Lahat ng Kabanata ng Her Hockey Stepbrother, Her Worst Enemy, Her Beloved: Kabanata 81 - Kabanata 90

MAXTON'S POV Life’s been good, great even. Same old routine: practice, parties, sex, studying, meetings with different hockey coaches wanting to recruit me. Same old, same old.New York has been crazy. Talia’s words don’t sting as much anymore… not really. I made sure of that. I drowned every memory of her with alcohol, hookups, practices, anything that could get her out of my head, I did it.And it worked. I started convincing myself I didn’t want her, and it was actually working. Whatever feelings I had for her were slowly leaving my system, and honestly, I was glad. Avoiding her work. Telling myself I hated her helped. And throwing myself into the endless line of girls at my beck and call? Yeah, that definitely helped too.Everything I did to keep my distance from Talia Herman since I got back from New York had worked until now. Now they wanted me to be her freaking tutor because she failed some math test?Hell no. I didn’t study my ass off and pass that test just to end up in the

TALIA'S POV‎‎"What do you think of this outfit?" Deej asked as she tried on what felt like the 100th outfit of the day, striking a pose in front of the mirror. I gave her the same tired smile I had been giving for hours, repeating that it was perfect. God, I was exhausted.‎‎She had invited me over to help her pick the best outfit for a party tonight. Some high school party hosted by the football team, the kind everyone wanted to be at. Deej got invited since she was dating a guy named Kyle on the team, and she was desperate for me to tag along too. But I wasn’t so sure.‎‎Parties just weren’t my thing, not with that big fat C written in bold red still burned into my brain. It haunted me nonstop. Absolute torture.‎‎"You really have to go to this party, I am telling you, it will be fun," Deej pushed, but I already knew nothing she said was going to change my mind.‎‎"I don’t know, Deej. I think I will be busy with Maxton tutoring me tonight." She just nodded knowingly, saying no

TALIA'S POV I could feel my heart beating way too fast, so fast it almost hurt. *Maxton’s girlfriend?* He had a girlfriend this whole time? Was she actually joking or being dead serious? I honestly couldn’t tell.‎‎I shook her hand back, trying to control my nerves and stop my palms from shaking. The last thing I wanted was to act like any of this was actually getting to me.‎‎But why did my chest feel like it was caving in? Why was my heart hurting so much? “Hi Aaliyah, it’s really nice to meet you,” I said with this fake little smile, forcing myself not to lose it. I was fighting the urge to do something totally reckless right there in the car like yelling your boyfriend’s been cheating on you with a bunch of girls, so maybe you should dump him right now. But that was something I couldn’t bring myself to do, not now, not ever.‎‎“Let me help you with that,” Maxton said smoothly as he leaned over and helped her with her seatbelt. And of course, he placed another kiss on her lips

TALIA'S POVGod, what the hell have I just done? I stood there, the shame I was feeling was almost too much as I wished the ground would just open up and swallow me right the fuck up but I knew I wasn’t lucky enough for something like that to happen to me when I wanted it to.“Why did you do that, Talia?” Aaliyah asked as she wiped the liquid off her face with the back of her hand. Tears filled my eyes at that moment, as I felt confused and did not know what to say.Everyone’s eyes were on me at the party. I had somehow managed to draw a crazy amount of attention to myself. “Damn what’s wrong with you, you fucking weirdo” I heard one of the guys on the football team say, his voice burning in my head as I apologized repeatedly and ran away, leaving the party immediately before I found a nearby alley to hide in, my back sliding against the wall as I cried hard.God, why God why?I don’t know if it was the effect of the alcohol or something else but I could feel a thousand emotions hitti

Talia's POVMy life, like I said, was full of drama. I always seem to dodge one problem only to land in another. What is the point of all this?“I can’t believe that bastard. We need to teach him a lesson,” Deej seethed, pacing our usual corner behind the cafeteria, the spot we use when we need to escape the crowd.And right now, Lord knows I need that escape!“We can’t just let him get off Scott-free!” Chris jumped to his feet. “The thing is, we can’t just report this to the principal because we don’t have proof it was Steve who posted it. He always posts anonymously so no one knows anything.”I ran my fingers through my hair, feeling pure, undiluted frustration and cursing myself over and over. If I had flipped Steve off at that party instead of making out with him, none of this would have happened.My eyes burned and tears started to well, but I refused to let them fall. No way would a jerk like Steve make me cry when I should be plotting a thousand ways to get back at him and make