Bring Her On

by Chelsea M. Cameron

Should I be worried? I asked. I knew a little bit about them already, there was Spencer, who was married to Leah, Lola and Heidi, who were also married to each other, and then her only single friend, Audra. Of course, I had asked if anything had ever happened with Audra, but according to Echo, nope. I was choosing to trust her on that, because I had no reason not to, but my insecurities were still there, lurking in the back of my mind. I knew that Audra was a knockout. Of course I had already stalked them all online. It was research into Echo’s life. I wanted to get along with her friends. I would definitely have an issue if every single one of my friends didn’t like my significant other. Big red flag.

  No, they’ll be cool. I hope. I’ll have a talk with them. That made me totally nervous, but it also made me realize that I hadn’t told my parents about Echo, so I picked up the phone to call my mom.

  I’d talked with her briefly after Nationals, but it had only been texts since then. She was busy with her book club, planning a huge used book sale that was taking up a lot of her time. Even when she was retired, she couldn’t slow down. She still swam at the local pool four days a week before the sun was up. Someday I wished to have her energy and vitality.

  Putting my exchange with Echo on hold, I called my mom.

  “Hey, how’s my girl?” she said. “I was hoping you were going to call me this week so I could get all the details of the competition. Your father and I even paid for some app so we could watch it. Took forever to figure out, but then there you were!” I loved that she and Dad had done that.

  “Some of those teams were amazing, I couldn’t believe those were high school kids. We ended up watching the whole thing for days. Your father was exhausted afterward,” she said.

  “How are his fruit trees?”

  “Somehow not dead? Don’t tell him I said that.”

  I laughed and changed topic. “Listen, I have something to tell you.”

  “I’m guessing from the tone of your voice this is a good something?”

  “I hope so,” I said. “You remember Echo Rosenthal? The girl I was friends with at camp?” My mom didn’t know the extent of our “friendship” and she never would.

  “You mean the girl you were completely infatuated with? Sure.”

  “I wasn’t infatuated with her, Mom.” I put my feet up on my desk, leaning back in my chair.

  “Oh yes you were, don’t lie to me. What about her? Do you have something to tell me, Kiri? I had the feeling you had something cooking. A mother always knows.” Well, at least mine did. She basically knew all my news before I told her.

  “We’re seeing each other, officially. She’s my girlfriend and it’s new and I don’t need any input, thanks,” I said. My mom was going to give me her opinion anyway, but at least I could try.

  “Fine, fine,” she said, acting all huffy. “But I would like to know about her. You know your father wants to come up for a visit while you’re off this summer.” This was news to me, but very welcome news.

  “That would be great, when were you planning? I have that trip with the girls, but other than that I’m pretty wide open.” My house had a guest room, so they wouldn’t even need to get a hotel.

  “Probably early August, but I’ll get you a firm date when I can check flights. Now I have even more reason to come and see you. I want to meet your girl.” I didn’t think of Echo as my girl, but hearing my mom refer to her that way put a smile on my face.

  I’d have to tell her and Dad about Echo’s parents, and reassure her that they were completely supportive.

  “I’ll have to check with her if she’s okay with that. If we’re still together.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that. I can hear it in your voice.”

  “Mom, stop it.”

  She teased me some more and then Dad came on to talk about his trees and I had to do the whole thing over again and tell him all about Echo.

  “Do you want to know her blood type, because I’m not actually sure what it is. I’d have to check on that,” I said.

  He chuckled. “I’m just your curious dad. I like to know about the important people in your life, especially the most important. She sounds great, Kiri.”

  “She is great.”

  I didn’t hear any other gossip about me and Echo, but I heard whispers when my cheerleaders and their parents arrived at the gym and saw me setting up for the final banquet. I’d been here for hours, and I was ready to eat one of the tables.

  It was another potluck, and I had given specific instructions that I hoped would be followed this time. We didn’t need forty sad trays of lukewarm, unseasoned macaroni and cheese.

