Chapter 39: 𝓙𝓾𝓼𝓽 𝓑𝓮𝓬𝓪𝓾𝓼𝓮...

Thursday, November 17th

Just because Cory had been occupied with games, didn't mean that Gracie had never slipped his mind.

As a matter of fact, every time he closed his eyes, he saw her black hair and dark brown eyes that reminded him of a bowl of melted chocolate. He saw her lips he wished so badly he could kiss.

She was Cory's first thought in the morning and last thought at night. He wondered if she still had dysarthria and if she'd been watching his games. He wished he was there to hold her when she got scared the rest of the monsoon season.

The more he saw Kendall, the more he missed Gracie. She clung onto him at every bar and party his teammates dragged him to after every game. Eventually, he gave up resisting her and let her delusional mind think they're dating.

Since the night she stopped talking to Cory, Gracie's focus had been on work and spending more time with family. She would sit in the family room with her parents and watch Cory play football.

Watching him on TV was the only way that Gracie could see him. She wanted so badly to be in his arms, but she remembered Kendall's words and her eyes staring into hers as she towered over her.

Psychotic, delusional bitch.

Did she have to have Cory? There weren't other hot guys that would be all over her?

When she wasn't watching his games, she was trying to get his mind off him. First, she tried reading. She wasn't a reader of regular, physical books, but on Wattpad was where she found books that really had her hooked. She loved reading teen fiction romances. Before she met Cory, reading those types of books made her feel too single.

She'd fall in love with the main male character by the tenth chapter and imagine him saying those romantic words to her. This time, that failed. Her thoughts trailed toward Cory and how he always made her feel. The words that he'd say that made her knees go weak.

Thankfully, she had a backup escape; writing. She was going back and forth with herself deciding whether or not to rewrite Healing Hearts. She would plan the story out in her head, write bullet points on each page of what would happen in each chapter. She was proud of that book and she mentally kicked herself for deleting the first two versions.

She'd told herself that she could've, at least, unpublished them for nostalgic reasons. It was official. She was going to rewrite it. And once she started something, she had to finish it. It started out with planning each chapter, but that soon turned into writing the whole chapters out.

That was another reason she loved writing. It wasn't just because people understood her more (which was still a part of it), but because it was her way of escaping to a fictional world. When she edited, she'd visit a world she created and pretend nothing was stressing her out in real life. She wasn't getting bullied at work. She wasn't a burden to her parents.

Her heart wasn't currently being ripped out of her chest and stomped on until it was laid flat on the floor at the thought of Cory. She wasn't missing him like crazy. He wasn't taking over her thoughts every damn day no matter how many times she tried to push him out.

-

Cory and his teammates agreed to hit up the diner after practice.

Even Jake agreed to go. Ever since karaoke night when he had his hands all over Gracie, his friendship with Cory had gone down the drain. The bruise on his cheek took weeks to heal and every time he saw Cory, he would tense up - too afraid he'd get a black eye if he spoke a word. Especially about Gracie.

They stepped through the entrance of the diner, with Kendall holding onto Cory's elbow. The group was led to a booth and as soon as they sat down, Kendall immediately rambled on about his chick-flick she wanted Cory to take her to this weekend.

Cory was tuning her out; his focus was on one of the books that Gracie started writing since their (sort of) breakup. This was his way of showing his support from a distance. He'd even leave comments, not expecting her to actually respond, but she had.

The latest one, Healing Hearts, had him tear up at times with the descriptions. It was the one he was the most proud of her for writing. She could really be making a difference with it. He typed out a comment with a slight smile etched across his face, the image of Gracie writing this story visiting his mind.

"Do you think you could take me, baby?"

Hearing her call him 'baby' made him want to throw up. He only wanted Gracie to call him that. Cory shook those thoughts out of his head. He didn't want to think of something he couldn't have.

"I'm busy. We have practice tomorrow."

"Another football thing?" Kendall complained in a whiney voice.

"Does this bitch ever stop complaining?"

Kendall's jaw dropped and noticed that Cory's eyes were glued to his phone. She punched him in his shoulder and he didn't flinch. "Aren't you gonna say something, baby? He just called me a bitch."

Cory simply reacted with a shrug.

A gasp left Kendall lips. "You're just gonna let him get away with it?"

Scoffing, Caleb shook his head. "What do you expect? Your boyfriend's an NFL player."

Kendall looked at Cory with a dreamy look in her eyes. She briefly glanced at something behind him with a mischievous grin. She stared at his lips as she was biting her bottom one. "I guess he is." She grabbed him by his shirt and crashed her lips against his, her tongue exploring his mouth. She heard the boys groan and gag, but she didn't have a care in the world.

Cory felt like he was going to throw up at the feeling of her lips on his. Luckily, she pulled away before he could.

His phone buzzed on the table and he turned it on to see a text from Jake.

He sent Jake a weird look. Why would he be texting him when he was only right across from him? He opened the text and in an instant, he sat up from his seat.

Jake Matthews:
Sent 7:26pm

Gracie's here.

Cory's eyes darted to Jake's who nodded his head in the direction behind him. Cory turned around and saw Gracie who was just looking away from them.

Shit!