The Score (Sequel to The Exchange)

Chapter 33- Two Complete Losers, Part 2

I plopped down next to the couch Viktor was laying on.

I didn't say anything.

He held out his hand to me, and I laced my fingers through his, then looked at his face.

"I blew it," he whispered. "I ruined your dream."

I bit my cheek. "Don't be ridiculous. We can work with this."

"Work with what? Five months of rehab and a fifty percent chance that I'll ever be what I was? Because that sounds—"

"What's your source?"

"What?"

"Your source. You need to cite your source. Who told you that you only have a fifty percent chance of getting back to your level?" I asked.

"I made that up, but I'm sure it's true."

I shook my head. "Let's say that it is true, just for our purposes. That means that you have an equal chance of making it back to where you used to be. I figured you'd at least be able to do some basic subtraction."

My throat hurt as I spoke, but that wasn't my primary concern. He was.

"But what about Caroline?" Viktor asked me.

"What about her?"

Those meds were seriously affecting his unfocused mind more than usual.

Viktor frowned. "She won't want anything to do with me anymore."

"So what if she doesn't? In that case, she needs to fucking go," I said.

"But she's my only chance at getting drafted."

"What about me? You know, the person who's stuck with you through thick and thin, the person who's dragged you to this point? Don't just conveniently forget about all that."

"But you can't get me on a line with the Jardetzky twins. Candy Cane, I know you do your best, but you're limited," he said.

Me? Limited?

I thrived when people told me, "You can't."

I bit my cheek and reminded myself not to get pissed off at his comment. Instead, I said, "What does she do to get you on a line with the Jardetzky twins? Talk to her daddy for you?"

Spoiled. Fucking spoiled.

Viktor shrugged, then winced a little. "More or less. I wouldn't have gotten the opportunity if it weren't for her offering to help me out."

More or less?

More or less?

That wasn't a concrete answer.

"So is that what you do? You convince girls you love them just to get them to help you? That's pathetic, and honestly, it's really hurtful," I said.

He took his hand out of mine, then ran it through my tangled-up hair. "That's not what I do."

"That's what you did to me. You always want something for nothing, but that's not the way the world works. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so unless you're acting, you're not gonna get the reaction you want. It's Newton's Third Law."

He kept his hand in my hair. It must have been stuck.

"I do stuff. I have to deal with Caroline's attitude all the time," Viktor said.

"Why do you say that? You don't have to do anything besides listen to me."

"Because if I don't, or," he sighed, "if I didn't, then the twins would be gone, the team would collapse, and I would cost us the chance of a division championship. I can't do that."