Crash Into You

by Diana Morland

  The match was dizzying in its intensity, more than any match Megan had ever been in before. Of course, she’d never been in an all-star game before. The level of play was even higher than usual, and the crowd was the biggest she’d seen in her life.

  They all scarfed down snacks and water during the halftime break, then screamed at each other to psych themselves up for the second half. Their coaches were doing the same, high-fiving them all over the place, telling them they were amazing and they would win this. Megan didn’t need the encouragement, but it was still nice to hear.

  The second half was a blur, at least when she was on the track, with brief, beautiful moments that stood out in her memory. Sliding under Gayle’s legs to pass two blockers. Grabbing hands with Chelsea to spin them both around, knocking the other jammer off her path and getting Megan ahead. Sandwiching beautifully between Gianna and Leya, getting past the entire opposing team before any of them realized that there was a jammer between the two blockers.

  And then the announcer was saying their names. And he was telling the crowd that they’d won.

  Megan started screaming, jumping up and down, and shaking Gayle and Gianna by the shoulders. They were both gaping, just staring into space, as though they couldn’t actually believe their team had won.

  Megan believed it. Why not? They were the best.

  They did a victory lap around the track, lights shining on them, the crowd screaming and cheering. Then they escaped into their locker room, away from the noise.

  The coaches pulled them all into a group hug. “Sisterly Love” wasn’t as easy to chant as “Monsters,” but they did it anyway, and none of them seemed to mind. Megan certainly didn’t. She was too happy.

  They couldn’t seem to calm down. Then Faith shouted, “Okay, guys, let’s party, and tomorrow we’re going to win it all over again, right?”

  The screams were deafening. Megan wasn’t sure if she’d be able to hear or speak after that. And then she and Gianna were holding hands and cheering for each other, and then they were closer together, and then their lips were on each other.

  Gianna’s body was just as soft and lush as it had always been, her lips and tongue hot and demanding, but no more demanding than Megan’s own. She was grabbing her, holding her tight, pressing their lips together so hard she almost had difficulty breathing.

  Then her legs wobbled under her, and she took a step back—and realized what she was doing.

  “Shit,” she said breathlessly, sitting down on the bench with a thump. The others were all still screaming and cheering (except Gayle, who seemed to have left the locker room already)—no one seemed to have noticed them making out.

  “Oh, damn. I’m sorry,” Gianna said, sitting down next to her.

  “Don’t be,” Megan said. She was still a little out of breath. She needed to rest. And drink a lot of water. And maybe some beer.

  Gianna shook her head. “You’re the one who pointed out that we had to act like friends. I shouldn’t have tricked you into that.”

  Megan raised her eyebrows. Damn, but it was hard to keep from touching Gianna, even now that they’d just remembered what they were doing and pulled apart. “Did you mean to trick me?”

  “Uh, no. I just… well, you were there, and I couldn’t help myself.”

  Megan smiled, then looked away quickly. “Yeah, that’s about what I was doing. I think we both tricked each other into it, if anything.”

  “Do you…” Gianna said, but she trailed off without finishing her sentence.

  Megan swallowed. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear the end of that sentence. But she turned to Gianna anyway. “Do I what?”

  Gianna shook her head. “Nothing, never mind. Let’s get changed and grab showers. There should be plenty of partying tonight, once the fourth game is over.”

  “Yeah, good point. We have to rest up for that.” Megan bent to remove her skates. She was still grateful to be able to get her own damn skates off. When she got up, Gianna had just finished getting her skates off as well, and without thinking, she reached out to help her up.

  Gianna took her hand. It was warm, and soft, and her lips were parted just a little, and Megan wanted to…

  No. She let go, a little too quickly, so Gianna stumbled. “Sorry,” Megan said hastily.

  “It’s okay,” Gianna said, but she wasn’t meeting her eyes.

