by Ivy Smoak
"Are you sure?" asked Kristen.
"Yeah. Go ahead and get the movie ready and I'll be right in."
She looked disappointed with me, but she didn't argue.
As soon as she was gone, Chris flashed me his charming smile and tried to hug me. I pushed him off.
"Your smile isn't going to get you out of this," I said. "Start talking."
"What's there to talk about? Nothing happened."
"Well, I wouldn't say that. I mean, those pictures pretty clearly showed you hanging out with Gabriela at Club Blue. You know I hate her."
"Yeah," said Chris, rubbing his forehead. "I was too drunk to realize it was her. I just thought it was some random girl coming to hang out with us. If I had realized it was her, obviously I never would have done it."
"Done it? Done what, Chris?" What the fuck did he do?
"Hung out with her."
"That's it?"
"Yeah. Like I said, nothing happened."
"Then why'd she have her top off?"
"I don't know. She just randomly took her shirt off."
"Lucky you. Did she randomly have sex with you too?
"What? No!" Chris threw his arms up in exasperation.
"You know, I'm pretty sure she fucked three guys yesterday, so she probably gave you AIDS. I hope you enjoyed getting sloppy fourths."
"What are you talking about, Alina? How many times do I have to tell you that nothing happened?"
"If nothing happened, why'd you seem so guilty when I confronted you after my game?"
"How'd I seem guilty? You didn't even give me a chance to talk."
"You got really upset and asked me where I got the photos. If nothing happened, you would have just laughed it off."
Chris shook his head, but he didn't say anything.
"Well?"
"I got upset because I didn't even remember hanging out with her. I thought someone had photoshopped that picture to try to mess with me or something."
"If you can't remember anything, then how do you know that nothing happened?"
"I didn't remember it this morning. But seeing the picture made it all come back. I clearly remember leaving with Bill and Adam and going back to the swim team house. You can even ask them. They'll tell you."
I took a deep breath and tried to process everything he'd said. It seemed like he was telling the truth.
"By the way, where'd those photos come from?" he asked.
"Someone put them on my seat during the first game of the match. That's why I played like shit after that and made us lose."
Chris snapped his fingers. "Oh my God. Gabriela set me up."
"What?"
"She must have seen we were together when we were up on stage. And then when you left, she saw a great opportunity to take some topless selfies with me that she knew would get under your skin. Boom. I'm innocent. I was set up!"
"That conniving little bitch. I can't believe I let her play me like that."
Chris smiled. "So are we good?"
"I do believe you that nothing happened, but I'm still upset that you were hanging out with her topless."
"What should I have done? Just got up and left?"
"Uh, yes. That's exactly what you should have done. How would you feel if I was out with my friends and some guy started swinging his dick around? And then what if I grabbed my camera and started snapping some selfies of me looking super happy next to a big naked penis?"
"That's different..."
"Not really."
"Okay, fine. I should have left. I'm sorry."
It really took him this long to apologize? Wow.
"So are we cool now?" he asked.
"Do you promise that nothing else happened?"
"Yes."
"Okay." I wanted to believe him. I really did. But he just seemed like he was hiding something. There was only one way to find out for sure. "Can I see your phone?"
"Why?"
"So I can see if you took any other pictures."
"Uh, I think I left my phone at home." He had a worried look on his face.
I reached out and felt his pocket where he always kept his phone. It was there.
"Okay, okay. Fine. She might have kissed me once."
"What?!" You lying asshole!
"It was just a peck. Nothing, really. I pushed her off right away."
"Are you sure that's all?"
"Yes."
"Next are you going to tell me that she sucked your penis a little bit? Or maybe you guys played just the tip?"
"Alina, stop. I love you. I would never cheat on you." He reached for my hand, but I pulled away.
When I moved my hand, I realized I had been clinching my fists so hard that my nails had dug into my palms. I took a deep breath and tried to regain control. "Maybe so. But I need some time."
