Page 179 of Iced Up Love: Part Two

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“Then what aren’t you telling me?”

There’s a beat. A pause.

“I can’t play,” he says. “I’m suspended. For the rest of the season.”

The words land heavier than I expect.

“What?”

“I got into a fight.”

Of course he did.

I swallow, my gaze shifting between them.

“What about you?” I ask Jackson and Zach.

“We’re prioritizing you,” Zach says quietly.

And something in me snaps.

“I don’t want that,” I say, my voice breaking slightly now, emotion rising faster than I can control it. “I don’t want to be the reason everything stops. I don’t want to sit here and feel like my entire life is paused because of what he did to me.”

Silence.

“I already did that once,” I continue, softer now, but more raw. “After the first time. After the video. I let him take everything from me. I let him turn me into someone I didn’t recognize, someone who couldn’t move forward, couldn’t live properly, couldn’t—”

My voice breaks.

I force it back.

“I’m not doing that again,” I whisper. “I’m not letting him win again. Not even like this.”

The words settle into the room.

Heavy.

Real.

And I see it then. The way they all go still. The way something shifts behind their expressions.

“I need you to live your lives,” I say, looking at them, really looking at them now. “I need you to go to that game. I need you to play. I need something around me to feel normal so I can start to feel normal again.”

Jackson exhales slowly.

Zach looks down.

Elijah watches me like he’s trying to understand something deeper than what I’m saying.

“It’s okay,” Zach says finally, his voice softer now, steadier. “We’ll go.”

Relief hits me faster than I expect.

“Thank you.”

There’s a pause.

“I want to come,” I add.

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