Damon was on top of the world. He'd already scored three goals and he was on fire. He had never felt so alive, so free, so invincible. It definitely wasn't the usual type of high steroids were supposed to give you.
Adrenaline running through his veins like ecstasy, Damon sized up the new defense players blocking the goalie. They were two bulky looking boys, their faces flushed in the cold winds that rushed through the field. Sure, they were pretty big players but Damon felt so strong that he didn't even bother forming a strategy.
As soon as the referee blew his whistle, he was racing towards them, not even bothering to see if Connor Royce had won the face off.
The boys both met his run but Damon pushed into them, knocking them both to the ground. He could hear the crowd going crazy now as he made his way straight for the goalie with the ball. The goalie was as muscular as he was, already in a perfect stance to block him.
"Damon, pass the ball!" He heard Chris Edwards call from across the field just as one of the defenders got to their feet and began to charge him.
He was only able to analyze the situation for a fraction of a second but everything was clear. If he passed the ball, Chris would make the goal - and that was not happening. Not when Coach Mitchells might just be considering Chris for a new captain.
Damon managed to block the defender and then he threw the ball, aiming for the goalie - he missed.
He missed.
He missed the goal.
He had put so much force into the throw that it had went over the net. "Fuck!"
"Damon Felix, get over here right now! He heard Coach Mitchells' hoarse voice call from the side lines. From the tone of his voice, Damon knew he wasn't about to get praised.
The referee, a bald man who had actually been a referee for pro Lacrosse games, blew the whistle for break. Everyone on the field broke out into a run to their coaches. Damon could feel the glares of the East Prep players as he made his way to Coach Mitchell, he also had a nagging feeling that some of his team mates were glaring at him too.
The team made a semicircle around the coach, everyone shooting glances or glares towards Damon. He couldn't see why they would be mad. He had been scoring all the goals.
"Felix, why didn't you pass the ball to Chris?" The coach yelled harshly, causing the chattering cheerleaders to turn their way.
"He wasn't close enough," Damon shrugged. "Plus he was surrounded." That wasn't true at all. Chris could have caught the ball. In fact, he could have scored.
Chris snorted, his red hair unruly from the helmet. "That's bullshit, Coach. I was open."
"Yeah and on the first goal, I was open too!" Jeremiah, their most scariest player, piped up, his deep voice startling even the coach.
"I was open but," Brett sneaked a glance at Mia Matthews who was too busy going over a cheer with Addie Anderson to notice him. "Well, you guys get the picture."
"Brett, you're benched." Coach Mitchells barked.
Brett only nodded, sitting down on a bench that just so happened to be next to the cheerleaders. He was too wasted to care about his predicament.
"And Damon if I don't see some team work-"
"Got it, Coach," Damon said quickly, hoping his father who was only sitting a few feet from them on the bleachers hadn't heard them. "There's no 'I' in team right?" To his dismay, the coach didn't crack even a grim smile.
Both teams got into position on the field again. The cheerleaders had started up their annoying chants and the crowd was at the edge of their seats. Damon took a deep breath, glancing up at his father sitting in the bleachers - but he wasn't there.
Matthew Felix stood by Coach Mitchell's side, looking straight at him as he muttered something to the coach.
The referee blew his whistle.
Damon could feel exhilaration building up again. Connor Royce led the face off - and actually won. However, he had the ball which meant he could make a goal and steal all the spotlight. As selfish as it seemed, Damon had to be the highlight of the game. He had to show Matthew he was still strong, that he was the better sibling.
So he caught up with Connor who was passing the ball back and forth with Seth Montador towards the opposing goalie.
"Throw it!" Damon cried over the deafening cheers.
Connor stopped in his tracks, the ball still in his crosse stick. The defenders had moved further out to protect the goalie and were charging towards him. Connor pushed past them - which surprised everyone - and Damon followed.
"Pass the ball!" He shouted again.
"No way," Connor aimed for the net, the East Prep goalie, as usual, already in a protective stance. "This is my moment! Time for me to shine bright like a diamond!"
