Page 48 of In a Pickle
“This is a family event. We don’t condone that kind of language,” James said evenly.
“What?” Brock feigned surprise. “Are you going to run to dear old daddy? Here’s something I thought the club managers would have taught you, since you are the hired help around here: the customer is always right. I paid the entry fee and made a donation to your shitty little charity event. Ergo, I am a paying customer.”
“I don’t care if you donated a million dollars to the foundation. You can take your money back. This is your last warning.” James thought he probably should have kicked Brock out already, but he really, really wanted to beat his ass at pickleball.Just one more point to win this match, he reasoned with himself.You can make it the rest of this match. One more point. Tune out the noise.
“Come on,” said Liana. “He’s not worth it, James. Let’s just play.”
“Oh, Ja-ames, he’s not worth it,” Brock intoned in a singsong voice that James supposed was meant to imitate Liana. James turned on him. “What?” Brock continued in his normal voice, which was somehow more annoying. “Did your little girlfriend shit her pants?”
“Excuse me?” said James, sure that Brock couldn’t mean what he thought he was saying.
“You know,” Brock continued, “did she shit her pants? Because she has IBS? That’s the shitting disease, right? So she probably goes around shitting her pants all the time. Unless she’s wearing a diaper?”
“Fuck you, man,” James shouted.
Liana apparently decided she had the element of surprise, because she suddenly served the ball over the net while nobody was paying attention. It bounced in front of a dazed Mary Grace, who didn’t even raise her paddle to return it.
“Um, game over?” the umpire offered weakly. “Alonso and Abrams win and advance to the final.”
“Thanks,” Liana said to the umpire, “but we forfeit the final match. You can give the trophy to the team that won the other semifinal.” She turned her back on James and walked off the court.
“Liana, wait,” James cried as she stuffed her paddle, water bottle, and sweatshirt hurriedly into her bag.
But she just eyed him coldly. “I told you about my disease in confidence,” she said, her tone even and icy. “That wasn’t your story to tell. And you told these two, of all people?”
“I know,” James said, “I know, it was a mistake, Liana, please…”
She shook her head. “I believe that. I just don’t know if I can trust that my secrets are safe with you.”
James thought he could feel his heart being wrenched from his chest. “Please,” was all he could muster.
“Not right now, James,” she said and started to walk off the court. “Oh, and Brock?” she turned to the smug-looking man beaming from the other side of the net. “You’re not just an asshole; you’re an ignorant asshole. Crohn’s disease isn’t the same thing as IBS. At least get your facts straight if you’re trying to make fun of someone’s medical condition.” And with that, she turned and walked steadily off the court.
Chapter 30: Liana
Liana couldn’t believe she’d trusted James to see her at her worst health, only to have it thrown back in her face. She heard James running after her, yelling at her to wait. She increased her pace to get away from him, but she could tell he was getting closer, so she turned into the one place she knew James wouldn’t be able to follow her.
She knew it was ironic that she was taking refuge in the women’s restroom right after Brock had made a joke about her shitting her pants. She was playing right into the stereotypes about her disease, but she couldn’t be bothered, not when she just wanted to escape James.
She bent over the sink and splashed her face with cold water, hoping to calm herself down. She wouldn’t give anyone the satisfaction of seeing her cry. No, she’d just take a minute, collect herself, and then walk back out with her head held high. She would find some other way to exercise that didn’t involve pickleball. She would convince her mom not to leave the class, though; she knew Deb would fill with righteous anger when she learned what happened, and she didn’t want to ruin her mom’s weekly outing with her friends. Not over a stupid boy.
She heard the door creak open, and a soft voice behind her said, “I’m sorry.”
Mary Grace stood tentatively in the doorway, holding out a small towel. “For your face,” she said. When Liana made no move to reach for the towel, Mary Grace said, “That was a really shitty thing for Brock to do. I had no idea he would say something like that. I know my apology can’t change what happened, and I know I shouldn’t have told him, but — I’m just sorry.”
“Why do you hate me?” Liana asked suddenly. She didn’t have the energy left to care about Brock; she knew he led a charmed life and would just keep on barrelling his way through people’s feelings without consequence, because that’s what assholes like him could do. But she genuinely wondered why this woman, who’d shared a womb with her best friend, had it out for her.
“I don’t hate you,” Mary Grace sighed. “I never did.”
“But, all of those things you said about me in high school —”
“I was jealous.”
“That’s a good one,” Liana said sarcastically. “You were jealous ofme?The most popular girl in school, who also happened to be super smart, was jealous of a wallflower nerd?”
“You just seemed so happy,” Mary Grace surprised Liana by saying. “You and Tori. You were both super smart too, but more importantly, you didn’t care about being popular. You didn’t care about wearing the latest shoes, or all the makeup, or being with the athlete boys — you just seemed so sure of yourselves, and I — I envied that, and I didn’t know how to handle it. And I also felt like my parents were never proud of me. Nothing that I did was ever good enough. I was never smart enough, my gradesweren’t good enough. Never mind that I almost had the highest fucking GPA in our whole year.
“When I was voted prom queen, my parents weren’t happy for me. No, they just said, ‘talk to me when you’re valedictorian.’ I thought, if I got valedictorian, they’d finally be proud of me. And when I didn’t — well, it felt like I’d never be enough in my family’s eyes. Plus, I knew you were close to Tori, and in my mind, there was some sort of constant twin rivalry, and I wanted to hurt you in order to take Tori down a peg. So I lashed out. It was petty. And, I know it doesn’t mean much, eight years later, but I am sorry. It wasn’t right, and I see that now. I think I saw it then too, but as you know, I wasn’t much in the business of saying sorry then. Especially not to wallflower nerds.” She cracked a sad smile.