  I’d made a chopped salad for some variety, and as people started arriving, I could sense they wanted to ask me about the rumors, but were too polite. Well, not everyone was too polite. Denise came in and plopped her tray right down, peeling off the tinfoil and revealing . . . a lukewarm, unseasoned macaroni and cheese. I didn’t need to taste it to know. This time she’d covered the top with Goldfish crackers in the shape of a heart, for some reason. I tried not to visibly shudder. I would be avoiding that shit.

  “Hey, Coach, how’s it going?” Denise asked, her beady eyes gleaming. I’d never seen someone with so much repressed glee before. Seriously, this woman needed to find a new hobby. Weren’t kids supposed to be exhausting? When did she have the time?

  “It’s going great, thank you so much for bringing . . . that.” I gestured to the pan.

  “Oh, it’s everyone’s favorite. If I didn’t bring it, there would be riots.” She laughed and I laughed and I wondered if she was full of shit or completely delusional, or both.

  Denise leaned closer and spoke in a loud whisper that anyone who was nearby could pick out. “I saw you and the Heartwood coach at Miguel’s the other night. Was that a business dinner or . . .” she trailed off and let out a little laugh.

  I was completely and utterly saved from answering by the arrival of Cam, who breezed over to me and grabbed my arm.

  “Hey, can I talk to you for a second? It’s important.”

  “Of course. Excuse me, Denise.” I stepped away from her as Cam led me away.

  “I will never be able to thank you enough for what you just did,” I said when Cam had pulled me into a corner of the gym.

  “I could tell you were drowning over there, so I figured I would throw you a lifeline. I know you’d do the same. Denise is something else.” I looked over and found Denise fluttering around, fake smile plastered on her face as if she didn’t talk shit behind everyone else’s back.

  “What was she pestering you about?” Cam asked.

  “Uh, remember Echo? The Heartwood coach? We’re kind of seeing each other and she was at the same restaurant and now I’m sure everyone knows, but no one has the balls to ask me about it, besides her. She straight up asked me if it was a ‘business dinner’ like it’s her business.” I wished I could tell her to fuck off, but then I’d get fired.

  “I’ll talk to her. That is none of her business.” Cam looked like she was ready to burn shit down, but I knew she’d been dealing with the likes of Denise for years and had been looking for a reason to tell her off for a while now.

  “At least next year her last child will be a senior and then I will be rid of her. I look forward to that day, but then someone just like Denise will take her place. Such is life.” Cam looked off into the distance and then back at me. “Anyway, I’ll have a talk with her. No worries. How’s Dom doing?”

  I showed her a picture of Dom and Heath and little Marissa.

  “Oh my god, I’m dying. I can’t wait to meet her.”

  More people were starting to arrive, so I was needed to help organize things, and Cam had to talk to Denise, so she went in one direction and I went in the other.

  The squad finally arrived, and they were all dressed up in their finest, and it was so cute to see them all dolled up. I gave lots of hugs and received many in return and then I had to get up and make a little speech as people were sitting down.

>   I’d made a little video of all the pictures from Nationals, and had gotten the official video file, so I could show the performance to the parents on the projector.

  “I can’t tell you all how proud I am of what this team did. No one could have asked for more. They gave me what?” I put my hand up to my ear and the squad yelled out “ELEVEN!” in unison.

  “I didn’t even tell them to do that, I swear,” I said, and there were chuckles in the audience.

  “I’m going to miss this family, this squad, but I know that you’re all Tigers for life, and you’ll always have a home here at CHS. Thank you for trusting me, and thank you parents for trusting me with your children. It’s an honor to be their coach, thank you.”

  After a round of applause, I played the video and then everyone ate while music played in the background. I made rounds, stopping by each table and reminiscing and sharing jokes. I wished Dom could be here, but I was sending him pics and updates and video messages from all the kids.