Then everything happened faster than Damon could comprehend. It was the same familiar burst of anger - except he actually acted on it, or more like, the steroids acted on it. He lunged for Connor, knocking the gangling freshmen to the ground so hard he heard a ear-splitting crack.
Connor yelped loudly before going limp for just a moment. Damon, however, didn't hear anything. He simply got up, grabbed the ball and raced for the goal, only to stop in his tracks. The goalie wasn't even playing the game, he was staring past him.
That's when he realized he'd knocked Connor down.
Connor was a moaning mess on the field, cradling his arm. The referee rushed towards him before blowing his whistle. In a flash, the whole team had rushed over even some of the opposing players.
Warily, he joined the group and found himself cringing. Connor's left arm was bruised and purple. It was clear he wasn't going to be able to play. 'So much for his moment,' Damon thought and almost felt guilty for finding irony in the situation.
"His arm is dislocated." The referee said gravely.
Damon felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Coach Mitchells, a somber look on his old features. "Damon, you know what this means."
"Yeah, he won't be able to play, its a shame really." Although Connor had never really been an asset to the team anyway.
"I'm gonna have to sit you out on this game, its only fair."
Damon froze. He froze because the words he was hearing was even worse than the dreaded; 'I'm cutting you off.' The words were worse than the feared; I'm sending you to public school.' In Damon's world, the words Coach had just spoken was the apocalypse of all words.
"But-but my Dad is out here," was all he could say.
"I know," Coach Mitchells sighed almost as if he were sorry himself. "But things have gotten ugly."
Despite the invincibility the Anabolic steroids seemed to be giving him, Damon just felt weak. He managed to nod, turning away from the Coach and making his way back to the locker room.
The school band started up their own version of Queen's "We Are The Champions." Damon used to think he fit the title. However now he realized he wasn't a champion at all. With that thought in mind, Damon realized he needed a drink.
Yet when he reached the parking lot and realized his father's corvette was there - and that his father had come in his Bugatti - he decided he needed a whole magnum sized bottle.
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Jac hadn't been paying much attention to the game. So, when Benny, and Paisely cringed, squealing as if they'd seen a peasant, she almost started searching nervously for the fraud knockoff who'd managed to sneak into the posh school. However, looking down at the field, she quickly understood.
Connor Royce was crying out in pain, tears at the brims of his eyes.
Everyone in the bleachers began to chatter, some of the parents literally flying down to the field to help. Even the cheerleaders had left their post on the sidelines to see what all the fuss was about.
"Gosh, whats wrong with Damon?" Benny said, still wincing as Connor let out another shrill cry. "Its like he's on Hulk mode or something."
"Damon is a great player, he's always on hulk mode." Jac shrugged, tearing her eyes away from the field as ambulance sirens began to be faintly heard in the distance.
"No, you should have seen him," Benny exclaimed. "He was practically bulldozing through those guys!"
Jac honestly didn't have any interest in the game. She had been on her phone most of the time - Jeffrey had left her whole collection on her bed with brand new Tiffanys cases - still fuming with anger. Her father really thought giving back her communication was going to make her hate him less. He was definitely the most dumbest business man in the world.
The hours before the game had been agony. Eve refused to be in the same house as Jeffrey and had grabbed all the things she hadn't destroyed and got a hotel room. Jac didn't want to be around her father either but she was just too lazy to gather her million dollar wardrobe and leave.
"I have a theory," Paisely piped up.
"Wow, Paige, you used a smart word," Benny chuckled. "Theory."
Jac focused on Damon as he talked to the coach, remembering the ring that felt heavy on her finger. The old Jac - the bitchy one from freshmen year - would have never accepted the ring. Hell, she probably would have smashed the ring with her Jimmy Choos right in front of him.
"Brett scored a whole bunch of you-know-whats for, like, fifty grand."
"You-know-whats?" Benny giggled. "As in E and stuff?"
"Yeah, Brett told Mia about it and then she told Lindsey and Lindsey told me." Paisely nodded innocently.
