Chapter 141: The Price of Knowing

Theo's Pov

"Where is Asher?"

My voice sounded strange and thin. It rattled in my throat as I stared at the girl standing across from me. The name Asher felt completely wrong now.

She did not say anything. Aveline just stood there. Her hands would not stop shaking. She gripped the torn cloth of her shirt, struggling to breathe as tears gathered in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She kept darting her eyes toward the locked door, looking like she wanted to sprint out and run forever.

I couldn't take it anymore. I stepped closer, my hands shaking. I looked at the two halves of the silver chain I was holding and slammed them down onto the top of my dresser. The metal made a loud clattering noise.

"Look at me!" I yelled. My voice broke. "I have been sitting next to you for months. I watched you cut everyone off over the summer. I watched you refuse to change with the team. I want answers from you, and you stand there looking at me like a ghost!

Why are you wearing his clothes? Why are you carrying his name? Where is my friend?... Where is Asher?... No..." My voice cracked. "Where is he, Aveline?"

She backed away until her spine hit my bedpost, her chest heaving as she tried to pull the shredded fabric together. Her face was totally pale, but she kept her mouth shut. She did not give me a single word.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

The wood of my bedroom door shook violently. The loud noise cut off my breath.

"Asher!" a voice shouted from the hallway. It was muffled, but I knew exactly who it was. "Open the door right now! I know you are in there!"

Before I could move, the handle broke with a loud snap. The door flew open and slammed hard against the wall.

Kieran stood in the doorway. He was breathing heavily. His eyes were wild and red as he looked around the room. The moment he saw us, his face changed. He saw my red face, my angry posture, and then he looked down at Aveline's torn shirt and the white cloth showing underneath.

With a low roar, Kieran ran across the floor. I shoved him back on instinct.

"Get off me!" I yelled.

He barely moved. A second later, he crashed into me with full force. He slammed me hard against the wall and gripped my collar tightly, lifting me up against the wall.

"What did you do to him?!" Kieran screamed, his knuckles digging into my throat. "Touch him again, and I swear I will kill you, Theo!"

"Kieran, stop! Let him go!"

The voice did not sound like our teammate's deep hockey voice. It was high, sharp, and sounded completely desperate.

Kieran froze. He loosened his grip on my shirt a little bit. He turned his head to look at her over his shoulder.

"He knows," Aveline said, her real voice sounding clear over the loud music downstairs. Her hands dropped from her shirt. "Kieran... stop. He knows everything."

I watched Kieran's face. I expected him to look shocked. I expected his jaw to drop, or for him to step back because his teammate turned out to be a girl. But his face did not change at all. His eyes just got wide with cold panic.

"You knew," I whispered, staring into my captain's eyes. The betrayal hurt worse than hitting the wall. "You knew the whole time."

Hot anger ripped through me. I twisted out of Kieran's grip and pushed him away. I let out a bitter, crazy laugh.

"You lied to us," I spat. My voice shook with rage. "The whole team. You stood in the locker room as our captain, looked us in the eye, and let an impostor wear our jersey! Now everything makes sense. The games you missed. The fights with your dad. Taking the blame from the coach. You weren't protecting a teammate, Hampton. You were protecting her."

Kieran’s breathing turned rough. His fists opened and closed at his sides. Every muscle in his body looked ready to explode. He stepped right between us, his body completely blocking Aveline from my sight.

"I would do it again," Kieran said, his voice low and deadly quiet. "If you knew even half the truth, you wouldn't be standing there judging her. You have no idea what she gave up to stand where she's standing."

"Oh, really? I don't know?" I stepped closer and balled my hands into tight fists. My eyes blurred with anger. "How long has this been happening, Kieran? Did you know when you were bullying Asher before all this happened? Or did you know when your dad cut off his scholarship and ruined his life? Is that why you are doing this? Because you felt so guilty about what you did to her brother that you fell in love with his sister?"

Kieran’s jaw clenched hard. A muscle twitched under his skin. For a second, I thought he was going to punch me. He raised his hand, ready to strike, but Aveline lunged forward and physically got between us. She grabbed Kieran's jacket sleeve and pushed him back. Then she turned her sharp, fierce eyes right at me.

"Theo... stop," she whispered. Her voice was heavy and serious. "If you keep looking for Asher... you're going to destroy every life that's still left."

Kieran stood completely still, his chest moving up and down. He looked from Aveline to me. He hesitated, his knuckles clenching. He had no idea what I was going to do next, or if I would run downstairs and tell the whole team right now.

"Kieran," Aveline whispered, not taking her eyes off me. Her voice was steady, like a command that stopped his panic. "Let's go."

Kieran took a slow, careful step backwards. He kept his body right in front of hers. He slowly backed out of the doorway. He never took his eyes off mine until they vanished into the hallway.

The silence rushed back into the room, but my mind was screaming. A laugh escaped me. It didn't even sound like mine. My chest felt like it was going to split open.

I turned to my dresser and threw my arms across the wood, grabbed the hockey trophies off my shelf and threw them against the wall, breaking the wall. I grabbed our old team lineup sheets from the desk, ripping them into shreds.

My hands found the desk lamp. I ripped the cord from the wall and smashed it into the floorboards. I turned and punched the solid wood of my wardrobe. The wood splintered against my skin as a sharp pain shot up my arm. I punched it again. And again.

My knuckles burned, but I didn't stop. "Damn it!" I shouted.

I grabbed the chair and threw it across the room. It crashed into the bookshelf, sending books and old hockey gear onto the floor. The room looked exactly how I felt.

Slowly, the frantic energy left me. I sank to the floor, sitting right in the middle of the mess. My chest rose and fell fast as I breathed in the quiet room. I let out a single, empty laugh. Tears burned behind my eyes, but I refused to cry. I wouldn't let myself cry over them. I stayed there for a long time, just listening to my own heavy breathing, letting the silence sit over me until the anger finally started to clear.

My eyes locked onto the floor where a framed photo lay face-down. I crawled over the wreckage, my bloody knuckles stinging as I picked up the broken picture of me and Asher from our first varsity game.

The glass was cracked into a million sharp lines right over his face. The broken image stared back at me like a ghost.

I stared at the broken picture. If I exposed them tonight... everyone would ask questions about Asher, about Oliver. Questions I couldn't answer. At the end of the day, it could lead back to me.

No...

I couldn't destroy them yet. First, I needed the truth. Then I could decide what to do with it.

I leaned my back against the wall and slowly smiled. Not because I was happy. Because finally, I understood the game. The focus had changed. I had a new mission.

Knock. Knock.

The soft sound against the door frame made me look up fast.

Katty stood in the doorway. Her arms were crossed tightly over her chest. She looked at the smashed trophies on the rug, then at the broken lamp, and finally at the shattered picture of Asher in my hand. She looked at my swollen cheek and down at the fresh blood on my knuckles.

She frowned, her smirk completely vanishing. She took a step into the room.

"Kieran looked ready to kill someone when he walked out," she said softly, looking at my destroyed bedroom before looking at me. "Tell me you were able to confess your feelings to Asher... okay, at least a kiss happened."