19. Colt - Keep an Eye on Him: 11 years ago - summer

She was sleeping right next to me, but it felt like I was losing her. And it wasn’t because of anything I did or she did, it was because of Andy the Asshole– as Kappy dubbed him– and the way he was influencing her.

Because he was fucking living with her, she never had a minute to herself, and that meant figure skating was completely consuming her every waking moment– which wasn’t healthy.

Pretty sure Andy was even monitoring her fucking food intake. The two of them would drink these stupid shakes together instead of eating actual food. I tried some of hers one morning and it tasted like fucking saw dust.

I was only supposed to be here in Michigan for a week before I was set to train and work some hockey clinics up in Canada. But now that I’d been back a couple days, I was debating canceling so I could stay here and break her out of Andy’s clutches.

For one, whenever I was around, he’d start touching her more– especially at the rink where I couldn’t say anything. At first, I thought he was just touchy, but then I noticed he’d look at me with this taunting grin on his face while his hands wandered her body. He was goading me, waiting for me to snap.

I wouldn’t. I couldn’t. I just had to constantly remind myself that this was a job for her. But that didn’t stop me from envisioning ripping his hands off her.

It didn’t help that they were playing it up for the press that they were dating. Their music and program were just so fucking romantic. She started by laying on the ice, then he leaned over her like he was about to fucking kiss her all over. When he pulled back, she lifted up. Then he basically lifted her and spun around.

It looked sexy as hell.

I hated it.

What’s worse is that right before we went to bed tonight, I caught her taking pills again.

Panic ripped through my chest. “What’s wrong? What hurts?”

“It’s nothing – just some painkillers. Just to get through the season. This is important to me,” she said, blowing out a breath. I watched her gingerly walk to the fridge for a water bottle, rubbing her lower back as she went.

“A doctor gave them to you?”

She didn’t answer.

“Meredith.” My body trembled with panic because this wasn’t okay. “Who gave you those pills?”

“Andy,” she admitted. My eyes closed. “But it’s fine,” she pushed.

“Oh my God, Mer, it’s not fine. Please go to a doctor,” I begged her.

She looked at me in disappointment. “You just don’t like him.”

I couldn’t argue against that because it was true. I hated the guy. “Why are you taking them? You’re in pain?”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said stiffly. “C’mon, let’s go to bed, I just want to cuddle.”

But I wouldn't budge. “I have to know what’s wrong, Mer. I’m your boyfriend.”

She blew out a frustrated breath. “It’s just my knee. It just feels a little weak.”

I rubbed a hand over my face. “Your whole body is weak, babe.”

She sucked in a shocked breath. “Why would you say that?”

I shook my head, not knowing where to even start.

“If you don’t like how I train, then don’t watch. I don’t criticize you, Colt,” she said in a harsh voice, but then her face broke and she started crying.

Feeling like a dick, I immediately pulled her into a hug and rubbed her back, trying to put her at ease, but also trying to figure out a way to make her see what I was seeing: that she wasn’t healthy.

“I’m trying so hard,” she said.

“I know.”

“We’re s-so close,” she shuddered. “I just need to push a little more. Please don’t make this harder than it is.”

My head fell back. I couldn’t fucking wait until the Olympics were over. I was beginning to hate figure skating.

The next day at the rink, I snuck into the ice dancers’ locker room.

“Mer’s out in the lobby working on lifts,” Piper said, not even looking up from her phone.

“Patrick, a word?” I asked Piper’s skating partner.

Patrick’s head popped up, his face etched with surprise. He raked a hand through his sweaty ginger hair. We’d only ever hung out in group settings a couple of times, so he probably thought it was weird that I wanted to talk to him.

Piper looked from Patrick to me, wondering what was going on.

Thankfully Patrick didn’t question it and he followed me out to the hall.

As soon as we were alone, I muttered under my breath, “What do you think of Andy?”

He looked around us to make sure no one was listening, then his face scrunched. “Eh… Not really a fan.”

I blew out a breath. Great.

“He’s just… said some things.”

“Like what?”

“Well,” he shifted his weight and crossed his arms over his chest, “you didn’t hear this from me, but… I overheard him joking with a couple of the other guys, just saying some stuff that rubbed me the wrong way.”

“What do you mean?”

His face creased. “He made this joke that if a girl gets too heavy, then you gotta drop her to let her know.”

My blood went cold. “When? When was this?”

He scratched his forehead. “Uhh, a while back. I can’t remember.”

“Try,” I demanded.

“I don’t know,” he shook his head, “it was… sometime last winter.”

When Mer’s hip was fucking purple. I was going to be sick. My hands balled into fists and went to the side of my head. I was about to fucking lose it. Too heavy? I wanted to scream. Mer was already a fucking stick. This was getting out of hand. This was getting dangerous . Dropping her? Wasn’t that against rules or laws or… something?

“Dude, breathe,” Patrick whispered, looking around again to make sure no one was watching us.

“We need to report him.”

Patrick’s shoulders fell. A forlorn expression came across his face. “How? He’d just say it was a joke. He’s just an asshole. He loves to act all tough, but it’s not real.”

Fuck. What the fuck was I supposed to do?

Patrick patted my shoulder. “Sorry, kind of sucks Mer’s with him. But I wouldn’t be too worried. He wants to win badly, and to win, he needs Mer.”

I blew out a breath, trying to rein in my temper. He was right. Andy needed Mer. “Can you keep an eye on him? Just let me know if he says anything else?”

“Yeah, no problem,” he said, patting my shoulder again.

Turning on my heel, I stalked away, reeling over what Patrick just told me. I’d for sure be telling Mer, and it would for sure start another fight between us, but I didn’t care.

A couple seconds later, Patrick called out, “Oh! And can you tell Kappy thanks again for the tickets?”

Turning to face him again, my eyebrow kicked up. “Tickets?” Kappy had been traded away halfway through last season. He still called JP and I on the phone almost every day, but hearing that felt like I’d missed something.

“Yeah, he gave me some when I was visiting my family in Montreal. My brothers loved the game. Just… ” His eyes darted back to the locker room door. “Don’t tell Piper. She hates that we’re friends,” he said with a snort.

I gave him a nod and filed away the information for later. I was too worried about Mer to think of anything else.