  Cam was also doing her thing, and Denise seemed subdued when I made it to her table. I’d saved her for last, and I hoped that symbolism wasn’t lost on her.

  Cheerleaders and parents and relatives filled their plates and laughed and I wanted to bottle this moment because this was really it. All of them had brought their uniforms to turn in, which was also part of the night. After dessert, they all got in a line with their uniforms folded up and placed them in the uniform box where they would wait for another year, or another cheerleader.

  Once the box was closed, I put my hand on it for a moment and said my own little goodbye to this season. Then it was time to pack up the leftovers, shove Denise’s awful mac and cheese back into her hands, and call it a night.

  Cam and I were the last two in the gym, putting away the tables and making sure the floor was clean. I got out the broom and did a few sweeps.

  “Another cheer season over,” she said, balling up some paper that we’d used to line the table and then tossing it into the trash can in the perfect shot. She’d been a state champion twice in basketball.

  “In the books,” I said, shaking out the broom into the same can and then putting it back in the closet.

  “You did good, just so you know. You’re exactly what this team needed.” I didn’t know about that, but it was still nice to hear.

  “Thanks, I appreciate it.” She gave me a hug and said that she’d lock up and I could go home.

  The first thing I did when I walked in the door was call Echo. Sure, I was seeing her tomorrow, but that didn’t matter. I wanted to see her tonight. I needed to see her tonight. I was in a prime mood to wallow, and the cats weren’t as helpful as they should be in that pursuit.

  “Hey, what are you doing right now?” I asked.

  “Uh, do you want to know what I’m actually doing, or what I wish I was doing?”

  I put the phone on speaker so I could feed the angry cats at the same time.

  “Both?” I said.

  “Okay, you get to decide what’s real and what’s fake. So, I am either sitting on my couch, eating two-day-old cold pizza and scrolling through reality TV star’s social media accounts, or, I am at a fabulous party surrounded by dozens of friends who adore me, wearing a fabulous designer dress.”

  I listened and didn't hear anything in the background except for Echo chewing.

  “Will you be offended if I say the first thing? It doesn’t sound like a bad night to me. Unless you want to spice things up a little bit and come over. I can make fresh pizza and you can eat it off my ass.”

  There was a pause and a shuffling sound.

  “Fuck, where are my keys?”

  “So how would you feel about meeting my parents?” I asked as she handed me an ax. It was heavier than I thought it would be and I wished I had said yes to a less-intense date. At least I got to eat after this.

  “Do you mean, like, right now?” she asked, stepping up to the area where the ax-throwers stood. The firing range? I had no idea. Echo was clearly comfortable with this whole thing and I was out of my wheelhouse. Next date, we were doing something I picked, like reading books on the beach, or walking through the rich area of town and trying to peer in the windows to see what their living rooms looked like.

  Echo wound up and threw the ax with perfect precision, lodging it in the target to the cheers of the other people around.

  “No, I mean like this summer. Maybe in August? They’re coming up to visit and they want to meet you. It’s absolutely fine if you don’t want to. No pressure.”

  Echo moved aside and then it was my turn. I’d been given lessons on how to do this safely, but I was still convinced I was going to lose an appendage on this date.

  My first attempt to throw the ax just . . . didn’t even go anywhere near the target.

  “This is like archery camp all over again,” I said.

  “You went to archery camp?” Echo asked as we picked up our second axes.

  “Yeah, I read a book and thought I could be an archer for some reason. I was completely obsessed and begged my parents to sign me up. Then I went and it was so embarrassing, that they literally gave me a participation award, because everyone else earned a certificate.”

  It wasn’t a memory I enjoyed.

  “That’s so cute,” Echo said.

  “If by cute, you mean pathetic, then sure.”

  Her second ax hit right near the first one, and my second was another fail.

  “Hey, come here,” she said, taking both my hands and pulling me close. Echo wrapped her arms around me and held me tight, rocking us back and forth a little.

