5. Seth

I clench my jaw, keeping my mouth shut and my body completely still. Arya stares up at me with her big brown eyes, stunned. Her eyes glisten with previous tears and my hands form to fists as I realize what I have just said. I have admitted something that absolutely and utterly confuses me... something that I'm not even sure exists! A feeling that has been putting me on edge all day.

"W-what did you just say?" Slowly she gets off the ground, stuttering and blushes like she did on the first day of school, yesterday. Had it really been yesterday? I feel like it's been weeks...

"I... nothing." I take a deep breath and am suddenly overwhelmed with an indescribable fear.

"Forget I ever said anything, okay?! I'll leave you alone from now on. You don't deserve to be anywhere near me anyway, fatty." The words leave my mouth at high speed and my feet start marching before any of this processes in my brain.

The pictures of Arya stumbling back in shock, pain washing over her face replay in my head over and over and over again as I run back into the school building. Everyone is in class by now and I will definitely be in trouble but I couldn't care less right now. My whole body is on edge and I can feel my heartbeat in the back of my throat.

As I stumble towards my locker to grab my things, I realize that this is how it is supposed to be. This is how high school works. This is how it's always been and this is how I got to the top of the food chain.

No girl will get in the way of that. I must have just been confused or delusional... maybe both. But I see clearly now. She is right. I need to stay away from her in order to make sure my reputation is safe. I need to keep my head in the game.

Literally.

Not only am I forgetting about my real friends, I also forgot that there would be a game tomorrow. It's just a friendly thing to kick off the new school year but we can't risk losing this game. Because this game will be against North Western. The one and only. Our rivals.

"SEFF! You're home!" Paulina jumps into my arms, snuggling herself into my chest and my body immediately relaxes. "I waited for you. I wanna go to the park now!"

"Poppy, I just got home." I sigh and set her down on the ground. "Let me just go put my things down and I'll take you to the park. Don't forget your sand toys this time, though! I don't want to have to listen to your crying again!"

"Okay." She giggles and runs off to collect her toys.

Before I can follow her upstairs to get to my room, I hear my name being called by... my mother?

I furrow my brow and a shiver goes down my spine. Whenever my mother comes home early that either means something really bad happened or something really good happened. Let's hope for the second option!

"Why are you home early?" I ask carefully as I enter the kitchen.

There she is sat at the kitchen table, a glass of wine in her hand. That can't be good.

My mother is a beautiful woman. She has long, dark hair that is pulled back into a strict pony tail, complimenting her gorgeous features. But the one thing that I have always loved most about her are her green eyes. Never have I seen eyes like hers before.

"Take a seat, son." Her voice is all business.

"What's going on? Seriously." I inquire but she just shakes her head at me and points at the chair across from her. "Mom, you're scaring me. Can't you just tell me what's going on?!"

"I don't know how to tell you this exactly but I want to ask you to hear me out. Well, first of all, your school has called and apparently you've missed too many classes already. You've also been late repeatedly and your behavior is absolutely unacceptable. Tell me, Seth, what's kept you from getting to class in time? It really can't be that hard." Her voice is stern now, she takes a breath, trying to calm herself down. "This is not how I raised you..."

"Mom... I'm sorry! I've just been concentrating on soccer, you know?" I try to dish up the lie but she isn't buying it.

All lawyer all the time.

"Of course you have." Still she manages to somehow sound empathetic. "Your father and I are so proud of you! But right now, you need to concentrate on your grades, Seth. You either get at least all C's on your next report card or we won't allow you to be on the soccer team anymore. We can't allow it."

"You've got to be kidding me! Sports is all I have!" I jump out of my seat exasperated.

"Seth, calm down." She stands up as well, putting her palms out in front of her but I'm not having out.

How is it that my parents go from not caring about anything I do to acting like they can take the one thing that's important to me away from me. They have no right!

"Calm down?! This is not fair! You're never home and now you decide to play mother?! No way! You don't get to do this!" I scream, my temper taking over. "You know what, I don't give a fuck what you or dad say! As soon as you two start being parents, I'll start listening to you!"