"What does that mean? Are you breaking up with me?"
"No. I don't know. I just need some time away from all this."
"Time? How much time?"
"I need to focus on the tournament, Chris. You already have your gold medal, but I don't. I still have three games to play, and I'm not going to let our relationship ruin another game."
"So you just want me to disappear for the next week?"
"Yes. I think that's for the best."
"Come on. This is ridiculous."
"No, it's not. It's ridiculous that you made out with Gabriela and that I had to find out by seeing pictures of it in the middle of my match." Saying it made me want to cry again.
"We didn't make out..."
"I don't know what to believe anymore. Please just stay away from me until the tournament is finished. And if you care at all about me, try not to take anymore selfies with topless whores." I turned around to go into my room.
He grabbed my wrist. "Don't throw all the blame on me, Alina."
"Excuse me?"
"I won gold. I wanted to celebrate and you ran off on me. What was I supposed to do?"
Seriously? I bit the inside of my cheek. "So it's my fault that you cheated on me?"
"You knew what I wanted."
"And I told you that I couldn't." I had lowered my voice slightly. "I'm still competing..."
"And if you were a good girlfriend, you'd put me first."
I pulled my wrist out of his grip. "That's not fair, Chris. You were on a sex ban too. You didn't try to pressure me until you won your event. You're the one that wouldn't put me first. This is such a double standard."
"You don't even care if you win. You're retiring after this."
"I don't care? Of course I care! I want to go out on top. And you know that I need the money to..."
"Right. So money is more important than me?"
"Chris! That's not what I was saying."
"Do you have any idea what I've given up for you? All the girls I turned away in college because we were together?"
It felt like he had slapped me. "It shouldn't have felt like you were giving up anything if you loved me."
"Well it did. Talk to me when you let this go. Oh, wait, you can't. Because you never let anything go. You can't even beat Gabriela in a game because she bullied you..."
"Stop." My voice was barely a whisper.
"That's what I thought. This isn't even about me. You're just jealous that Gabriela..."
"Stop."
"For the record, she had a game the next day too. Yet she stayed to help celebrate my victory. Maybe you could learn a thing or two from your arch nemesis."
"It's not a break, Chris. We're done." I opened the door and escaped into my dorm room, slamming the door behind me.
Chapter 7
Sunday
Alina
"How'd it go?" asked Kristen as she scrolled through a list of movies on the TV. Her hair was wet and she had a towel wrapped around her, which reminded me that I was still sporting my snot covered jersey.
"It went okay," I said in as steady a voice as I could muster. It felt like my whole world had just crashed down around me. The f
act that Chris said he felt like he had given up a lot for me was even worse than him giving into temptation with Gabriela. I thought he was happy. I thought I was enough for him.
"Please tell me you didn't let him off the hook."
"I think we're going to take a break." Usually I would have told her all about it and cried on her shoulder, but I decided it was better not to tell her about Chris kissing Gabriela. Kristen would never forgive him for it, and that would cause problems if Chris and I worked it out. I couldn't have my boyfriend and my best friend hating each other even more than they already did. Do I even want to work it out?
"A permanent break?"
"Maybe. I'm gonna go take a shower while you pick out a movie." I went into the bathroom and started the water just in time to mask the noise of me crying.
As the hot water poured over me, I tried to picture Chris as the dirt and sweat that was being washed away. It didn't work. The conversation and the pictures kept cycling through my head. Did he really just kiss her? It hadn't occurred to me during the conversation because I was so distracted when he admitted they kissed, but there could have been pictures on his phone of them going further than just kissing. And now I would never know. Will I ever be able to trust him again?
Stop thinking about him!
I couldn't stop though. He had been my boyfriend for two years. I had seen him nearly every day during that time. I couldn't just pretend like he never existed, because without him there was a big, gaping hole in my life.
Focus on volleyball.
