a picture to make you feel better
COLTON
hell yeah
VIOLET
(pic)
My phone rang in my hand, so I answered.
“Holy shit, baby.”
“Well, hello to you too,” I said.
“I was already getting hard thinking of you.”
His voice sounded dreamy, not as stressed as I expected him to be after loss number seven.
“Whatever happened to hello?” I teased. “How are you?”
“Well, I was bad, then I took a gummy, then my girlfriend sent a very fucking sexy picture. So I’m doing fine on cloud nine.”
Girlfriend. He didn’t put “fake” in front of it. He was the one who wanted us to be fake to begin with, and now he was dropping the fake part?
He was just high.
I laughed. “You are so stupid.”
“Stupid for you,” he sang, then giggled.
“Since when do you smoke weed? You’re usually a goody two shoes. Are you even allowed to smoke? Don’t they drug test you?”
He scoffed. “I’m civilized. I eat my weed. And yes, we’re allowed to have it. Royce got me into it as a way to relax.”
I hummed. “Well, you do need some relaxation.”
He was quiet for a few seconds. “Shit sucks lately, Vi.”
“I know,” I said. “I’m sorry you’re having a hard time.”
“I just feel like I only let everybody down, you know? Even you.”
It made me so sad to hear how hard he was on himself. The best person I knew was also his own worst critic. “Hey. It’s okay to be frustrated. You’re allowed to have bad days. You’re not going to lose every game this season.”
He let out a skeptical guffaw.
“You won’t, Colt. And don’t worry about us. We’re fine.”
“You’re too nice to me,” he said.
“And you’re too hard on yourself.”
Colton paused, and I pictured the way he shifted when he was uncomfortable. All I wanted was to be there with him and give him a hug. “People say really mean stuff online. I know I’m supposed to use it as fuel but . . . it hurts, you know? A lot of it’s true.”
“I bet,” I said, trying to think of a way to help him. “People are going to say negative things even if you do everything perfectly. It’s part of being on a public stage. It takes a lot of courage. That’s why they pay you the big bucks.”
“I think they pay me the big bucks for the brain damage and the fact that I’ll be retired by forty,” he chuckled, but it was humorless.
