Game On (24 page)

“Throwing all my crap in a garbage bag isn't the big romantic exit?” Maya asked. “I've had my fill of Hollywood. This is reality, right here. Plastic drawstring and all.” She examined a pair of her sneakers, worn down from weeks on the practice court. Instead of packing them, she just chucked them in the trash.

“He really hurt you,” Travis said.

“He really hurt me,” she answered without hesitation. “You know, the whole time I knew. The whole time I said to myself, this guy is a player. Be careful. Even you warned me, and you're his brother. But I ignored it. I ignored you. I gave him the benefit of the doubt. And now look.” She picked up a welcome packet. The packet with the picture of her on the cover. She tossed it in the trash, too. “The joke is on me.”

“Maya,” Travis said, stopping her from packing if just for a moment. “You're not the first girl who tried to change him. But Jake … he'll always be Jake. I'm just … I'm so sorry you had to find out this way.”

“Yeah, well … what can I say,” Maya said plainly.

“Say you'll stay,” Travis said. “I want you to stay. With me.”

She looked at him, surprised. But touched. “Travis … why would you even want me to? I chose him over you. I hurt you.”

“Maybe I have a psychotic need to clean up after my brother's mistakes,” he said. “Maybe I have a compulsive, unhealthy
need for you and everyone else in the world to see all Reeds were not created equal. Or maybe …” He stepped closer. “Maybe everyone makes mistakes, including you. And I just really,
really
care about you.”

Maya didn't know what to say. The day she showed up, she'd been so in awe of this gorgeous creature standing in front of her that she could barely speak. She'd felt unworthy, that he was so far beyond out of her league. And here he was today, pleading for her to stay and be with him.

“I want you to know how much this moment means to me,” she said. “How much I appreciate it.” But then she pulled the plastic drawstring closed on her makeshift suitcase. “But I … I just have to go.”

He nodded. “Okay, then, Maya Hart,” he said. “Good-bye.” He bent in and kissed her. Then he walked out, leaving her alone. It was all so bittersweet.

“Good-bye,” she said.

Maya had cleared every last item of hers out of the villa. As much as she needed to leave before Nicole came back, she still hesitated. Because what she had to do next was going to completely, emotionally lay her out. But she'd delayed the inevitable as long as possible. She slung her garbage bag over one shoulder, threw her tennis bag over her other, and trudged to her old dorm to say good-bye to Cleo and Renee.

As Maya walked from the villa to Watson, she remembered back to taking this same route but in the opposite direction. When she'd left the dorm to move to the villa. She'd been so overstimulated, like she'd just pounded a quintuple shot of
espresso after eating an entire bag of sugar. At the time it felt like she was living someone else's life. Little did she know, she was.

Maya got to Cleo's. By the faces that greeted her, it might as well have been a funeral.

“Yikes,” Maya said. “Am I dying?”

“You're not, but I am.” Renee was already tearing up.

“Okay, stop,” Maya chided her. “You're acting like we're never going to see each other again. If you act like that, that's what I'm going to think. Do you want me to think that?”

“No,” Renee blubbered.

“Do you see what you're leaving me with?” Cleo asked. “She's worse than you are.”

Maya smiled.

“Just stay,” Renee said. But they'd all tried and failed too many times to change her mind. In the hotel, on the plane. They knew what was done was done.

“Stay strong,” Maya said, handing Renee a tissue. “This is no place for the weak.”

Maya took a moment to look around at her old room.

“Cleo,” Maya said, “your side of the room is the exact same disaster it was the day I got here.”

“Remember how scared you were of me?” Cleo remembered back fondly. “That was awesome.”

“I still am.” Maya smiled. Then she looked out the window. “I remember seeing you for the first time, Renee, right down there. You were walking by. Cleo was talking so much smack about you.”

“I was not!” Cleo said.

“No, she wasn't.” Maya laughed. “I'm kidding. But I do remember thinking how beautiful you were. And how easy your life must've been …”

Renee couldn't help but smile at that one.

