Page 18 of Ice-Cold Obsession

GABRIEL

I OPEN THE LOCKER ROOMdoor, and the first thing I notice is the silence. Everyone’s here. The whole team. They’re all staring at me, and no one’s talking.

Something’s wrong.

“What’s going on?” I ask, keeping my voice steady.

No one answers. They just keep staring, and the tension in the room is thick enough to choke on.

Zyair lunges at me fast, his face twisted with rage, and before I can react, he shoves me hard into the lockers. My shoulder crashes against the metal, and I barely have time to register the pain before he’s swinging at me.

I block the punch and shove him back. He’s strong, but I’m stronger, and I manage to pin him against the opposite wall. “What the fuck, Zyair?”

“You fucking liar!” he shouts. “How could you do that to me? How could you fucking lie like that?”

I tighten my grip on his arms. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb with me!” He tries to break free, but I keep holding him. “You know exactly what I’m talking about!”

Someone across the room speaks up. “Just play it.”

I glance over and see Taj holding his phone. He taps the screen, and suddenly my voice fills the locker room.

My chest constricts.

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

The recording keeps playing, and I can hear myself as I lie to Coach. All of it. Someone recorded all of it. When it ends, the silence is deafening.

Zyair wrenches free from my grip and steps back, his chest heaving. “You went to Coach and told him I had family issues. You made him bench me. And you lied to my face about it.”

I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. My mind is racing, trying to figure out how this happened. Who the fuck recorded me? Who was there that morning?

“It’s fake,” I say, forcing my voice to stay calm. “Someone edited the audio. It’s not real.”

“Bullshit,” Zyair snaps. “I talked to Coach. He confirmed it, and said you came to him and told him I needed some time off.”

Fuck.

I swallow hard. “It was a misunderstanding.”

“A misunderstanding?” Zyair hands are balled into fists. “How the fuck is that a misunderstanding? You told Coach I had family problems! You made him bench me. And then you stood there and told me it was probably a test. You looked me in the eye and lied to me.”

“It wasn’t like that.”

“Then what was it like?” His voice breaks, and I can see the hurt under the anger. “Why would you do that to me? What did I ever do to you?”

I don’t have an answer. At least, not one I can give him.

The door swings open, and Coach steps inside. His face is deadly serious, and his eyes land on me immediately.

“Santelli. My office. Now.”

I glance around the locker room one more time. Every single person is staring at me with a mix of anger, confusion, and disgust. Even Taj, who’s usually in my corner, won’t meet my eyes.

I follow Coach out of the locker room and down the hallway, my mind still spinning. Who recorded me? How did they get the audio out to the whole team?

Coach doesn’t say anything, and soon we’re inside his office with the door closed. He takes a seat behind his desk and motions to the chair across from him.