  “Hey, if you guys want showers, you should hurry,” said Mary, putting her hand on Gianna’s shoulder. “I think just about everybody is heading back to the hotel to clean off.”

  “Right,” Gianna said, turning quickly to her locker. “I better be quick about it if I want to get any hot water.”

  Megan turned to her own locker, deliberately moving a little more slowly than Gianna, so they wouldn’t leave together. The team had taken three hotel rooms in the block, and she and Gianna had made sure not to claim spots in the same room—Megan was sharing with Gayle, Leya, Meana Murray, and Pins’n’Needles (Chelsea and Clara, she reminded herself)—but she still didn’t want to have to spend too much time imagining Gianna in the shower, the hot water sluicing all the sweat off her curves, her hands scrubbing all those delicious nooks and crannies with soap…

  She’d already spent way, way too much time imagining it.

  The next day, their second game was not going quite so well.

  Megan felt that most of the team had had too much to drink the night before—herself included—and they were dragging a little. Kendall had bought them all sports drinks before the match, so they were rehydrating, but the first half of the match saw them down almost twenty points.

  No one was as happy as they’d been the day before (except maybe Gayle, who had been weirdly cheerful the whole weekend). It was still a lot of fun, but Megan was anxious and annoyed. She really shouldn’t have had so much beer. It hadn’t worked, anyway; the images of Gianna in the shower had not left her head.

  That was probably why she hadn’t gotten enough sleep last night, too.

  Now that they were on their halftime break, she went to the snack bar to get them all water and some carbs and protein, since the snacks Shelly had brought for them had run out. She thought she’d have to use her roller derby skills to push her way through the crowd, but they seemed to make way for her, even though she’d changed out of her skates and only towered over most of the women, rather than every single person.

  Did they recognize her from the track? Were they deliberately making way for her because she was a derby girl? That was hard to fathom. And yet she reached the snacks very quickly.

  Loaded down with water, peanuts, and chips, she made her way back to her team, only to hear shouting as she approached. She sped up and dumped the drinks and snacks onto a seat, then changed her mind and grabbed the peanuts before turning to see who was fighting.

  It turned out to be Gianna and Chelsea, up in each other’s faces and screaming. Faith and Kendall were shouting as well, Faith with her hand on Chelsea’s shoulder as though she was trying to separate them, though there didn’t seem to be any physical altercation going on. Megan couldn’t understand what they were saying over the noise of the crowd and of each other.

  “Hey!” She shoved a packet of peanuts into each of their hands. “What’s going on?”

  “Megan! You—” Gianna smiled at her, but instantly dropped her smile, huffing and turning away. “No, forget it. It doesn’t matter. We’ll just play as hard as we can.” She ripped her packet of peanuts open so viciously that a few spilled out onto the floor.

  “Don’t do that,” Megan said. “Of course it matters. I’ve never seen you get so worked up before. Just explain what’s going on.”

  Gianna got competitive, she knew, but not like this. Not with someone on their team. There’d been a few arguments among the team members during practices, but since they’d been at the tournament, they’d always presented a united front.

  Megan glanced over her shoulder at the other team, on the opposite side of the rink. She coul
d barely distinguish their faces at this distance; hopefully, they were far enough away that they hadn’t noticed the screaming match. They would only take advantage of it.

  “Don’t bother,” said Chelsea. “It’s shit anyway.”

  “Hey!” Kendall stepped up to her, past Faith, who let go of Chelsea’s shoulder to make way. “You do not talk that way about your teammates, all right? You might disagree, and that’s fine, but you don’t insult each other’s ideas and you don’t swear.”

  “But you—”

  “I’ll have you benched for the rest of the tournament if you don’t let up with it. Believe me, we’d rather have a team that doesn’t hate each other than a team that wins the tournament. If you two hate each other we’ll have to have you both off the team next year, and what’ll that do to our chances? Nothing good.”

  The corner of Chelsea’s mouth turned up. “All right.”