“I was weak,” Maya said. “The day I got here? Woo.” Her eyes went from looking out the window to looking at it. Jake breaking it to get her inside felt like an eternity ago.

“I've grown up so much. I learned who I am, who I want to be … and who I don't want to be. That's why I'm leaving. This place can bring out the best in people, but it can also bring out the worst. I don't want to risk my soul by staying. Now that I've found it, I kind of don't want to let it go.”

“You still suck,” Cleo said.

“Plus I made amazing friends!” Maya said overdramatically. “And there's nothing more valuable than that.” She pulled Cleo and Renee in for one more over-the-top hug. But this time, Cleo didn't struggle.

Maya made her way through the quad. All that was left to do was drop off her key card and she was free.

“Maya!” The voice was deep and piercing.

Jake.

She sped up.

“I know you heard me!” Jake said, running after her.

“Leave me alone,” Maya barked. She couldn't even say his name she was so angry.

“I want my chain back,” he demanded.

“Your chain?!” Maya asked. “That's all you care about? Check the toilet of Delta flight two-two-three. You have my luggage.”

“The hotel has your luggage,” he shot back. “Get it from them.”

He really was a monster. He had the nerve to treat her like this after what he did?

“I trusted you,” he said. “I thought you had a soul. But you're like everyone else around here. I can't believe you'd do what you did to me.”

“What I did to you?!” Maya said.

“You knew how crappy I felt finishing second to Travis my whole life,” Jake said, tearing into her. “You knew and you did it anyway.”

“What are you talking about?” Maya was completely confused, and this conversation was already going on way too long.

“You had sex with Travis,” he said.

“
What?
” Maya said.

“You didn't think I'd find out?” His rage on the field paled in comparison to his rage right here on the quad. “That's why you didn't want to see me all those weeks you were practicing. You were hooking up with him!”

“No,” Maya said. She couldn't process what he was saying as fast as he was saying it. “This is insane. I didn't see anyone when I was practicing!”

“Oh no?” Jake asked. He whipped out his cell phone and showed her a picture.

It was a close-up of Maya and Travis. And they were in a serious lip-lock.

“What?” Maya was blown away. Where did this picture come from?

“Nice dog tag,” Jake said pointedly. “I don't remember you having that when you guys were together.”

She looked at the picture harder. She recognized the fence behind them. Then she realized when it was taken.

“That was from a week ago on the practice court,” Maya said. It was when Travis gave her that totally weird kiss.

“You admit it!” Jake said.

“I'm not admitting anything!” Maya shot back. But then it started to fall into place for her. What was really going on. And it made her sick to her stomach.

“Nicole sent you that,” Maya said. She didn't need him to confirm it. “She had to have taken it because she was the only one there. Jake, I didn't kiss him; he kissed me. It was bizarre and I couldn't figure it out, but now it makes sense. It was a setup.”

“A setup?” Jake said skeptically.

“She said she was practicing for a tournament,” Maya said. “She didn't have a tournament; she had the same audition I did. She wanted to mess me up. …”

This was the weakness Nicole had used to crush Maya. This had been her plan all along.

“Oh my God,” Maya said. “Nicole was the one who put the idea in my head about going all the way with you in LA. She was the one who made sure I was gone all afternoon with that lingerie hunt. She needed time.”

“Time for what?” Jake asked.

“When did she send you that picture?” Maya asked. When
he didn't answer right away, she answered for him. “As soon as I dropped you off at the hotel, right? She magically showed up with the picture and the terrible news, and she was there to lick your wounds. How many bottles of vodka did she have tucked in her coat?”

“None,” Jake said. “It was gin.”

“Don't you see?” Maya asked. “She wanted me to walk in and catch you! She wanted to rip my heart out, to take away the thing that mattered the most to me. You.”

Jake was confused. “If that picture was a setup, then Travis would've had to have been in on it. Why would he help Nicole break us up?”

That was the easiest part of all.

“Because he hates to lose,” Maya said. “I could be wrong, though. Too bad I didn't know to ask him when he was at the villa a little while ago begging me to stay here and be with him.”

