Henry grabbed his walkie and phone, then handed one to each of us. “Call for me if anything happens. I don’t know if it’s a full moon tonight or what, but today has just been weird.”
Fact: the moon has earthquakes, but they are called moonquakes.
Cool. Focus on dumb facts instead of your entire future.
“What the fuck?” Abe whispered once Henry left his office. “Code of conduct?”
Kamrica lowered her voice and motioned us closer. “I heard Petra, the intern for sports management, slept with someone on the team. She went wild at a party or something, and word got out. Henry was pissed.”
Slept with someone on the team.
My stomach bottomed out. Gravity ceased to exist as I stumbled slightly to my right. I hit the cabinet, and Abe reached for me.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, sorry, my, uh, knee hurt.”
“Sorry, Ivy.” He frowned before letting his hand slide off my arm. “Okay, Kamrica, tell us more. Petra slept around? I mean, Henry can’t do anything about rumors, right?”
“Henry said explicitly to not get involved with the players.” Kamrica swallowed. “Freaks me out a little. I ran into Xavier at the coffee shop, and we talked for an hour. It was awesome, but now I’m paranoid. Like, is Henry always watching?”
“Nah, you’re good. Ivy is friends with Callum O’Toole, and Henry doesn’t care.”
My face heated. I could barely look at them. It was so foolish of me to openly date Callum at this point. I couldn’t go to the house or out in public… we had to keep everything secret. I couldn’t handle it if Henry found out, and my dream got crushed. Disappointment gripped me though at the thought of slowing things down with Callum. Things were just feeling right and to scale back? It made my throat ache.
“You’re friends with O’Toole?”
“We grew up together.” I swallowed the ball of emotion and fear and tried to keep my voice as natural as possible. “Childhood best friends.”
“Oh, that’s sick. I bet you have good stories on him.”
I nodded, but Abe stared at me with a weird look. Almost like… he knew something. I shook it away. “I’m heading down to the field. Everyone, be careful.”
“If anyone hears any more gossip, tell the group,” Kamrica said.
She walked toward the restoration room, but Abe hung out for a second. He glanced down each hall before leaning toward me. “Ivy, I’m not asking your business, but we’re friends, right?”
I nodded. Shit. He knew. He knew. He’d tell Henry.
“Don’t look so afraid.” He smiled and squeezed my forearm. “I’m not gonna say anything. I’d never do that to you. Who would I be to stop your dream of entering the AT hall of fame?”
I snorted, but the anxiety didn’t ease whatsoever.
“You paled when Kamrica said that, and you almost fell. Whatever you’re hiding, you need to mask it better.”
“Abe—”
“It’s alright. No one else knows shit. I just watch you a lot. Oh my god, that sounded weird. No. I’m around you and care about you? Is that worse? Shit. How am I so bad at this?”
“I don’t know, but this is painful.”
With that, we both laughed, the sound echoing in the tunnel. I needed the tension reliever, bad. “Thank you for…you know.”
“You’re welcome. I don’t want to lose you here, selfishly, but I know what this means to you. So either stop your secret or be better at hiding it. I’m off to work with Kamrica. She just gossips, I swear.”
“You love it.” I shoved him away, just as footsteps clicked down the hall. “See you later, Abe.”
He headed the other way just as Callum and the defensive coach were mid-conversation, voices intense, but Callum’s gaze was definitely on me. His jaw tightened as he stared at the direction Abe left, but I didn’t have any energy to manage his accusation.
