Temporary Bliss

EIGHTEEN

"You're trying to conclude I failed to meet my responsibilities as captain based on assumed measures."

Coach frowns. "I spoke to your father and he confirmed your change in recent weeks. You are no longer going to be the captain of my squad unless you seek guidance about whether you can handle your commitments."

"I don't need to seek guidance-"

"You will do this or you'll permanently be removed from the squad," Coach's voice goes rigid, expressing the authority like she does for freshmen getting ahead of themselves. "Seek guidance and after that, if it's deemed healthy, you'll have your captaincy back. For the meantime, Faye will be taking over your responsibilities."

Coach waits for my remark but I don't have one. I can taste blood in my mouth from biting my cheek too hard as the threads snap in my mind. Those bitches threw me under the bus - and I don't think it was because they were concerned about my well-being.

I didn't see it coming from Faye which is what's really causing everything to boil rapidly in me. Guess you really can't trust anybody because she wasn't meant to be a wolf, she was meant to be a sheep.

"And that means what for me exactly? I'm vice?"

Coach shakes her head slowly. "You'll still be on the team, attend practices, games with minimal participation until your cast is off and you've been deemed stable. I told Becky you'd be by some point today to schedule an appointment."

Without another word I leave the office and barely keep it together as I head to my locker. I feel crushed, angry and betrayed that this has been ripped away from me. I'm meant to be in control - this never should've happened because it's just causing trouble.

I feel my phone buzz in my hands and a glance tells me it's multiple messages. Dragging myself up the stairs I stop when I read Sam's spam of messages.

From Slytherin
I assured him we're no longer hooking up

And he said he'd keep it a secret

So it's not a big deal, right?

I don't like the silence of you not replying...

Why is Vincent at your locker?

Rather than responding I continue and use a minute to gather myself. Although that all goes down the drain the moment I see Sam and Vincent talking out the front of my locker. Except the former doesn't seem so impressed judging by the grim expression.

"Hey babe," Vincent calls out, extending a cup with a smirk and a flicker towards Sam. I take the coffee and savour the taste despite it stinging my cheek. "I was just telling Sam about our plans this weekend?"

I glance between them, immediately picking up on the tension. But Vincent just seems to be riling him up intentionally. Whether it's meant to be in support of me or some other mind game, I'm not in the mood to be in the middle. Not now.

"Because my morning apparently just keeps getting worse and worse. I'm putting an end to whatever this tension is," I gesture between them, staring at my locker instead of addressing either one of them. "Vincent knows. He overhead me ripping into you over Eden. Sam and I have agreed to be friends - strictly platonic. So can you both back down?"

Vincent snorts. "Platonic doesn't work when you've already fucked."

"What's wrong?" Sam asks carefully, his eyes burning into me and trying to diagnose what's gone wrong. "You look like you're about to cry."