Hate to Love You novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: The Ref

The Eastlake athletic board met in a room with a long oak table and a framed photograph of every championship team since 1974.

Dad sat between Mason and me in the folding chairs reserved for visitors.

He had put on his funeral tie.

Across the table sat five board members, with a woman in a navy blazer chairing.

At the end sat Eastlake's head coach, in a tracksuit with a hawk on the chest.

Beside him, the man in the black windbreaker sat very straight with a folder in front of him.

Shay's mother sat alone against the back wall.

She had come in late, in her scrubs, and she hadn't taken off her coat.

Shay was not with her.

"This is irregular," the chair said. "The matter of last March was closed in April."

"Yes, ma'am," Mason said. "I'd like to reopen it."

"On what grounds?"

"On the grounds that I lied."

Nobody in the room breathed.

Mason stood up.

He held a sheet of paper that he had rewritten four times, and it rattled in his hands.

"I'm Mason Hollowell," he read.

"I was the Garnet Falls point guard in the quarterfinal against Eastlake."

"The account I gave the referee that night was false."

He swallowed.

"I let it stand for ten months."

"During that time, Shay was suspended from this school, lost his place on the team, and lost a scholarship."

"I am not asking you to forgive me."

"I'm asking you to correct the record."

"I'll accept whatever my school decides."

He sat.

Dad put a big hand on the back of his neck and left it there.

The chair looked down at her papers for a long time.

"Thank you, Mr. Hollowell," she said, quietly. "That cannot have been easy."

"Sir." She turned to the end of the table. "You were the official who called the flagrant foul."

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