Twisting around, trying to ignore my mother, I almost run into Poppy. Without thinking twice, I scoop her up into my arms and rush out of the house, swinging her backpack onto my own back. I pull open the backdoor of my car and push Poppy into her safety seat before slamming the door shut again.

I know, I need to control my temper so as soon as I get into the car myself, I grip onto the steering wheel and lean my head against it, taking a deep breath.

"You okay, Seff? Mommy mad at you?" Poppy asks shyly, putting her little hand on my shoulder from the back seat.

Managing a smile, I start the engine. "Let's get you to the park before the sun goes down."

Poppy is playing happily in the huge sand box in the middle of the park as I listen to music on my phone. I nod my head along to the beat and stare at my little sister who is making sand castles, smashing them and fixing them up again.

I'm so engulfed in my music and watching Poppy that I don't notice someone sitting down next to me. Only when they wave their hand in front of my eyes, I pull out my headphones and look at them. As soon as I see their face, I jump up and anger boils up inside me.

"What the fuck!? Are you stalking me or something? Didn't get enough of me yesterday?" I snap at Sam Miller.

This family is really starting to get on my nerves.

"Fuck you." Sam retorts calmly. "I'm here to talk to you. So calm down and have a seat."

"And why would I talk to you? The only time I can accept to see your face is when I'm smashing it in on the field!"

"Whatever, dude. I need to talk to you about Arya and believe me, if I didn't have to, I wouldn't be talking to you. This is serious, though. You don't even have to sit down." He looks at me seriously and I sigh in defeat, clenching my jaw.

"Whatever you're doing to her at the moment, you need to stop it. She's not as tough as she says she is. It's all pretend. And don't tell her that I told you this! She's been through hell and back and she doesn't need some teenage boy messing with her right now."

"And why are you telling me this now?!" I snap at him, my chest clenching uncomfortably.

"Because she called me today, crying her eyes out, asking me to pick her up from school, Seth!" He shouts and my eyes flit over to Poppy, checking if she is still alright.

"You could ruin her life for sure if you don't stop this act! You don't know what words can do to someone!"

"Whatever, dude." I shake my head and turn my back towards him.

What Arya does is none of my business. I already talked to her and I'm going to leave her the fuck alone if that's what she wants. This drama is way too much for me. First Arya, then my mother and now this shit. I really can not deal with this. How do they expect me to stay calm while they're all nagging at me?

Something inside me wants to explode, scream.

I'm going crazy.

"Listen, you better leave her alone. I'll know if you don't and believe me, if I ever hear a complaint from her ever again, you're dead meat." Sam threatens before stalking off.

"I'll do whatever the fuck I want, Miller, and you are the last person to stop me!" I call after him and drop back down on the park bench.

This tool really believes that coming here, when I'm at the park with my baby sister, is a good idea... Well the only thing he has achieved is a burning sensation in the pit of my stomach. Anger doesn't even describe it properly. I want to make Miller mad, drive him over the edge like he does me! That bastard. He acts like he owns the world. I'm going to show him how things work around here like I initially planned to with his cousin. He obviously doesn't understand.

He and his cousin can go to hell for all I care!

As soon as Sam's gone, Poppy drops off her toys and runs over to me, jumping onto my lap. Her eyes are huge and filled with tears, her hands shaking with fear. "What did the scary man want?"

"Nothing, Pops." I run my hand through her silky, dark hair and give her another smile. "It's really nothing. Don't you worry your pretty little head."

"I hate it when you scream... It scares me." Her bottom lip wobbles a bit and I frown at her.

"You're not going to cry, are you, Pops?" She just stares at me and I boop her nose. "Remember what I told you about crying? Your tears are going to fall onto the ground and all the little animals and the invisible fairies and the gnomes are going to drown! We don't want that, do we?"

She giggles sadly, wipes away the stray tears and hugs herself to me. "Love you, Seff."

"I love you, too, Poppy. I love you to the moon and back."