Page 23 of Rumor Has It

Wren smiled. “Cool. That sounds like a much needed break from reality.”

“I can’t believe Becky is the one who passed you the ball. Are y’all friends yet?”

“Yeah, actually we are. She’s not so bad now that we’ve talked through the last couple of years.”

“I had a good feeling about her,” Barbara said.

Wren blushed. She was thankful that Barbara couldn’t see her. Barbara would always call her on her shit, but there was nothing Wren could or would say about her complicated past with Rebecca to Barbara. For one, that was her baby stepsister. Even though she was seventeen now and older than Wren had been when she first met Rebecca, Wren wasn’t about to taint her little innocent ears with the truth of their relationship. And on top of that, she still didn’t know how Rebecca would feel about her telling anyone that story. Last night the team had guessed she was straight and Rebecca hadn’t really corrected them. That hadn’t gone unnoticed by Wren. Then with Rebecca’s comment about her family being so intense… She shook her head. She wouldn’t do that to Rebecca, especially not now that they were friends.

“Yeah, yeah. She doesn’t suck,” Wren mumbled.

Barbara chuckled at that. “Well, I’m going to let you get back to your day. I’m going over to James’s house in a bit to do homework.”

“Who’s James?” Wren asked, suddenly much more alert.

There was a pause. “Just a friend,” Barbara said.

“A friend I need to threaten?”

Barbara let out a nervous chuckle. “Oh, would you look at the time? I should go.”

Wren narrowed her eyes. “I have a very particular set of skills. Namely, I’m a professional ball kicker.”

“Oh god,” Barbara groaned. “Please don’t friend him on any social media. When you come visit, maybe you can meet him if it turns into something serious. We’ve only hung out like twice. It’s not a big deal yet.”

“Hmmmm, okay. I won’t stalk him yet. But the world has seen my muscles at this point. I will destroy him if he hurts you.”

“Ew,” Barbara laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Alright, alright, go have fun. Thanks for calling me,” Wren said.

“You’re welcome. Thanks for not sucking. I told some people at school that you were my sister. Would have been a rough Monday if you had whiffed.”

Wren cracked up at that. “No pressure or anything.”

“I could have told you before your game,” Barbara teased.

“Thanks for not. And thanks for watching it. It really means a lot.”

“Are you kidding? You know the whole family has your jersey already.”

Wren’s voice caught in her throat. “What? I would have sent them to you.” She did her best to not get emotional over the phone. She had no idea they had gotten her jersey. To be honest, she really didn’t even know that they were selling her jersey yet. The thought floored her.

“Ohhh, can you send us your Riptide jersey? We haven’t gotten those yet.”

“Yeah, I can. I’ll set that up at practice next week.”

“Thanks, Bird. I love you! Fly home safe today.”

“I love you, too. I’ll text you when I land.”

Wren sat on the little bench for a minute after they had hung up. She was so lucky to have a dad as supportive as he was, and she was lucky to have Barbara and Linda rooting for her, too. Sometimes it got a little overwhelming. She scrolled through her phone notifications, and her heart sank. For all her friends and former teammates who had messaged her, there weren’t any notifications from Andy. She had grown used to not getting any support from her mother. But now that her girlfriend had started behaving the same way, it made that carefully closed hole in her heart feel like it was starting to rip open again.

She hit the button on the side of her phone, locking the screen. She wasn’t going to do that. She wasn’t going to go down that thought path, though it did remind her about Rebecca’s fear the night before, how concerned she was that the world would see her as anything other than perfect—that her own family might see her as an embarrassment. She wondered how badly Rebecca’s hangover would hit this morning. They hadn’t talked much after making it back to the hotel last night. Wren had sat outside the bathroom while Rebecca had showered, listening carefully to make sure her teammate didn’t slip and fall. Then she’d made Rebecca chug a glass of water and take two Advil. But they’d passed out pretty quickly, all things considered.

Her stomach rumbling broke her train of thought. She should head down to snag a few plates full of hotel breakfast, but she figured she should probably put on a sports bra, real pants, and some real shoes first.

Surprisingly, she was the only player scavenging the hotel’s continental breakfast. She quickly filled one plate with scrambled eggs and breakfast sausages for Rebecca and another with scrambled eggs and bacon for herself. She also grabbed one of each type of muffin they had on display, not knowing which Rebecca would want but knowing that hungover people needed carbs. Finally she poured two cups of coffee. She had watched Rebecca ruin coffee for two weeks straight by adding two things of vanilla creamer and one packet of sugar. As much as it pained her, she destroyed the heavenly goodness that was plain black coffee. With quite a bit of effort and a few murmured curse words, she got the food all stacked and balanced on her forearms and headed back upstairs. For half a second, Wren thought she was going to have to sacrifice a coffee, but she finally got the door open without dropping anything. She did, however, make a lot of noise, which caused Rebecca’s hazel eyes to flutter open.