Page 88 of Take Her On

“What if I told you I’d fucked her too?” Robyn wet her lips. “That I loved the feel of her fingers in my pu—”

Maya shoved her. The rest of Robyn’s sentence was crushed by her fall to the ground. She screamed, clutching her face.

“She hit me! She hit me. Ref!”

Maya wished she had hit her. Her fists were clenched at her sides, just begging for the signal from her brain. The rest of her surroundings snapped into focus, like someone hitting play on a tape. The ref’s high-pitched whistle. Her teammate’s voices. The shouts and calls from spectators on the sideline.

“Captain,” the ref called, reaching for her pocket.

Maya’s stomach plummeted.

No. No. This can’t be happening. Not today.

She pulled out a red card, and Maya’s head spun. There were angry voices, her teammates shouting their disapproval, crowding the ref. But it was no use. Maya knew that.

One particular voice cut through all the noise. She turned to see Jamie running onto the field, Coach trailing behind her.

“Maya! What the hell is going on?” Jamie asked, her blue eyes wide and searching.

“You tell me. What’s all this about your dad?”

Her face fell. “It’s not what you think.”

“It is,” Robyn cut in, miraculously recovered from her punching. “Perverts.”

“It was nothing to do with me!” Jamie shouted, lunging towards Robyn, but Coach held her back.

“That’s enough,” the ref scolded. “You shouldn’t be on the field.” She turned to Maya. “I need you both to leave.”

Maya started walking towards the sidelines, insides churning and threatening to spill over. Everything burned.

Jamie followed. “It fucking ruined my life,” she said. “My dad.” She broke out in a sob that pulled at Maya’s heart. Tears were streaming down her face. “Maya. Please.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I tried to—”

“Well, you should’ve tried harder.”

“It’s embarrassing! It was the worst time of my life.”

“But you had so many chances to say something, and you didn’t. And I have to find out like this? I’ve opened up to you, and been honest, and I—” Maya shook her head, tears pricking her eyelids. “I don’t know what to think.”

“My dad had some relationships on the team, but I didn’t know anything. And everyone was legal. It was—”

“And you said you’d never lied to me.”

“I haven’t, I swear.”

“But this is a pretty fucking big thing to keep secret, isn’t it? Like what the fuck, Jamie?”

“Maya, please.” Jamie grabbed her arm, but she shrugged her off.

“Just leave me alone. I need some time to think.” She moved on auto-pilot towards the changing rooms, everything going numb. Not even the sound of her team or Jamie’s cries could breach the surface. The only thing she could hear was her own voice swirling round and round her head. She should never have trusted Jamie. She should never have let her in. She should never have let herself get so distracted.

You’re a failure. You’ve let everyone down. You’re a fool.

The only thing she could do was listen as the tears silently fell.