"He told Mia about it first?" Benny scoffed.
"I don't think E makes you the incredible hulk though," Jac offered. The last time she took E, or Ecstasy, she started hallucinating about rainbows and butterflies. "And Damon can't do that stuff. They have drug tests."
"There are ways to trick a test, Jac," Benny said flatly. "I had to pay off our track coach so she wouldn't report the marijuana that came up on my urine test."
Paisely shrugged. "Well, tests don't really catch alcohol in your system so-"
"No, sweetie, it can." Benny interjected.
"Well, Damon doesn't do anything to enhance performance," Or at least that's what he had told her. "He's already good. Besides, taking drugs for sports is cheating."
"He doesn't have a problem cheating on you." Benny remarked.
Jac felt her face flush. She felt the familiar sting of her eyes when she wanted to cry. "Well, that was bitchy." However, Benny was right and she hated it. He was totally against wronging a sport but had no problem with running over her.
"Jac, I'm sorry I-"
"I'm going to the bathroom."
Jac got up, stepping over hands and designer shoes as she made her way down the bleachers. No one complained as everyone was far too busy with the ongoing game. The East Prep team was catching up on the scoreboard and literally everyone was on the edge of their seats. Jac could care less.
She ended up passing the bathrooms as a couple was using the area for a make out session. Jac found herself at the parking lot, feeling more miserable than she had before.
Then she saw a figure ahead, leaning 'on the hood of a corvette and smoking a cigarette. She strained her eyes, trying to see. "Damon?"
Damon looked towards her, frowned, and went back to his new poisonous habit. Jac came to lean on the car next to him, openly studying him. He wasn't in his Lacrosse gear and there was something morbid about him. However, despite his eerie silence, he was still gorgeous in his vintage Arctic Monkeys t-shirt that stuck to his toned chest.
The night was starry and Damon looked like a somber prince in the moonlight. It reminded Jac of a dark Grimm Brothers movie.
"Cigarettes can kill, y'know." She said weakly, trying hard to sound nonchalant.
"I don't care," was all he said.
"Why aren't you out on the field?"
"Why aren't you?"
"I'm not really fit to play, if you haven't noticed."
Damon took a drag on the cigarette one last time before throwing it on the ground, smashing it out with his Nike shoe. He turned to her then but didn't wear the smirk that annoyed and sent butterflies into her stomach all at the same time. He was just....dead."You're wearing the ring."
"I'm probably going to take it off," Jac admitted meekly.
Damon groaned, rolling his eyes. Jac slipped the ring off then, sitting it on the roof of the corvette. Benny's words rang in her head like a bell chime. Sure, she hadn't meant them but she was right - and as much as she wanted to ignore her, she couldn't deny that fact.
"Whats your problem now?" He hissed, looking much more angrier than he usually did.
Jac found her voice with ease, speaking calmly, keeping her voice levelled and mature. "You're acting like I'm the enemy. Like I did something wrong."
He looked her straight in the eye and she was surprised at how darker his blue eyes looked, how empty they looked. "I'm done trying to be the good guy, Jac," He was shouting now. "I'm done buying you circus shows and fucking jewelry!" He picked up the beautiful diamond ring - and then tossed it into the air.
Jac's heart shattered again much harder than the first time - when her mother had cursed her parents' marriage - as the ring fractured into tiny un-salvageable pieces a few feet away from them.
Damon didn't give her time to process the destruction. "I'm tired of being your prince or whatever the hell you want me to be!"
"I don't want you to be anything." She blinked back hot, salty tears. "I just want you to love me, okay? Why am I never enough?"
"Because you're nothing." He said darkly and Jac could have sworn she didn't see one fleck of sea blue in his eyes.
'Nothing?' The thought was too much to bear. The thought was was too much to confront so she did the only thing that could give her some ounce of self esteem - she slapped him, or at least she tried to. Whatever Damon had been taking for the game made him much faster, more vile, and he caught her wrist before she could make contact with his face.
