Page 75 of The Shot You Missed
Could I have this?
“Hell, yeah! Celebration at Chasers?” Lexi asks the group.
“Definitely,” Mira agrees.
Reed grins and looks at his big sister. “What do you say, Blair-Bear? Can we?”
Blair cocks her head like she’s considering it, but she can’t keep the act up for long. She laughs and ruffles Reed’s curls. “Obviously.”
They all turn to me and Lola. It’s Isla who speaks. “What do you say, ladies? It’s kind of a tradition.”
There’s a part of me that’s worried about being recognized, but it’s quickly drowned out by the louder part of me. The one that wants all of this. The part of me that’s ready to grab ahold of something good. Something I’ve always dreamed about. Besides, no one recognized me the last time we went. I glance at Lola. She’ll defer to me, but I can see how much she wants me to agree.
So, I do.
“We’re in.”
“Yeah, we are,” Lola agrees, beaming at me like a proud mama.
I float through the arena as we move in one big matching group. People stop and look, whispering about our jackets and the names on the backs, but I don’t feel the same sense of panic I do when I get attention in LA. Because this attention isn’t aboutmeor my perceived inadequacies. It’s about the name and number on my back and being part of this group of gorgeous women.
“I’m proud as hell of you,” Lola whispers once we’ve filed into the family room where family members wait for their respective players. “Look at you, grabbing happiness by the balls.”
I chuckle at my best friend’s aggressive imagery, but the fact is, I’m kind of proud of myself. “Thanks, Lols. You know I wouldn’t be here without you.”
“I like to believe you would be, but I’ll also take my flowers.”
Laughing, I pull her into a hug. “I’ll buy you some this week.”
“From an actual flower shop, please. None of that grocery-store trash.” She tilts her chin up and sniffs condescendingly.
“Of course. Only the best for you.”
“Only the best for both of us,” she replies seriously.
And a short time later, when Sebastian emerges from the locker room and wraps his arms around me from behind, I have to agree. Only the best for both of us. And when he holds my hand as we walk from the arena to Chasers, guides me into the booth with his hand on the small of my back, and wraps an arm around me once we’re situated, I think I’ve finally found it.
Or rather, I’ve found it again.
And for the first time in as long as I can remember, I’m completely at ease in a big group of people. I laugh, tease, and joke around with everyone, and if anyone outside of our group is looking our way or whispering about me, I don’t notice, and I don’t care. Because my best friend is beside me and Sebastian is staring at me like I’m the best thing he’s ever seen.
Everything else is background noise.
twenty-five
SEBASTIAN
“Areyou sure you can’t stay a little longer? It’s just getting good.” Tristan, my fourteen-year-old buddy, asks with a pout.
I’ll give it to the kid. Any other day, his whole schtick would work. Unfortunately, I really do have to pack up my cards today. “Sorry, man. I have a date.”
That wipes the look off his face. His brow lifts, the skin where his eyebrows should be arching dramatically. “A date? You’ve never left a session early for a girl.”
“She must be pretty,” Savannah says. She’s thirteen, and starting to notice boys. Like Tristan. But if Tristan’s noticed, he hasn’t let on, so I don’t either. Savvy tucks a strand of limp hair behind her ear. She’s started losing it, and I know she’s self-conscious about it, but her mom told me she’s not ready to shave her head and let that piece of herself go.
“She is pretty.” I pull out my phone and open my photo app. I scroll through my camera roll and pull up a photo of Indie from our afternoon at the sculpture park. “Wanna see her?”
“Do you guys kiss?” our youngest group member, Declan, asks. He’s only ten, and still firmly in thegirls are ickycamp.
