Page 49 of High Baller

“And then next month, and the month after that. I can’t do this anymore! You’re on your own.” I go to walk past them towards my house, but my dad stops me.

“You not going to ask how your old man is doing?”

I turn around to face him and just look at him. “No," I snap as I make my to the front door with Calvin walking behind me.

He shuts the door before my parents can follow us inside.

“The police will be here in a bit,” Calvin says and walks straight to the fridge to grabs a beer. “You want one?”

"No, I want a shower, and then I want to go to sleep. Are you going to crash here for a bit?"

"If you don't mind. I really don't want to drive home," he replies. He only lives ten minutes away from me, but he prefers to stay here on the night we land, and I like that.

I send Trey a message to let him know that I'll call him once I wake up. I look out the window as the police pull up.

“You want me to go talk to them?” Calvin asks.

“You sure?”

“Yeah.” Calvin opens the door for them, and I walk to the sitting room as I watch my parents looking at me. I hear Calvin tell the police officers why we called them. “Let’s see how long they stay away this time.” Calvin wraps his arm around my shoulder.

“As long as it’s until we go to New York, I’m happy. I’m going to tell Dave that if they come to his house, to call the police.” I can’t keep letting them mess up my life. They need to know that I'll not keep playing this fucked up game with them.

***

I slept the whole day yesterday. The flight and time difference really took it out of me. I spoke to Trey for a while, but he said to call him today as I sounded too exhausted to chat. I look over at Calvin as he gets two mugs out of the cupboard. “Coffee?” I ask him.

“Please. Sky, I wanted to talk to you about something.” Calvin walks closer to me. "I was reading the celebrity news, as I do, and I came across this.” He hands me his phone, and I start reading it.

Looks like Trey King might have found his Queen. Spotted with a mysterious girl in Napa Valley.

I look at Calvin in panic as I continue to read the article. “There's no picture of you, just the back of you.” Calvin points out as I hand the phone back to him. “You can’t really see much, and there's no name on there.”

"I know, but still. It won't be long until we do get spotted,” I tell him. This was a close call, and I don't want that.

“I bet Trey or Derek are on it. Call him.”

"It's like one in the morning over there, I'll call him later." I grab the mug. I need a wake-up call, and coffee is going to be my friend today. "What time are you meeting Finn today?"

“We’re meeting for lunch, want to come with?” he asks, and walks over to the toaster to grab the toast that’s just popped up.

"Not today, I’ve got my laser hair removal appointment.” It's amazing how fast six weeks goes. If I didn't look at my diary this morning, I would've missed it, and today's my last treatment.

“I still don’t believe you when you say it doesn’t hurt.” Calvin grabs a piece of my toast.

"I swear, it doesn't," I reassure him. I thought it’d hurt, but it really didn't, and I've already been booking my facial appointments with the salon, too.

“I’m out tonight. Do you want to meet up tomorrow for the day?”

“Sure, what do you want to do?” I look over at my phone, seeing a message show up from Trey.

Trey - Please call me when you wake up x

“Looks like someone knows about the picture.” I show Calvin the message from him. Derek must get alerts or something when Trey’s name is out there.

“Are you going to call him?”

"Yeah, I’ll just have my coffee and wake up a little," I tell him, as I think I might need it to have this conversation.