Page 90 of The No Try Zone
“Man, that doesn’t mean shit. We’ve all got eyes.”
“Yeah, but I don’t know. I think there’s something more there.”
Kari’s eyes fly to mine as we both go still. I nearly stop breathing, all the happiness draining out of me as we listen.
“Like what?” the second voice says.
“I don’t know, but it’s not okay.”
A scoff. “What’s it matter? They’re consenting adults. And that’s if anything is happening, which I don’t think is true.”
“Because it’s a power imbalance,” the first voice says.
Kari’s eyebrows shoot skyward.
“Plus, her brother is on our team. Screwing your player’s sister? C’mon, man.”
“You’re thinking way too much about this,” the other voice says. “Let’s go. I’m starving.”
“You’re always starving.”
Their voices fade as they leave the room, leaving me and Kari staring at each other.
“This is what I was afraid of,” she says, her voice low. But there’s no fire in her eyes like before, just sadness.
My shoulders fall forward. “I know.”
She inhales and throws her own shoulders back. “But I’m talking to you as your friend, not as the PR manager for the Granite. Straighten your spine, woman. You’re better than this.”
My chin wobbles, but I obey.
“What do you want to do?”
I swallow and sniff hard, shaking my body and trying like hell to keep my shit together. But my voice still wavers when I say, “I want to do my job. I need to clean the mats.”
“Aw, babe,” she sighs. “Come here.”
And this time it’s me bum-rushing her. She gathers me in, and I let her strength seep into me. “I’m disappearing, Kari,” I whisper. “I’m disappearing and I don’t know how to fix it.”
She doesn’t respond at first, and I wonder if she even heard me. But then she speaks.
“I hate this. Because you are. You aren’t the same person I knew all those years ago in Melbourne. But you’re also not the same person who sat down for chips and guac with me and Elodie nearly a year ago, either.”
“I know.”
She pulls back and holds me by my shoulders. “Do you?”
I nod, the tears falling down my cheeks. “I do. But I don’t know how…I don’t know what to do.”
“Is it Colin? Or is it something else?”
I sniff again. “Mostly Colin. It’s hard keeping it all to myself. I can’t tell Ollie. I can’t tell Mum. You’ve been a dick –”
“Hey!” she laughs.
“And I’ve just been lonely,” I admit. “Elodie and Allyson are great, truly.”
“But they’re not enough?”
