The Girl’s Exit Was Louder Than Silence Chapter 08
Maybe Dylan had muted my messages.
There hadn’t been any notification badge, so he hadn’t even realized I’d texted him the night before.
He froze.
Then he immediately opened our chat history.
Sure enough, there it was.
The breakup message he’d somehow managed to ignore.
“I didn’t even know about it last night. That… that doesn’t count.”
“It was already really late by the time I dropped Madison off. I didn’t think you’d actually keep waiting there for me.”
“That’s your excuse for not explaining afterward?”
“For not even telling me you weren’t coming back?”
I suddenly felt exhausted.
“Forget it.”
“There’s no point talking about this anymore.”
“I’m informing you that we’re over.”
“I’m not asking for your permission.”
“If that’s all, I’m hanging up.”
“And don’t contact me again.”
Before he could argue, I ended the call.
Dylan stared at the dark screen and immediately tried calling again.
This time, the call went straight to voicemail.
Madison noticed his tightly furrowed brows.
“You look upset. Did you fight with Ava?”
Dylan said nothing.
That was answer enough.
“You worked so hard to get that fellowship for her, and all she does is get jealous.”
“She’s probably still mad because you won’t take her to Miami.”
“You’re always saying she has such a good temper, right?”
“Give her a couple of days. She’ll calm down.”
The panic in Dylan’s chest slowly eased.
“You’re right.”
“I’ll let her cool off tonight.”
“Tomorrow, I’ll explain everything to her at practice.”
Madison had to stay in the hospital for a week because of her ankle injury.
The next day, Dylan arrived at practice on time.
Coach Anderson was already there.
“Coach Anderson? We don’t leave for regionals until the day after tomorrow. Why are you here today?”
No one answered.
Everyone looked serious.
“I’m here because of what happened between Madison and Ava in the locker room yesterday.”
Dylan’s heart sank.
Without thinking, he defended me.
“Ava probably didn’t mean to push her.”
“Can’t she just apologize and we move on?”
Coach Anderson stared at him.
“Ava didn’t do anything wrong. Why would she apologize?”
“Logan already pulled the security footage from the locker room and showed it to me.”
“Madison fell on her own, then turned around and accused Ava.”
“That says plenty about her character.”
“Was kicking Ava out and replacing her with someone who lies this easily really worth it?”
“I came here today to tell all of you one thing.”
“If Madison wants to stay with this team, she has to apologize to Ava publicly.”
The smile slowly vanished from Dylan’s face.
“You’re serious?”
Logan handed him the footage.
“Ava told me things had been mysteriously disappearing from the locker room.”
“So we had cameras installed a few days ago. I hadn’t gotten around to telling everyone yet.”
Dylan watched the footage.
His face went even paler.
The same teammates who’d mocked me the day before came over and patted him on the shoulder.
“Dylan, I don’t care how much you hate Ava.”
“But she was innocent this time.”
“We all owe her an apology.”
Dylan looked up in confusion.
“Why does everyone think I hate Ava?”
“She’s my girlfriend.”
“How could I possibly hate her?”