Page 69 of High Baller

“She’s heard enough of your, ‘I didn’t’ crap. Leave her alone.” He starts to walk back towards the bus and I follow him. “Trey, I said leave her alone.”

“Calvin, either she talks to me now, or I’m getting on the first flight to England. One way or the other, I'll talk to her,”I tell him. There's no way I’m letting her leave without explaining myself to her.

“Trey, she knows that you won’t be coming to England, your season has started. She said one thing would be the end, and I promise you, that thing you did, there's no coming back from it.”

“Calvin, I didn’t touch any of that shit. I'll piss in a fucking cup right now to prove it.” I tell him, and he turns around to face me. “And I didn’t touch those fucking skanks.”

Calving hold up his hands. “I’m sorry, Trey, I’m not helping you this time.” He gets on the bus, and the door closes as I get closer to it.

“Get me a ticket to England,” I tell Derek as I watch the woman I love driving away from me before I can even tell her the truth.

“Trey—”

“No, I need to talk to her!” I yell.

“You might need to talk to the coach because I’m saying no.” He stands in front of me. “I believe you, I do. I'll go to England and see if she'll talk to me.” Derek gets his phone out and starts typing. “Trey, you need to find out what the fuck happened last night, and by the time I land, I need to know. I need to have a case to fucking fight.”

I want to know what happened too. “Derek, I can’t lose her like this.”

“My flight is in two hours, go get some answers,” he says as we walk over to my car.

“Do you really believe me, or is this a way for me to not to go to England?” I ask. If I can’t get my best friend to believe me, how can I get Sky to believe me?

“Trey, I know you. You’ve never lied to me,” he says. “But Sky’s had to stand by you through the pictures and the video. She trusted you, but after this morning, I don’t think anything you say will make this right.” I’m so pissed right now that this has happened, and I don’t know why. “I'll call you when I land. Just give me something when I call.”

I give him a nod, and get in the car. The only people that can give me an answer right now, are the two that are in my bed, and they'll fucking give them to me.

***

I stand at the end of my empty bed, shaking my head as I look around the room. Something has to hit me, to remind me what happened. Those two girls have answers to what went down last night. I don’t know their names, fuck, I didn’t even see their faces this morning.

Derek - Get to fucking training, and talk to coach. He needs to know. You said you’re clean, so you have nothing to worry about.

I throw my phone on the bed. “Fuck!”

Someone set all this up, and when I find out who it is, I’m going to make sure they feel pain—pain that they remember for a long fucking time.

Derek’s right, I need to talk to coach, I need to explain. He can test me every week if he needs to. I pick up my phone to text him.

Trey - Message me the moment you land!

I scroll through my messages until I get to Sky’s name. My fingers roam over the letters because I’ve got no idea what I have to say. There's no way that I can explain all this through a text.

Trey - Shorty, if you can just call me, I can explain everything. I love you. I'd never hurt you.

I check my watch. If I leave now for training, I can talk to coach before the rest of the team gets there. Looking around the room one last time, I search for something I might’ve missed, but right now, my head is not here.

As I get to the bottom of the stairs, I’m met with Pia, my cleaner. “Morning Pia, sorry about the mess, leave my room as it is, please.”

“Of course, Mr. King—”

“Trey,” I correct her. “Pia, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Trey?”

She gives me a nod, but she won’t. She'll still call me Mr. King, but every morning, I'll still tell her to call me Trey. “Looks like a good party,” she says giving me a smile as she walks over to the kitchen.

***

I walk into coach’s office and take a seat in front of him. “Sky left me,” I say. Coach takes one look at me, then places a cup on the desk for me to piss in.