13

                                        

                                              
-🥋-
chapter thirteen




MADDIE




After being told the instructions for the last event, I stand behind the rest of my teammates. 
This is my chance to prove I'm here for them. To win for them. I glance behind me, watching as Axel follows behind his team as they walk across the mats behind me. A smile rises up my face as he walks closer. 
"Hey, good luck," I say, leaning back to stand beside him. 
"Hi Maddie," he says, a quiver in his voice as he doesn't look at me. 
My eyes widen slightly as he looks over my head. A red gash sits on his jawline, dried blood spotted across the small red slit. "What happened?"
He glances around me again, his eyes locking on his team before they land on me again. "Training accident. Can we talk later?"
"Later? Yeah, that's fine," I reply, watching as my team begins to form a huddle. "Promise?"
I needed to ask him something. I wanted to ask him if he wanted to have me fully. I needed to talk to him about the fact we lived so far away from each other, and if it would still be okay. 
He nods down at me, his hand grazing mine. "Promise."
I see right through him. The way he's on edge as he keeps looking back at his sensei. "He gave you that for speaking to me didn't he?"
As he doesn't reply, my heart shatters at my feet. He looks so conflicted, so pained. A look of horror morphs itself onto my face as I watch him. I knew that he couldn't speak to me, yet I continued speaking to him, posting him, falling for him. 
"Axel, I'm so sorry," I breathe out. "This is all my fault."
"No, no, it's not," he quickly assures. "It's not. I want to keep talking to you."
"You're getting hurt because of me," I reply, crossing my arms over my chest and squeezing. I hope my guilt is radiating off my skin because I can't bear the fact of knowing he was hurt yesterday because I asked him to train with me. 
Of course, when I get to close to someone, I mess it up. 
"It looks worse than it feels," he tells me, glancing between us and his team. "Maddie, he was looking into you online because he's interested in recruiting you. He only knew we were talking because of the photo you posted yesterday."
If my heart wasn't already breaking, it was definitely broken now. Everything was going good until I decided to show him I was proud of him by posting him. I'm hurt because Axel was hurt because I made a stupid mistake without even realizing how much it would cost him. 
After he kissed me, I thought his sensei had laid off the rules so I posted the photo, not knowing that Wolf would hit his student over it. If I had known that Wolf was looking into me, I would never have posted that photo on my public account. I wanted to help Axel, but instead I was the cause of his pain.
I look down at the pieces of my heart laid out at my feet. "I'm sorry it happened to you. We don't need to talk later. It it helps you we don't need to talk again."