She avoided his gaze, shoving away from him. The more she stood there with him, the more she really did feel like nothing. The fact that she was a good friend to Steve didn't stop him from forming a relationship with her father. Neither the fact that she existed stopped her father from ruining their family.
"The truth is, " Damon sighed. "We don't work, Jac. This is gonna sound like a jerk thing to say but that night with Emma, or that day with Callie, and every other girl.....well I enjoyed it more than I regretted it."
'Well, there goes any amount of self esteem I had left, ' She thought humorlessly to herself.
"Is it...is it about your Dad?" She managed. "Is that what this is? You just being an asshole when you're angry?" A part of her hoped that was exactly what was going on.
Damon shrugged. "I don't know but maybe its for the best anyway. I'm not good for you, Jac. I'm just a fuck up."
"I don't think you are." She gasped back tears.
"I was wrong, you're more than just nothing, its just I'm nothing," He chuckled but it was as faint as the ambulance's sirens as they took Connor Royce to the hospital. "My Dad can testify to that. Erika would make a documentary to support it."
She bit her lip wryly. "Are you done feeling sorry for yourself, Damon?"
Although surprised, Damon ignored her, pulling out another pack of cigarettes. Since when was he interested in smoking?
"Well, if you excuse me," She forced herself to back away from him. "I'm going to find Benny and Paige."
Damon only nodded, taking a long drag from his cigarette.
"We're going to Brett's after party," She tried to sound more cold, more spiteful. "Or maybe I'll get a ride with Veronica."
He didn't say a word.
"And I'm sure I'll find plenty of guys that won't enjoy anything more than being with me."
Damon still said nothing.
With a haughty flip of her hair, Jac sauntered her way back to the school Lacrosse field just in time to see Chris make the winning goal, ending the game. As everyone rushed to the field, hugging and practically worshiping the winning team, Jac joined them, smiling as hard as everyone else.
She decided she would do exactly what she told Damon she would do. She would go out and prove to him that guys wanted her, that she wasn't a girl he had come back to, that she was better than Emma, Callie, and all the other girls he'd been with.
So when an East Prep boy whose name Jac forgot as soon as he told her asked for a kiss of sympathy, Jac kissed him with more enthusiasm than she'd ever kissed Damon with.
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"Where the fuck is my car?"
Erika looked around the crowded parking lot of Alabaster Preparatory School. The game had ended - and Alabaster Prep had won thanks to Chris Edwards' incredible speed and strategy. However, Erika only cared about the fact that Damon had been kicked out of the game. It meant she would remain the best Felix sibling in her father's eyes and that felt like being on cloud nine more than kisses did.
Yet now she was stranded.
Matthew Felix had already gone home, cursing under his breath. He'd probably felt like a loser sitting in the bleachers among parents whose children actually participated.
"The after party is happening at-" Veronica Conrad started to say but Erika quickly cut her off.
"If you say Paisely's house, I'm killing myself." She hated the fact that everyone always found the Mont Vernon estate the most convenient place to have parties. What was so wrong about her mansion? It was much bigger than Paisely's.
Veronica tsked, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "No, Brett got his Dad to rent a venue at Wilshire." Beverly Wilshire Hotel was one of the many luxurious places Wolfgang Puck owned. The last time Brett had rented a venue there for a party, it had been crashed by the school's other rival school, Pacific Vista.
Brett Richers hosting the party wasn't any better. However, Erika was just relieved Paisely wouldn't be getting the glory for another after party. "Someone took my car. I'm going to have to go with you."
"Sorry, can;t," Veronica pouted fakely. "I'm catching a ride with some East Prep boys."
"Of course you are, slut." Erika muttered.
"What?"
"What?"
Veronica rolled her eyes and Erika wasn't sure if she had understood her comment or was choosing to ignore it. "Why don't you get your boyfriend to drive you?"
'Because he's a total tool and I cherish every moment without him.' Erika didn't voice her real opinion. She only shrugged. "He's probably busy with the team."