I started running through the game in my head. Yes, most of my mistakes had been caused by Chris, but I had also made some errors in the first game before any of that had happened. I would have to watch the game film tomorrow to see exactly what I was doing wrong.
I took a deep breath. Volleyball was only a temporary patch for the hole in my life, but it was already making me feel a little better. And I was sure Kristen would pick a wonderful movie that would make all my problems disappear for the next two hours.
But she didn't.
She had put on black leggings, a black tank top, black sneakers, and pulled her hair back into a tight pony tail with a black headband. She had gone through my drawers and laid out a similar outfit on my bed.
I looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "Are we going to rob a bank instead of watching a movie?"
"You tell me. What's Operation Red Rip?"
"Uh, what? Did you do a line of coke while I was in the shower?"
She tossed me my iPhone. "Your alarm went off while you were in the shower. It said to get ready for Operation Red Rip and to wear all black."
Did Bryce give me the wrong phone? I swiped my finger across the screen and looked at the homepage. All the apps were the same. I checked the texts next. Lots of missed texts from Chris. Definitely my phone.
Then another alarm started playing. It was titled, "Operation Red Rip - Meet at the village square."
"Did Bryce add weird alarms to my phone?" I asked.
"It would appear so."
"You don't really expect me to go, do you?"
"No. I expect us to go," said Kristen. "Now hurry up and get ready! We're going to be late."
"But what about our movie?"
"We can watch our movie any time. But we can't go on a secret mission with your sexy new friend any time." Kristen got up and started stretching her quads.
"He's not my friend. He's just a guy who was nice enough to return my phone."
"Well, whatever he is, he sure seems to make you happy."
I thought back to my conversation with him on the bench. For those few minutes, I had forgotten about everything else. And right now I just wanted to forget. Damn it. I hated how Kristen always made so much sense. "Fine, I'll go."
I threw on the all black outfit she had picked out for me and added a little eye makeup and I was ready to go. I usually would have been concerned about going out with wet hair, but it was so hot out that having wet hair would probably just help cool me down.
A few minutes later we arrived at the village square. But Bryce wasn't anywhere to be seen. There was just a trio of guys in Canadian track suits sitting on the side of the fountain. Wait a second! That's Bryce. Is he really Canadian? I thought back to my brief conversation with him. He hadn't said "eh" a lot or been overly polite. And he hadn't mentioned maple syrup or hockey at all.
He and his two friends ran over to us. One had brown hair that was buzzed close to his scalp and the other had perfectly coiffed dark hair. They were both about the same height as Bryce, which was probably a foot taller than me.
"Hey, Alina!" said Bryce. "I'm glad you guys came. I was starting to think we'd have to start without you."
"What the heck is Operation Red Rip?" I asked.
"You'll see. Follow us." He pushed a Razor scooter toward Kristen.
"Where's mine?"
"Oh, we didn't realize your friend was going to come so we only brought one extra. You'll have to ride with me." He got on his scooter. "Hop on."
I raised an eyebrow.
"Come on. I won't bite."
Kristen gave me a shove to force me onto his scooter. He immediately kicked it into motion, giving me no choice but to wrap my arms around his waist to keep from falling off. My hands ended up on his abs, which felt as incredible as they looked when I had seen them in the locker room. I quickly moved my hands over to his hips. It seemed wrong to be feeling up Bryce an hour after breaking up with my asshole boyfriend. And it made me wonder what he was doing right now. The thought made my stomach churn.
The wind whipped my hair around as we zoomed past the dorm buildings. We had gone into an area of the village that I didn't recognize.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"Dorm 16."
"Why?"
"Sorry. Classified."
"Oh yeah? How about now?" I reached up with one hand and tickled his armpit. It seemed like a good idea. It wasn't.
He laughed and pulled his arm down to block me from tickling him, which in turn pulled the handlebars sharply to the right. As the front wheel turned at a 90 degree angle from where it should have been, the scooter stopped dead and Bryce and I flew over the handlebars.
