Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 63124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 316(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 316(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
I thought all of that was over with, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Since Leah avoided us like the plague, I didn’t have the chance to talk to her. And I really wanted to talk to her.
What if things went too far? At least being on good terms with her was fine with me because she was a great girl who I genuinely liked being around. Her energy was addicting, and I definitely noticed a lull in excitement with the team ever since we returned to the university.
That probably also had something to do with the women’s team garnering a lot of media attention for their victory in the tournament. We performed well too, but this was the first time in a while that the women’s team won that tournament. I expected them to get a lot of praise, and they deserved it.
However, besides Jed and me, the others weren’t all that pleased about the spotlight mostly being on the women’s team. Hell, the athletic department threw them a little celebration party, while we just got handshakes and pats on the back. That was enough for me because I only cared about the tournament victory, but the others weren’t satisfied.
Tension between both teams had come back full force, and I wasn’t ready for the shoe to drop. Everything had to crash and burn at some point.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
The team stopped in our tracks as we walked out of the arena together after practice.
“What?” Mikael asked Hugo, who was looking at something on his phone.
“The girls stole our article spot in the New Haven Register,” Hugo told us, referring to the largest newspaper company in the city.
“Seriously?” Anthony asked as he looked at Hugo’s screen. “What the fuck?”
I moved closer to look at Hugo’s phone, seeing an article about the women’s team at the top of the sports section. Usually, we were plastered there after we won big tournaments, but we had been overshadowed this time.
“Is this what it’s going to be like now? They win one tournament, and we’re just ignored?” Stephen snapped as he shook his head.
“Did they forget we won too?” Mikael muttered as he crossed his arms over his chest. “They could’ve at least done a double feature! We don’t deserve—”
“Fuck a double feature! That’s our spot!” Anthony bit out, cutting Mikael off.
“It’s not our—” Colm tried to break in.
“It’s always been our spot!” Stephen snapped, bitter comments and enraged voices overlapping in a swell of angry noise.
“It’s just one article. We had a good amount of media coverage,” Jed commented, trying to simmer down the tension as voices kept rising.
“Not enough,” Hugo said before he looked up ahead past me. “Speak of the devil. Leah!”
I turned around to see Leah heading toward the arena, our paths about to cross. She almost looked like she wanted to run the other way, but she straightened up and walked over to us. A light breeze ruffled the few strands of hair that were untucked from her messy bun and framed her face. She wore a pair of black leggings and a shirt underneath a light jacket, still looking as beautiful as ever.
“What?” she asked as she gave Hugo a hard look. It was like she had built a wall around herself since that night.
“You stole our article spot in the Register,” Hugo told her with narrowed eyes. “I would say you paid someone off, but I doubt you have the money for that.”
“Seriously, Hugo?” I scoffed as I gave him a disappointed look. Was he going to try to hit her that low over a damn article?
“Shut it,” Stephen snapped to me.
Jed immediately took a step toward Stephen.
“Don’t,” he warned our teammate.
“Fuck you,” Leah bit out at Hugo. “I didn’t do anything to take that article spot from you. I guess they thought we were more deserving.”
“I doubt that,” Anthony replied. “Probably just took pity on you.”
I was getting tired of this pointless bickering, and it was pissing me off that they were attacking her just a week after they were praising her and pleasing her.
“Alright, stop this! You all sound like children,” I snapped as I looked between all of them, making them back off.
Leah’s stern expression wavered a little, but she recovered and shook her head before hurrying away from us and going back the way she came.
“I got this,” I muttered to Jed before hurrying after Leah.
Leah only made it ten feet away before I caught up to her.
“Hold on,” I told her, matching pace with her. “I’m sorry about them. They’re being dickheads over a few paragraphs.”
“It’s not just paragraphs to us. We’re finally getting the attention we deserve,” Leah said, avoiding my eyes.
“You’re right. They just shouldn’t be attacking you and accusing you,” I replied, wishing she would stop or at least look at me. I need to stand by my team, but I refused to support them when they were coming after her.