Page 30 of Salto

Seriously? I wasn’t expecting Sloane to drag me into the conversation like that.

A few whispers rippled through the group.

“A falling out?” I asked, raising a brow as a disbelieving laugh escaped me.

I’d actually gone out of my way to help her in practice the other day. Had I known she was carrying around this much resentment, I might’ve kept my mouth shut.

Mia’s mouth had fallen open, and she was looking at Laney like she wasn’t sure she was seeing this with her own eyes.

Irritation crawled up my spine. What was even happening here? Was I really the one she considered having bad blood with? She was the one who stopped talking to me after I stepped away from elite.

“You know, because of everything that happened, Scar.”

When I didn’t immediately reply, she rushed to explain.

“I wouldn’t consider it bad blood exactly,” she reiterated, covering up the fake sympathy like someone who’d had practice burying verbal offenses. “Just that we used to be friends, and when I kept going the elite route and you couldn’t do elite skills anymore, it caused us to drift apart.”

“Shortcake was once elite?” Max asked in surprise. His tone indicated he was suddenly ravenous for the sweet gossip that had just fallen into his lap.

Starve, Max, I wanted to say. Go find your plate of rumors elsewhere.

I didn’t openly advertise that I’d once been elite. It had been a private decision to switch to NCAA—something only Sloane and a few of the other girls on the team knew about.

“Yeah, but her health made it so she had to stop,” Sloane said, taking another sip of her drink.

“Is that true?” Liam’s voice suddenly entered the circle, and everyone’s eyes turned to him.

Great.

My elite past and health history had somehow become party entertainment.

I looked across the room at Liam, and a small knot of guilt twisted in my stomach. I’d never told him any of this.

Not because I’d intentionally hidden it from him, but because we’d just never gotten close enough for me to tell him.

Or maybe because I’d never let us get close enough.

“Okay, why don’t you back off, Sloane? Not everyone wants their whole life story revealed,” Laney interjected, and Mia nodded.

“Yeah, this was supposed to be fun,” Mia said.

“Dang. Too bad you couldn’t go elite, Shortcake,” Max said, shaking his head.

“Didn’t that scout from Vanta come the other day? Did you get invited?” Liam asked, his brow still furrowed.

I opened my mouth to answer, but Sloane interjected.

“Just me, Eva, and Tatum were invited.”

My jaw clenched as I watched Liam’s face fall.

The fact that he was thinking of me and that he cared about my opportunities…

It really sucked that dating someone wasn’t in the cards for me right now.

My gaze turned back to Sloane.

The tiny curl of satisfaction at the corner of her mouth made my blood boil.