I went airborne for a few seconds and then came to rest in a bush directly on top of Bryce. My face was an inch away from his.
"Ow," he muttered.
His minty breath wafted up to my nose. I locked eyes with him for a second. The twinkle in his baby blue eyes was enchanting. Even though I had just caused him to crash his scooter and flip into a bush, there wasn't a hint of anger in his eyes. Only amusement and a bit of desire. Shit, what am I doing?
I quickly crawled off of him and wiped the leaves off myself.
"Oh my God, Alina!" screamed Kristen as she pulled her scooter up next to me. "Are you okay?"
"Codenames only!" yelled one of Bryce's friends.
"Really, dude? They just flew into a bush and you're worried about code names?" Kristen scanned me for any major injuries. "It looks like you're okay."
"Yeah, I think I'm fine," I said. Nothing was in excruciating pain, so that meant no sprains or breaks. A quick glance confirmed that I had a few scratches on my arm, but that was about it. "No thanks to Bryce's driving..."
"My driving?" said Bryce. "Sorry, I must have missed the part in the scooter manual about how to deal with a spontaneous tickle attack."
I smiled and tried to look innocent. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Green Tiger, " said one of Bryce's friends, looking at his phone. "The eagle is in the bird bath."
"Huh?" asked Kristen.
I looked over the guy's shoulder at his phone screen. He was looking at a video feed of an empty dorm room similar to the one Kristen and I shared.
"What in the world are we doing?" I asked.
"No time to explain," said Bryce. "We've gotta move."
The handlebars had broken off our scooter during the crash, so Bryce just took off running. I
chased behind him, but he was sprinting way too fast. Luckily we only had to run one more block before we arrived at Dorm 16.
Bryce's friends grabbed the scooters and hid them in the bushes out front and then we all huddled up.
"Alright," said Bryce. "Red Wolf, you'll stand guard out here. Pink Ocelot, you're my eyes in the sky..."
"Pink Ocelot?" I asked, looking at the guy who had just been addressed by that name. He was the one with the perfectly coiffed dark hair. "Is that seriously your codename?"
He shrugged. "I thought it sounded cool..."
It doesn't. "Interesting. So what are Kristen and..."
Pink Ocelot cleared his throat. "Codenames only, please."
"Geez, okay. Sorry. We'll get codenames. Kristen, what do you..."
"God damn it!" yelled Pink Ocelot.
I jumped when he yelled at me. Bryce glanced at me and laughed.
"Guys, we're wasting time." He pointed at me. "Your name will be Sex Panther."
"Sex Panther?" I asked. "Isn't that the cologne in Anchor Man that's illegal because it contains bits of real panther meat?"
"Shit, you're right. I knew it sounded good. How about Blonde Tigress?"
"I like it." I pointed to Kristen. "What about her name? How about something super girly? Maybe Pink Ocelot?"
"Hey!" yelled Pink Ocelot. "That's my codename."
Bryce laughed. "Okay. Blonde Tigress, you're coming with me. Brunette Giraffe, you go with Ocelot."
"Really?" asked Kristen. "She gets a super sexy name and I get stuck being a giraffe?"
"No time to argue," said Bryce. "Red Wolf, do you have the final pieces of our disguises?"
"Yes sir." Red Wolf reached into the pockets of his track suit and pulled out three fake mustaches. All three of the guys grabbed one, peeled off the back, and put them on. Bryce's was a perfectly twirled handlebar mustache. Ocelot had a Hitler stache.
"Alright, let's roll," said Bryce. Red Wolf stayed in place while Bryce and Ocelot sprinted up the stairs to the lobby of Dorm 16.
Kristen looked at me with a confused look on her face. "Want to run away?"
"No way. I'm too curious now. And plus, I couldn't possibly deprive you of spending some more time with Pink Ocelot. You guys seem perfect for each other."
Kristen rolled her eyes. "Oh God."
"Pssst," whispered Bryce from the door to the building, waving his arm for us to follow.