At that moment, the winning team poured into the parking lot. Chris Edwards was being carried by several boys, holding up the Alabaster Preparatory School crest and yelling profusely.
Girls looked on adoringly but Erika couldn't help but regard the whole act as peasant - like. She hated how rowdy and arrogant Chris was. It was childish and she needed a man, not a boy.
The team stopped at Chris' blue jeep, still shouting to the top of their lungs.
Then Chris' eyes met Erika's - and he hopped off the bumper of the jeep and started coming towards them. Erika quickly turned her back to the team, hoping he would just go away. The thought of abandoning the 'Fuck-Paisely-Up' plan just so she didn't have to kiss Chris again was becoming more and more appealing to her.
"Hey Chris." Victoria purred.
"Hey, you guys are going to the party, right?" She heard him ask but Erika still didn't turn around, pretending to be interested in something on her iPhone.
"Wouldn't miss it," Victoria giggled. "But I can't speak for Erika."
Erika almost recoiled at Chris' arms around her from behind, rocking her body with his - 'Somebody run me over with their Lexus,' She thought to herself grimly. However, she forced a smile, breaking out of his grip. "Chris, there's a rule you have to follow, okay?"
"I like rules," He snickered. "What is it?"
"No touching in this relationship unless I say so."
Chris frowned for only a moment before lighting up again. "Playing hard to get? I get it.,babe."
Paisely and Benny came up to them then, arms linked together and laughing over something about the game. To Erika's dismay, Paisely actually looked up to par with her. Her blonde hair was loose, sexy curls and her curvy frame was outshining every other girl's figure in a Narciso Rodriguez blue and white V-neck panel dress and blue Miu Miu heels.
Benny Costa was still going with - what Erika thought was disgusting - her 'Punk Chic' look in a Givenchy vintage Rottweiler T, Stella McCartney boyfriend jeans, and black Nike air max sneakers. Looking over the girl's outfit, Erika felt more sure about herself again.
Erika touseled her hair, making sure it still had the messy look she wanted and turned to Paisely with a smirk. "I'm surprised you're even over here."
Paisely froze, her glossed bottom lip trembling as if she were about to cry.
"Why wouldn't she be?" Benny piped up. "She's our friend, right?"
Well, there was no point in kicking her out. Who would Erika have to torture then? She forced a levelled smile towards the blonde girl who seemed as if she were ripping at the seams. "Right. We're friends. I was just kidding, Paige, take a joke."
Paisely slowly smiled too and there was something about that smile that annoyed Erika - and caused something else to stir inside of her too. Nonetheless, she hated Paisely's smiles more than she liked them.
"So who wants to take a spin in my car to the party?" Chris said, slinging his arm around Erika despite her earlier rule of 'no touching'.
"Eh, me and Jac are catching a ride with some East Prep boys." Veronica said bluntly.
"I'm taking Seth's limo." Benny shrugged.
"I want to!" Paisely cried eagerly and Erika didn't like how Chris' eyes went over the girl. Sure, she didn't like Chris but the only thing she slightly admired about him was the fact that he liked her.
So she forced herself to turn to Chris and kiss him, pressing her body against his and brushed off her disgust. He smelled like sweat, a smell most girls adored but Erika found it repulsing. How could anyone like the smell of sweat? It was more disgusting than the smell of knockoff Dior perfume.
She had to break the quick kiss, moving slightly away from Chris and flashing a sugar sweet smile at Paisely. "You can ride with us."
"If you can deal with them being all over each other." Benny chuckled lightly.
Paisely's smile didn't waver. "I'm okay with that."
Erika hadn't been expecting that answer. She had wanted Paisely to pout and feel bad about herself. 'Well, its better than being alone in a car with Chris.' With that thought in mind, Erika decided having Paisely with them was in her best interest.
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A/N
So, yeah, Erika is the only one who got a break in this chapter.....for now.
Thank you so much for the comments and votes! I really do appreciate them and they honestly keep me going! Please remember to leave feedback whether its to critique (politely please cx) or if its to just give thoughts! I LOVE and I mean LOVE getting comments!