I can’t get my head on straight. I really don’t have anyone but myself to blame, but I really want to blame Cassie. Cassie who I thought I was going to spend forever with after we tied the knot this upcoming off season. Cassie, who wore my jersey all through college after I transferred for more playing time. Cassie who cheated on me with another man in my own fucking house.
Yeah, I really want to blame her. But I can’t because that wouldn’t be taking ownership for my mistakes. Cassie wasn’t there on that field. I was.
“Archer!” Kirk Williams shouts, holding his recorder up to me. “Two interceptions and your throws were all over the place, you had your receivers running for their lives”
“Is there a question in there?” My voice flat. This loss was hard; it was a division team and our biggest rival.
Williams is unphased as he continues to hold his recorder “Is your performance issue caused by your ex-fiancée’s performance with the media last week?” There it is. Williams has never been one to just ask about stats or team performance, he always wants to crawl his way into the athletes’ personal lives, mine included. Before I can respond, Coach cuts in.
“We are here to discuss football and if your question has anything to do with Miss Johnson, we will not be entertaining any further questions so you might as well pack up and leave.” There is some grumbling with that but luckily the rest of the questions are your typical post loss questions. Not fun to answer but nothing to do with Cassie. Thank fuck for coach. Coach Pierson is not someone you want to mess with. He’s no nonsense but he’ll give you the shirt off your back. He’s also a great cook. Which I found out when he invited me to dinner with his wife after my security caught Cassie with some unnamed fucker in my house.
“You need to get your head back in the game.” Coach says as we walk to the locker room after the press conference. Before I can respond he continues, “I asked Dr. Mondary to come in, she’s out of town for a family function but she will be back before our next game. I want you to meet with her and try to work out whatever has got your brain in a funk.” Luckily, he’s kind enough not to mention that he knows exactly what has my brain in a funk.
“Yes, Coach.” I respond as Coach walks away toward his office after clapping me on the shoulder, no doubt to review footage and plan a new strategy for the next game. I head toward my car; I should shower but honestly, I just want to get home. Not the home Cassie defiled mind you, but my apartment in the city where I play. It’s a lot more convenient to stay locally than it is todrive the hour and half to the house I bought with Cassie; the house we planned to build our life in. The house that now sits abandoned and haunted by the ghost of our relationship.
Once I get to the apartment and shower, I pull up Instagram as I lay in bed. I go through the dozens of jersey chaser messages and a few memes that my teammates and friends shared with me. When my phone buzzes and a message from an account I didn’t realize I followed flashes at the top.
11:17 pm @ Ellebelle77 “Archer! Hi! You probably don’t remember me. We had World History together freshman year. We were friends, well I considered us friends. Anyway I wanted to tell you that you’re doing a great job, the city loves you. And well, if you ever want someone to talk to, I’m local! We could meet for drinks or coffee. Well anyway, keep your head up, you’ll get us to the Super Bowl. I know it.”
A wave of realization hits me as I go through her photos. Elle Taylor, cross country runner, my history partner and the only girl who knows about my weird niche obsession with pirates. Even Cassie doesn’t know how much time and effort I’ve put into the study of pirates and The Golden Age of Piracy. I realized when I transferred colleges that girls don’t typically like guys that can tell you all the gruesome details of scurvy. So I locked that up only to be indulged in during long plane rides after games. Still, Ellie or I guess she goes by Elle now, indulged that interest and even agreed to let our final project for our history class be about pirates. We aced that project if I remember correctly.
I reread Elle’s message multiple times. Was it really her? Her account looks authentic. Does she reallymean that she would want to meet up and listen to my problems. Dr. Mondary does that and I don’t even tell her everything and she can’t go blabbing to the media due to HIPPA. Elle doesn’t seem like the type to go blabbing all my business to the media, but you never know. It would be nice to talk to someone who knew me before I got my pro contract with the Wolves. After mulling it over, I ultimately decide to wait until the morning to respond. Setting my phone down I roll over to my side and fall asleep.
Chapter 1
Elle
“Archer! Hi! You probably don’t remember me. We had World History together freshman year. We were friends, well I considered us friends. Anyway, I wanted to tell you that you’re doing a great job, the city loves you.” Sadie cackles and continues reading through her laughter. “And well, if you ever want someone to talk to, I’m local! We could meet for drinks or coffee. Well anyway, keep your head up, you’ll get us to the Super Bowl. I know it.”
“Ellie” Sadie stretches my name between the two syllables as she wipes tears from her eyes, “You sound like Kris Jenner when she yells ‘You’re doing great sweetie.’ How much did you have to drink when you sent this?”
My best friend Sadie adopted me my first-year teaching and I never let her go since. I even followed her when she left the first school we both started at to the school we are at now. She would move mountains for me, but she will mock me forever about this message, such is the nature of our relationship.
“Enough” I grumble, putting my head in my hands. “How embarrassing is it? Do you think he actually would read it, or do you think like a publicist or personal assistant runs his account?”
“Difficult to say.” Sadie responds by pushing my phone back to me. “What I want to discuss is that in our six years of friendship you never once mentioned that you were friends with Archer Bell.” Her voice is all business.
“You read the message; I clearly don’t know if we were friends. I considered us friends, but then he transferred sophomore year and we never spoke again.” I take a drink of my iced coffee. Sadie and I meet up every chance we get at our favorite coffee shop that’s between our apartments and school. It’s a small and brightly lit shop decorated with light woods and white walls with plenty of flowers and plants to give it some color. Since it’s our fall break, we can spend a little extra time on our drinks and dissect the disastrous message.
“I mean we went to a few parties together; I have a picture on my phone from a Halloween party— ” I don’t get to finish my sentence as Sadie snatches my phone back. Her face unlocking my phone. She immediately begins to use the search feature on my phone for the Halloween photo.
“Holy shit, look at your legs in this photo… Is that a sexy ghostbusters outfit?”
I roll my eyes. I hold out my hand for her to return my phone.
“I’m not finished with it yet.” She pauses “He looks so little in this. I mean he’s not little by any means in this photo. He’s still a freaking D1 collegiate athlete in this photo but he looks so young. All the floppy hair. No signature scruff either.” Sadie continues to inspect the photo. “You could always send this to him to prove you actually know him.”
“Or I could hope that he never actually reads the message, and I can pretend I never sent it and continue on with my life and we never talk about it again.” I notice Sadie’s eyes are big and her lips are pressed together. “What?” She silently hands me my phone, and I notice I have a new message on Instagram.
9:34am @ Archbell14 I remember you. Thank you for your kind words. My coach and publicist will probably not like it, but I would like to meet up for coffee sometime soon. My number hasn’t changed, if you still have it. Otherwise we can continue to communicate through messenger. I don’t want to give my number out through the internet. I hope you can understand.
Before I can lose my mind a second message comes through.
9:36 am @ Archbell14 we were friends, sorry if I ever made you think otherwise.
“Shut the fuck up” Sadie blurts out as I read her the messages “PLEASE tell me you still have his number.”
I quickly scroll through my contacts. “I don’t see Archer Bell at all…” I pause, trying to think of how college Elle organized her phone. “Man Giant. I have him saved as Man Giant.”