  “You’re so cute and sweet and sexy and amazing. I’m so lucky we have this second chance. It’s almost like we needed those years to come to our senses.”

  I leaned back so I could look her in the face.

  “Do you think so?”

  “Yeah, I do. I’m not sure if things happen for a reason, but it feels right that you’re back in my life, Kiri. Doesn’t this feel right?”

  It did. I’d never felt anything so right as having her arms around me. She kissed my forehead and then my mouth and I forgot all about throwing axes until someone whistled and told us to throw the axes or get out of the way.

  “Oops?” I said.

  “Not sorry,” she said, picking up another ax and hurling it directly into the center of the target.

  “It’s okay,” she said later as we fueled up on burgers and fries and local beer.

  “What’s okay?” I said through a mouthful of burger.

  “Meeting your parents. I’m okay with it. I think. I mean, your parents sound great. I guess I’m just a little wary around parents because of mine, but everything you’ve said makes them sound like wonderful people.”

  I wiped my face and set my burger down. I was so hungry that I had to slow down or else I was going to choke.

  “They really are great people. They’re going to adore you. I mean, they do already. I might have talked you up, and they remember me mentioning you back in the day.”

  Echo raised her eyebrows. “Oh, really? You mentioned me? What did you say?”

  “Well, I didn’t tell them that we banged at camp, that’s for sure. I just told them I’d met a girl and we’d sort of had a thing and I might hear from her. I came out to them when I was like, ten, I think? So they’d been wondering when I was going to start dating. All of my crushes up until that point had been short-lived.” That was an understatement. My shortest crush was one week one a friend who I thought was flirting with me, but she was just being extra friendly to make another friend jealous and I got caught up in the whole thing. Being a teenage lesbian was rough sometimes.

  “Do you think they’ll like me?” she asked in a soft voice.

  “Yeah, I do. They like who I like.”

  “So that means you like me.” She bumped my shoulder with hers.

  “Yes, I think it’s fair to say that I like you, Echo. I like you a lot.”

  She put down her burger a
nd wiped her hands. “Well, that’s cool because I love you.”

  I almost slid right off my barstool.

  “Was that too much?” she asked.

  I put both hands on the table, because I needed something to hold onto.

  “Did you just say what I thought you said?”

  “That I love you? Yeah, I definitely said that.”

  I gaped at her. Those words had caused an explosion of thoughts in my brain and I didn’t know what to do.

  “You okay?” Echo put her hand on my shoulder and leaned closer to look into my eyes. “Did I break you? Kiri?”

  “Sorry, trying to breathe.” I put one hand on my chest. Yes, my lungs were still doing their thing, expanding and contracting, and my heart was pumping along.

  “Shit, I'm sorry. I shouldn’t have said it like that.”

  I took a moment and stared into her eyes. Let myself completely get lost in their depths, and flipped through all the things that had happened in the past ten years between us. The laughs, the moments, the teasing, the fighting, the grudge, the reconciliation, the blossoming of new feelings.

  I wasn’t the sixteen-year-old with a crush on a beautiful girl who was out of my league. I wasn’t the teen hiding under the sheets and hoping she didn’t get caught. I was a twenty-six-year-old woman and I was . . .

  In love. I was in love with a girl named Echo.

  Totally and completely and madly and deeply and all of those other words. I’d known I was falling, and I’d known that it was happening, but it took her saying the words for me to realize that there was no other word for the way I felt about Echo.

  “It’s okay,” I said. “I mean, I wouldn’t have picked this location, exactly, for that kind of declaration. And flowers would have been nice.”

  Echo rolled her eyes. “And?” she asked.

  “And what?” I wanted to wind her up a little bit.

  “And do you have anything to say?” Her face was starting to get a little red, like it did when she was riled. It was totally mean to do this, but she’d pulled so much shit on me that this was only fair.

  “Oh, that. Sure, it’s great! So sweet of you. Thank you so much.”

  I picked up my burger and took a bite as she gaped at me.