  Faith had somehow palmed Chelsea’s packet of peanuts—she handed it back, torn open. “Stick this in your face, girl, you need it.”

  “Gianna?” Megan said. She hoped that whatever Gianna’s idea had been, she would be able to explain it more calmly now that her blood sugar was back on an even keel.

  “Are you sure?” Gianna said.

  “Yes,” Kendall said, folding her arms. “We want to hear it.” Megan was glad that someone else was pushing Gianna; she didn’t want it to look like she was just standing up for her girlfriend.

  Not that they were girlfriends.

  Gianna still glanced at her before taking a deep breath and speaking. “I just think that we’re all getting a little too crazy. We need to look at what the other team is doing. They’re not as cohesive as we are. I haven’t seen them work together, two people aiming for the same specific goal, more than twice. If we work together a little more, we can do better.”

  Kendall was nodding. “Go on.”

  “My thought is that whoever the jammer and blockers are for each jam, we need to designate two blockers to be the wingmen and two to deal with the rest of the pack. Remember in yesterday’s match, when Leya and I got on either side of Megan and just pulled her through the pack? We barely thought of that in time, but we probably could have done it even faster if we’d talked about it ahead of time.”

  “That’s perfect,” Faith said. “Do that.”

  “We did a lot of other stuff like that, too,” Megan said. “I mean, when Chelsea and I spun each other around, that wasn’t planned—you can’t plan a moment like that—but it worked really well, and the other team obviously wasn’t expecting it.”

  “So we decide ahead of time whether you’ll pull something like that if you can manage it, and then you’re all ready for it to happen,” Kendall said. “I like it. This is a good plan.”

  Chelsea was staring at Gianna as though she’d grown a second head. “No, that makes perfect sense. I can’t believe the rest of us didn’t think of it. I thought… er…”

  “What did you think I was saying?” Gianna asked, eyebrows raised. She put one hand on her hip, the empty peanut packet fluttering; Megan could tell she was feeling better.

  Chelsea smiled a half-smile, turning her head partly to the side. “I thought you wanted to say ahead of time that only some people could help the jammer and the other blockers had to ignore her. It didn’t make any sense to me, especially when the jam could change at any moment. But I get it now.”

  “Oh.” Gianna’s eyes widened and she nodded. “Yeah, uh… sorry. I see how you might think that. It just seemed so obvious at first, I figured everyone would get what I was saying.”

  Kendall punched Megan lightly in the shoulder (the right shoulder). “Nice one, Splatwood.”

  “Me? What did I do? It was Gianna’s idea.”

  “You got them calmed down and talking so they could actually hear each other. Specifically, Gianna. Have you ever considered doing a stint as a captain or coach?”

  Megan’s eyes widened and she shook her head quickly. “No way, I could never do that. I’d get frustrated and just yell. I’m not that good with people.”

  Gianna grabbed Megan’s arm, surprising her; she thought she’d sat down. “That’s not true. You’re amazing with people. What about at work?”

  “That’s different. It’s my job. I’d get yelled at if I didn’t keep everyone happy.”

  “Hey, that’s not cool. What kind of a job do you have where you get yelled at?” Kendall asked.

  “She works at a trampoline park,” Gianna said. “It’s awesome.”

  “I’m just the receptionist.”

  “You do everything else, too.” Gianna smirked.

  “What, this again?” Megan shook her head. “They only have the one employee, and they let me do all the fun parts of the job anyway.”

  “Yeah, working with people.” Gianna shook her head. “I’m not trying to convince you to be a team captain or anything, but you just don’t really see your own potential. Here.” She shoved a packet of peanuts and a bottle of water into Megan’s hands. “Get your strength up. The game is starting up again really soon.”

  Chapter 17

  They won. They’d won again, the second round, and next week they would be coming back for the third round of the tournament—the final round, which would determine the roller derby championship for the group.

  The Sisterly Love All-Stars were going to that.

