When he zooms in on me, I arch a brow.“I told you I wouldn’t play with Dyers.”
“There’s ruining your chances of being drafted, and that’s ridiculous enough, but the team’s?! I won’t have it!”
“What are you going to do, Coach? Dump us all in favor of one crappy forward with an ego bigger than his skill set? Nah, I don’t think so. This is a unified decision.”
“Oh, unified, is it?” Coach snaps, turning red in the face.
“Considering everyone but Alec and Dyers dropped the ball tonight, I reckon so,” Mason snipes. “I refuse to play with some low-life nepo baby who’s taking up a spot someone else deserves.”
“Yeah,” Joker chimes in. “I think it’s weird, Coach, that you’re backing him. Has his daddy called you too?”
To say the apple red of his cheeks blossoms into a neon pink is an understatement. “HOW DARE YOU?”
“Think that hit a nerve,” Pecan mock-whispers.
“I should suspend you all!”
“Nah, the only one who deserves to be suspended is the douche sniffing coke before games,” I jeer. “But maybe Joker’s right…”
As my words wane, the vein in his temple looks fit to burst, but he stomps off instead.
“Methinks the lady doth protest too much.” Pecan hoots.
“He definitely took a bribe,” Joker mutters.
“Yeah, I got that vibe too.”
Mason douses himself in deodorant as he watches Coach storm off to his office through the thin window on the door he just slammed. “Think we should report it to the NCAA?”
“Sure, but not yet. Because we all sucked, they can’t replace us. It’s unlikely they would before the holidays anyway. Still, we keep it up and we’ll get Dyers tossed off the roster. Something’s being worked on that’ll help.”
That earns me this half of the locker room’s attention because the one thing team management implemented was putting Dyers as far away from me as possible.
“Do tell,” Joker crows.
“Nah. Wait for the surprise.” For the first time, I can grin. But it fades when I check my cell.
Denny: You didn’t have to do that. Honestly
I choke on my fury.
Me: You deserved no less
Denny:
Her sadness oozes through the damn screen. My hand tenses around the cell so hard that I can hear the device creaking under the strain.
I know what’s going on with her. She found her niche here. A comfort zone. But that’s gone. That fucker ruined it for her.
Needing a breather, I head for the fridge to snag another bottle of water. I need to cool down or I’ll lose my shit.
But fate’s just not on my side.
I open the door.
A piece of paper flaps in the breeze.
It’s tacked onto one of the shelves.
