerable to risk getting rejected.
“The girls I’ve been hanging out with …” I pursed my lips not quite knowing what to say.
“Did something happen?” he asked as he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.
“I found out that they knew who my brother was this whole time. They’ve been waiting for me to introduce them to the team. The night I asked to hang out with them, they were actually going to approach me, I just beat them to it.”
He sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. “I’m sorry, Haley. That sucks.”
I nodded. “It really does.”
Even though he wasn’t offering sage words of advice or trying to comfort me, his understanding was everything I needed. He got why I was upset. He knew what it meant to me, and frankly, it did suck.
“I should probably say something cheesy like they don’t deserve to be your friends if they don’t see how wonderful you are, or to just forget about them. I don’t think that’s what you need to hear though. I haven’t met them, but you seemed to really get along with them. It might have started out under false pretenses, but maybe you should give them a chance to explain and apologize.”
I shrugged. It wasn’t like I could ignore them forever. They were my neighbors. And a part of me didn’t want to. They kept a secret from me, and I’d kept secrets from them. But that was different. My omission didn’t hurt them. It didn’t change my intentions. It didn’t make them second guess everything I ever said to them.
“I’m just so sick of Ethan affecting my life.”
He let out a single laugh. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”
My eyes connected with his. “You do?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Why don’t we go get dinner, and we can talk about it?”
“I don’t really want to go to the dining hall.” I cringed.
“Me either. Let’s go off-campus.” He stood and offered me his hand.
I took it, and he held it for a moment too long before letting go. There was something in his eyes I couldn’t decipher. A flicker of heat? Wanting? Or was that my imagination? My own desires projecting.
Even the possibility was enough to make my heart race as I followed him through the door.