Page 64 of Rumor Has It

The worst part about having to behave was that the rest of the team did not. Well, they did, but none of them were fighting a losing battle with their self-control. The drinks were flowing, and dancing was getting worse and worse. Wren hadn’t witnessed anyone on the team get this rowdy before, but more than half the team was absolutely lit. She’d made a conscious effort to fully switch to water and it looked like Rebecca had, too, but they were the only ones. Danielle was shaking it like her life depended on it, and most of the other veterans were egging her on.

A few of the players had even found locals to make out with. Wren thought her eyebrows might permanently fuse with her hairline, she’d had them lifted for so long. She wasn’t one to judge. She hoped everyone had a great time. She just worried about everyone getting back to the hotel safely and honestly did not want to be the one responsible for that. She had high hopes for later that very much did not involve babysitting any of her drunk teammates.

Ali danced over, moving in too closely. Wren could smell the alcohol on her. There was no way this was going to go well. Wren really liked Ali as a person, but she had not grasped the subtle ways in which Wren had tried to shut her down.

Wren backed up a bit, letting Ali dance in the space in front of her without making any contact with her. She really wished she could get some help here, but Rebecca would likely knock Ali out at this point if Wren called her over and any of the other players getting involved would just make it awkward.

Ali tried again, swaying closer. “Come on, Wren. It’s just dancing,” she yelled over the music.

Wren waved her hands, trying to dissuade her. “Nah, I’m good, dude.”

“I don’t get you,” Ali yelled. “Aren’t you single?"

“We all literally signed contracts agreeing to not sleep with each other. Remember?” Wren asked, trying to shut this down as quickly and as gently as possible.

“Wren, literally no one gives a shit about those contracts. That’s just some legal nonsense so we can’t sue or anything,” Ali scoffed. But then her eyes widened, another thought creeping in. “Wait. Are you really with the bitch that roughs you up on the regular?” Ali’s eyes shot to Rebecca.

“Whoa,” Wren said, her rage fully igniting in less than half a second. She could feel herself becoming overly defensive, despite her best efforts to stay calm. “First off, she’s your teammate, so cool it with the name calling.” She could feel the venom dripping from her voice. “Second off, she’s my friend—a good friend—who’s been there for me during a really rough time. And third, respectfully, my sex life is no one’s business and I’m really fucking tired of everyone speculating about it.” Wren stepped closer to her, not hiding her frustration at all anymore. “And finally, I’m not into you like that regardless of who I’m sleeping with or not sleeping with. I thought you and I were friends.” Wren didn’t mean to get so loud, but she was absolutely making a scene. Before she could say anything else, anything hurtful, she stormed off the dance floor.

She pushed through the door to the smoking section. The cool night air made her wish that she had brought a jacket. Her very loose and mostly unbuttoned shirt did nothing to fight off the sharp temperature difference between the club and Sweden in early March.

Surprisingly, it was Courtney who followed her outside. “You good?” Her captain asked.

Wren sighed. No. She was annoyed. And she wanted to go back to her hotel room and bury her face in Rebecca’s neck. She’d wanted to leave an hour ago, and now Ali had gone and made shit so—so incredibly awkward.

“Hey, shake it off. You had a great game today. You deserve to celebrate,” Courtney clapped her palm against Wren’s shoulder.

“I shouldn’t have yelled at her,” Wren said. She felt bad about that. Rejection sucked, but public rejection was brutal. Ali wasn’t an awful person, just a little dense, but Wren had nearly lost it when she insulted Rebecca.

“Nah, but she shouldn’t have put you in that position, either.” Courtney leaned against a wall. She was pretty clearly intoxicated. It would have been amusing in any other context.

“True,” Wren muttered.

“You’ve been having fun in there,” Courtney said. “Don’t let this ruin your night. That was a conversation that had been needing to happen.”

“Don’t you think I embarrassed her, though?” Wren said, flinching.

Courtney shook her head. “No. I think she took care of that herself.”

“She shouldn’t have called Re-Becky a bitch.” Wren shook her head. “I get it. I’ve called her worse before. But she’s on our team, and she should have won match MVP for us tonight.”

“I agree. I voted on her for it, actually,” Courtney said. “Her laying that Swedish chick out was pretty epic.”

Wren laughed. “No, but for real, though.”

Courtney hummed. “I’ll talk to Ali later about not name-calling her teammates. Well, and about not trying to sleep with her teammates either. We’re starting to mesh. We need to keep the drama to a minimum and that positive energy rolling as we push towards the World Cup.”

“I’ll apologize later for calling her out in such a public place.”

“No, no you won’t. She needs to apologize to you for putting you in that position,” Courtney smiled at Wren in a reassuring way. “You’re too nice, rookie.”

Wren chewed on those words. She probably was too nice, apologizing for things that weren’t her fault. She’d been doing it her whole life, but it had been a habit that had gotten exacerbated while dating Andy.

“Come on,” Courtney said, nodding back towards the club. “It’s colder than a witch’s tit out here. I’m going to buy you a drink, and then you’re going to get back out there for a few more songs.” Courtney let out a drunk little hiccupy laugh that absolutely did not match her stature. “I’ll give you a hundred more dollars if you can get Becky to actually dance and not just sway back and forth, questionably to the beat.”

“Hell, no. I’m not taking that bet. I think if she found out I took a bet even remotely related to her, she’d actually stab me in our next club match.” Wren shook her head back and forth as fast as she could possibly shake it.

Courtney threw her head back with a laugh. “I hate that you’re smarter than you look.”