Chapter 58 : Bend Me Baby
HAYDEN’S POV
Practice ends an hour later with sweat burning my eyes and my lungs feeling like they’ve been scraped raw.
The coach finally blows the whistle, shouting something about conditioning tomorrow, and the team slowly breaks apart across the field. Guys grab their water bottles, some collapse onto the grass, and others start heading toward the locker room.
I bend forward, hands on my knees, catching my breath.
For a second, everything is quiet except the pounding of my heartbeat in my ears.
Then I feel it.
That familiar feeling of someone staring at the back of my head.
I straighten slowly and turn to see Stephen.
He is standing a few yards away near the bench, arms crossed over his chest. His expression is dark, jaw tight like he’s been grinding his teeth for the last hour.
Great.
I already know what this conversation is about.
I grab my water bottle and take a long drink, pretending not to notice him watching me like a predator waiting for the right moment to pounce.
It doesn’t work.
“Hayden.”
There it is. I sigh under my breath and screw the cap back onto the bottle before turning toward him.
“Yeah?”
Stephen walks over, stopping right in front of me. Up close, I can see the irritation written all over his face.
“What the hell was that earlier?” Straight to the point, that was not surprising.
I raise an eyebrow. “You’re gonna have to be more specific.”
His eyes narrow. “Don’t play dumb.”
Ah. So we’re doing this. “Do you mean Ella?” I ask casually.
His jaw tightens even more, which pretty much confirms it. “You walked into the field with her,” he says. “In front of everyone.”
I shrug. “Yeah. I noticed.”
Stephen lets out a sharp breath through his nose. “Why?”
There’s an edge in his voice that immediately pisses me off, it was not because he’s asking but because of the tone, like I owe him an explanation.
I take another sip of water before answering. “Relax,” I say. “It’s not what you think.”
“Then explain it.”
I toss the empty bottle into the nearby bin and grab my bag from the bench. “She’s tutoring me.”
The words hang in the air between us. Stephen blinks once. “Tutoring you,” he repeats slowly.
“Yep.”
His expression shifts from irritation to confusion. “Since when do you need a tutor?”
I sling my bag over my shoulder. “Since I bombed the midterm.” He stares at me like he’s trying to figure out if I’m joking. “I failed it,” I say flatly. “Happy?”
Stephen exhales and runs a hand through his hair. “What class?”
“Adler’s.”
“Shit,” he mutters.
Exactly. “Yeah,” I say. “Shit.”
For a moment, the tension between us eases slightly as reality sinks in. Then Stephen frowns again. “Okay, but why Ella?”
I shrug. “Because she has the highest grade in the class.”
He studies my face carefully. “You didn’t ask for her.”
“No.”
“You didn’t set this up?”
I laugh dryly. “Trust me, if I had any choice in the matter, Ella Knox would be the last person on that list.”
Stephen watches me for another few seconds like he’s searching for any sign I’m lying.
Then he exhales slowly. “So this is some professor thing?”
“Yeah.”
I pull the paper from my bag and shove it toward him. “Mandatory tutoring. Four sessions before the retake.”
He scans it before handing it back. “You’re serious.”
“Unfortunately.”
Stephen shakes his head slightly. “That’s… messy.”
“Tell me about it.”
For a moment neither of us speaks. The rest of the team has mostly cleared out now, heading toward the locker rooms.
But Stephen isn’t done. “You know Lilian saw you two together,” he says.
Of course she did, half the damn campus probably did. “Yeah,” I say. “I figured.”
“And?”
“And what?”
Stephen looks at me like I’m an idiot. “She didn’t look happy.”
I let out a quiet laugh. “That’s not really my problem.”
But even as I say it, my brain flashes back to the look on Lilian’s face when I saw her earlier.
The tightness in her jaw and the way her eyes locked onto Ella like she wanted to set her on fire.
Yeah. She definitely wasn’t thrilled.
Stephen crosses his arms again. “You’re sure nothing is going on there?”
Now that question actually annoys me. I stare at him. “You think I’d go from kissing Lilian last night to messing around with Ella today?”
His expression shifts slightly at the reminder.
Good. Let him remember that moment.
“People do worse,” he mutters.
“Yeah,” I say. “But not me.” At least… not like that.
Stephen studies my face again. “You still hate her?”
I snort. “Hate is a strong word.”
“Is it?”
I think about Ella sitting across from me in the library earlier. The way she kept smiling, like she knew something I didn’t, and looked way too amused by this entire situation.
Yeah. Maybe hate isn’t that strong after all.
“She’s still a problem,” I say.
Stephen nods slowly. “Then why did it look like you two were getting along?”
I roll my eyes. “Because we were studying.”
“You were smiling.”
“That’s called sarcasm.”
He doesn’t look convinced. “You used to like her.”
Used to. The word sticks in my head longer than I want it to.
“Past tense,” I snorted out, already tired of this interaction.
Stephen doesn’t respond right away. Instead, he glances toward the field where the cheer squad had been practicing earlier.
They’re gone now and the bleachers are mostly empty.
“Just be careful,” he says finally.
“With what?” I asked.
“With her.”
I raise an eyebrow. “You’re warning me about my own ex-fling?”
His expression hardens slightly. “I’m serious.”
I hold his gaze for a second before shrugging. “It’s four tutoring sessions, Stephen, it is not a relationship.”
“Still.”
I start walking toward the locker room, forcing him to move with me. “I don’t like the arrangement either,” I say. “But unless you’ve got a time machine so I can go back and not fail that exam, I’m stuck with it.”
Stephen lets out a quiet breath. “Fair.” and he walks away without any other word. This was all coming from the boy who almost kissed me and now he is worried about his stupid ex. I was done with all of it. I want to stop and focus on my school.