For The Love Of The Game

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Enter Player Name: Noah

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I was furious.

My feet tapped in an endless rhythm against the beige steps. I checked my phone for the thousandth time and scrolled through my failed attempts to reach Riley. It had become a sadistic distraction to watch for the checkmarks to turn blue. An agonizing distraction. It finally happened thirty minutes ago, but still no reply.

After Riley escaped with whomever that was, I drove home. But I couldn't bring myself to go into my apartment. At least, I wanted to make sure she was okay, so I knocked on her door. To my surprise, Jay said she had not returned. I made up some lame-ass excuse for why she wasn't with me so that he wouldn't worry. But I was frantic.

I almost ran out to look for her, but I realized that I didn't know where the fuck she would have gone. So instead, I collapsed on these narrow steps, these goddamn stairs that started it all. It's been at least ninety minutes and forty-five seconds. Just waiting.

Fucking waiting.

I checked my phone again.

No new messages. Dammit, Riley!

I buried my face into my palms. My thoughts entered the realm of madness with worry. What if something happened to her?

"Noah?"

Riley's sweet voice slipped into my ears like a saving grace. The corner of my lips twisted into a smile as my head snapped up to meet her gaze. The momentary happiness dropped like a boulder to the pit of my stomach.

I was livid.

Her hair tumbled messily over her bare shoulders. The dress straps hung forgotten at her sides. The red lipstick that previously adorned her delicious lips was nonexistent. Only the remnant of a rosy tint served as evidence that it had been there. How I wished to have been the one to have smeared it. To have tasted her plump lips. I trailed the length of the dress up her body. It previously teased my fingers, now it taunted me with what could have been.

I stood at the edge of the top of the stairs.

"Why do you look like that, Riley?" The words were poison on my tongue. Burning away as they dripped from my lips.

"Why do you care?"

"What do you mean? Why do I care?" I swatted my hands in the air in exasperation. "You suddenly left with a random guy and came back looking like this?"

She looked down her dress and tugged the strings over her shoulder. The way she failed to hold my gaze spoke volumes.

My jaw tightened. "Did you fuck that guy you left with?"

"So, what if I did." Her eyes cut up, revealing a darkening red mark on her lower jaw. "Why does it matter to you?"

Her words rammed into my throat, breaking my composure to answer. I asked myself the same question. Why am I so mad? So unnerved by the thought of her with someone else. Riley was a grown woman and could sleep with whomever she wanted. So why did it make me feel like shit?

Her eyes quivered as she searched my face. The disappointment in her gaze stung like the sharp fangs of a viper.

"That's what I thought," she said.

She walked past me. The sound of her hand ruffling through her purse hit me like a loud wave.

My heart twisted, strained at the edge of snapping. I knew if I let her go, whatever we could have become, would be irreparably broken.