I Hate Football Players 3 | 18+

Chapter 130: Ellie

"Y-yes," I stammered. "I wanted to make a good impression since it was my brother's first party."

"Are you sure your brother wasn't the only person you wanted to impress, Miss Harrison?" Her eyebrows lifted high. "When did you meet my son at this party?"

"A few steps into the doorway," I answered honestly. "He saw me from across the room and came over."

"So..." She stepped back and tapped one bloodred fingernail against her matching lips. "You'd say that your efforts on your appearance were successful? You went there to meet boys and you met one?"

"I didn't go to meet boys," I answered honestly. "And I certainly didn't think I'd meet the senior star quarterback."

Her eyes narrowed into thin slits. "Answer the questions as asked, Miss Harrison. Yes or no, were your efforts on your appearance successful in that you caught my client's attention upon sight?"

My heart rammed into my chest walls like it wanted to break free. "Yes, I caught his attention."

"And once you caught his attention, what was your first impression of my client?"

My eyes shifted towards Ryder's, who leaned slightly forwards in his seat, eyes locked right onto mine.

"I thought he was handsome, charming, attentive, too good to be true." I lifted my eyes back to Mrs. Stevens, who smiled like a cat who ate the canary.

"So you were attracted to my client?" she goaded me.

"Objection, Your Honor," Mr. Russell stood up with an annoyed expression. "My witnesses' personal feelings of initial attraction are not pertinent to the fact she did not consent to an unwanted sexual act."

"It is pertinent to establish the defendant's understanding of the witnesses' consent, Your Honor," Mrs. Stevens quickly replied.

"I'll allow it." Judge Volkman gave Mrs. Stevens a pointed look. "Get to the point though. Miss Harrison, please answer the question."

Bile rose up in the back of my throat and I refused to look at Logan when I admitted, "At the time... Yes."

My Stevens' smile widened. "And you wanted his attention, his charms?"

"Yes," I whispered as tears welled up in my eyes. "Stupidly, yes."

"Strike the last remark, it's just her opinion, not facts," she chirped out to the judge. "Motion to strike that last comment disallowed."

"Motion sustained, disallow that last remark." Judge Volkman remarked then nodded at the stenographer.

Mrs. Stevens hammered the sickening point home, "So we've established that you were attracted to my client, Miss Harrison?"

"Initially yes," I murmured as my eyes stung with tears.

"And when he kissed you? Did you return the affections?"

My hands balled into tight fists on my lap. "Initially yes."

"So, you liked my client." My pulse pounded in my ears at her emphasis of the word 'liked,' along with the uncertainty that rose inside me from how I had no control over where these questions headed.

"Only at first," I emphasized.

With a dismissive hand wave, Mrs. Stevens eyed the jury when she asked, "And when you went upstairs to the bedroom Miss Harrison, where you claim my client assaulted you, did he force you up there?"

"No, I don't know how we got there," I admitted. "One minute we were on the stairs, then he led me up to the bedroom."

"But you didn't resist, or decline going into the bedroom, Miss Harrison?"