Page 75 of Hard Pass

Not the media.

Not the fucking world.

I’ve spent my whole life making sure to keep that secret, and she just witnessed it with a front-row seat.

“Problem?” My dad’s voice cuts in.

I keep my eyes on her. On the one thing that’s good on this field right now when everything else feels like it’s trying to break me.

My dad follows my gaze and snorts. “Thought so.” He pauses. “Tell her to go. I’m not done with you.”

The memory hits out of nowhere.

Those fucking words.

My tuxedo looks sharp and my car keys are in hand. My prom date is waiting for me to pick her up. I’m one foot out the door toward a night of freedom to close out my junior year.

He’s there before I realize it.

Tell her to go by herself. I’m not done with you.

Same words. Same tone. Same fucking chokehold.

I snap.

“I’m done,” I spit out.

He scoffs. “Of course you are. Typical Cole-y boy. Run when it gets hard.” He lifts his chin toward Dublin. “Guess that explains a lot lately.”

That? Is he fucking serious?

My jaw locks and it burns to swallow. “Have a safe trip home.” I don’t even look at him. “You overstayed your welcome the minute you got here.”

It’s nothing close to what I want to say. But it’s more than I ever have.

A dismissal. A boundary. The only piece of control I’ve got left.

He laughs under his breath like I’ve just proved him right, but I don’t give him anything else. I don’t react.

Instead, with shame staining every part of me, I simply turn and walk toward the doors.

Toward her.

Toward anything that isn’t him.

I don’t slow down when I pass her though. I don’t speak, I don’t even look, because if I do, I know what I’ll see in her eyes.

Pity.

Maybe something even worse that might break me when I’m already fractured.

So I push past her and head straight inside to get away.

I need to escape.

I should be numb to him. Unaffected. The thought is useless because every time I think I am, the man who made me—who tore me down to build me back up—shows up to remind me how easy it still is.

“Cole.”