  There’d been plenty of celebrating, but this time Megan and Gianna had managed to keep themselves under control. People seemed more nervous now than they had yesterday—they couldn’t believe they were actually going to the final round. Leya had confessed to Megan that she’d never thought they would get that far, that she would have been satisfied with doing her best, even though she figured they would lose in the first round.

  Megan couldn’t understand that attitude. She had to believe they would win, because otherwise she knew she wouldn’t do her best. And if she didn’t do her best and they lost, she would blame herself, and then roller derby wouldn’t be fun anymore.

  Anyway, they would win.

  But right now, they were on their way home, carpooling for the long drive back. Gianna hadn’t brought her car, since it was too small to pack people into; she, Megan, Janine, and Leya were in Kendall’s car, which she was driving. The rest of the team were in other cars, all heading back the same way. That was the main reason they hadn’t celebrated as much—almost all of them had to go to work in the morning.

  Janine was just telling them about her job search; she was a software engineer, looking for something to move up to with better pay than she had now, but she hadn’t found it yet. They had all mentioned that they would probably try to make a career out of roller derby if it was possible, but since there was no pro league, there wasn’t really a way to do that.

  “I’m really as close as you can get, though. I work for a skate shop.” Kendall was looking at Megan in the rearview mirror. “You know, Megan, if you’re ever looking for a job, I think you’d do really well there. We could use someone to take on a few extra shifts.”

  Megan smiled and shook her head. “Thanks, but I have a job I like.”

  “Where people yell at you all the time.”

  “I work for a trampoline park. How much better of a job can I get?”

  “One where people don’t yell at you,” Kendall said, laughing. “Anyway, do you actually love trampolining?”

  “Uh…” Megan tried to think back to the last time she’d been on a trampoline. It had been an amazing, exhilarating day… but she’d been a kid, no more than ten years old. In all the time she’d worked for the trampoline park, she’d never once found the time to actually jump. “No, I guess not. But I love seeing other people get to.”

  “And at my work, I get to see other derby girls all day, and other people who love skating. I get to help them find the perfect skates that fit, improve their speed and accuracy, and of course some people really geek out over gear. Not everyone is happy all the time, but what job has th
at?”

  “Not mine,” Megan admitted. It was hard to believe, but not every customer who came to the trampoline park was entirely happy. Of course, the ones like Gianna and her kindergarten class (who didn’t even complain that the bathrooms were broken) more than made up for the others.

  “And no one yells at me.”

  “No one?”

  “Okay, customers, once in a while. But Grant—he’s my boss, the owner—never gets mad, even once when I was starting and I really screwed up. He just said it’s the sort of thing that happens to everyone.” Kendall looked in the side mirror, changed lanes, and accelerated to pass a truck.

  “Do people really yell at you in your job?” Janine asked, hooking her arm around the seat—she was in the front with Kendall—and turning around to face them in the back seat. “My office kind of sucks, especially with all the layoffs lately, but no one ever gets yelled at.”

  “Really?” Megan blinked at her in surprise. “It sounds like such a stressful environment. Nobody gets upset?”

  “Yeah, but they’re professional about it.”

  “Then why leave?”

  “I kind of expect the same thing wherever I go. Right?” She looked at Leya.

  “I’ve never been yelled at in my job,” Leya said, but she didn’t tell any of them what job that was. Probably not customer service.

  “I’m sure you can’t say the same thing,” Megan said, looking at Gianna. She felt strange asking that, as though she was looking for someone to back her up, but she didn’t actually want any of them to have been yelled at in their jobs.

  She’d always figured it was just one of those things you put up with.

  Gianna laughed, adjusting the way she sat so that she was facing inward a little bit, her hand on the seat between them to brace herself. Her fingers were brushing against Megan’s thigh that way, but it was better than their thighs being pressed together. “Of course I’ve been yelled at in my job. The kids scream at me all the time, and there’s always one or two parents in a year who feel the need to yell at me about grades.”