“ ‘Be with him'?” Jake repeated.

“Think about it, Jake,” she said. “Which two people does winning mean the most to at the Academy?”

Suddenly it hit him, all at once. “He's as bad as she is. He's worse than she is. I'm his brother!” He got more and more furious. But then he focused back on Maya. “At least now we know. I know you didn't hook up with him. We know this is all their fault! Maya, we can be together again.”

He swept her into his arms. But she went stiff. Cold. When he backed off and looked in her eyes, there were tears.

“I'm sorry,” she said. “We can't. I can't.”

“What do you mean you …?” Jake searched her eyes.

“The damage is done,” she said, trembling. “You had sex with Nicole. And when I look at you … that's all I can see.”

“No …,” he said. “I was drunk. I thought … She made me think you …” She looked away. “Please don't do this. Don't do this, don't let them win.”

“Don't you get it?” Maya said sadly. “They've already won.”

Jake shook his head as Maya picked up her bags and walked off.

“Maya!” He started to follow, but she just walked faster. “I'm going to get you back, Maya. I'm going to get you back!”

But she kept going, tears streaming down her face. Until she was gone.

Maya walked swiftly toward the Admissions building. She gripped her villa key card so tightly it left a bright purple impression in her palm. Satisfied she'd left Jake far enough behind, she slowed. He might have been gone, but she could still hear him in her head. Calling after her.

She opened the door to the Admissions building. Up ahead was the office where she'd picked up her key on the very first day. On the wall was a framed poster of Nicole. It was different from the one Maya had stolen for her. This one earned Nicole's seal of approval.

Suddenly, Maya's tears of sadness turned into something else.

Rage.

From the second she stepped off the bus, all she'd wanted to do was run. That's all she'd been doing her entire time here. And she was doing it again. Was she just going to keep
running? After everything Nicole did to her, after everything she took from her, Maya was just going to let her chase her away with absolutely no consequence?

As she stood at the door to the main office, with the little window just big enough for her to be able to slide through, one word replaced the echo of Jake's voice. “No.” No, she couldn't.

She wouldn't.

Maya wasn't the same meek person she'd been when she arrived here. The same person who felt out of place and over her head. Who was so intimidated by everything and everyone around her. Who was so in awe of Nicole King. This Maya had seen too much. She'd lived too much. She'd learned too much.

The receptionist eyed Maya. “Can I do something for you?”

“No,” Maya said, wiping her eyes dry. “No. I'm going to do something for myself.”

She turned around and walked out of the building. She made her way back onto the quad, back onto campus.

Nicole wanted to know how tough Maya could be? She was about to find out.

Game on.

The game isn't over yet.

Read on for a sneak peek of the next book in

The Academy

series

Maya carefully stepped out of the Porsche Cayenne Turbo, making sure that her skirt didn't ride up too high as she reached for the curb. The line to get into 360 went all the way down the block and every head turned in Maya's direction to see who was getting out of the luxury SUV. She felt like she was disappointing them by failing to provide a genuine star sighting.

Diego slipped out from the backseat. He let out a long, low whistle when he saw the line. “We are never getting in tonight.”

“It's okay,” Maya said. “Travis is probably on some list. We'll be fine.”

Maya sounded like she knew what she was talking about, but the truth was she'd only been to one other hot spot. This kind of atmosphere was almost as foreign to her as Diego's homeland had been.

They waited on the sidewalk while Travis gave detailed instructions to the valet about the proper way to park the car. He wasn't normally so specific, but it wasn't exactly his car that he was about to hand over to a total stranger.

Travis's Mercedes Roadster was only a two-seater. The three of them quickly realized that they would need an
alternative mode of transportation after they slipped out of the formal reception unnoticed. Since Maya was carless and Diego's limo had gone off duty, that only left one of the rides in Nails Reed's small fleet of vehicles. Quietly slipping out of the garage in a car stolen from his dad's collection was Travis's second act of rebellion that night.