My father doesn’t fight me for the last word. He turns tail and leaves in a huff. I hear the door close and I collapse on the floor in a pile of mush. I’ve used every inch of backbone I have and maybe even some I don’t. I feel empowered and a little sad. I’ve irrevocably broken my relationship with my father. Maybe it’s always been broken. I hope someday it can heal.

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

Austin

I sink down into Devin’s couch. He’s got a giant smile on his face, but I’m in shock.

“This attorney took care of everything?” Devin asks, handing me a beer.

“Mr. Phillips. Yeah. Looks that way.” I take a long sip, gulping down the cold alcohol. “He called me out of the blue on Monday. Said he heard about my case and wanted to provide his services pro bono. He got his hands on evidence, emails or some shit, showing Monte paid off one of the lab techs to falsify my results. I guess he’s been paying the guy all year to cover up his own results too.”

I laugh at the memory of Monte being kicked off the team and out of the house. Tampering with a drug test is apparently worse than failing the damn thing in the first place. Drew invited me over to watch him pack up his shit. Half the team was there, giving me apologies and bullshit excuses about how they knew all along I was innocent. Even Coach called to apologize. Fuck all of them. They’re full of shit. Not a damn one of them was there when I was in the gutter. None of them would lose any sleep if that’s where I ended up tomorrow.

“You going to be able to finish your degree now?”

I nod. “Scholarship’s back and that attorney even got the school to cough up extra cash for me to get a place of my own.” I stick out my bottom lip in a mock pout. “For all my pain and suffering.”

Devin shakes his head in disbelief. “Lucky little shit…”

“Better to be lucky than good.” I clink my beer with his. “Can I crash here until I find my own place?”

“Anytime, man,” he answers with a satisfied nod. He sips his beer and hides a smile.

His door is always open if I want it. I know it was killing him to watch me spiral, sleeping in my fucking truck and drunk off my ass. But we both know we can only help someone who wants to be helped. And I sure as fuck didn’t. Even if he’d offered, I would’ve shut him down. I needed to be alone, wallowing in the gutter. To lose everything.