Page 55 of The Fundamentals
I ran around to get ready, but I was still a mess as we rushed from the apartment building. I was twisting up my hair out of my face, securing it with a pencil, and simultaneously searching for my car keys in my bag as we hurried down the sidewalk. “They’ve got to be here somewhere. Did I leave them on your table? Bowie, lean down and let me feel your forehead again.”
He paused and I put the back of my hand against his face. “I don’t think you should go,” I said.
“I know.” He tucked my hair behind my ear because it was already escaping my pencil trap. “I’ll see you…oh, damn,” he said for the thousandth time that morning. He was staring at something over my head, and slowly, I turned to see what had made him swear like that.
My sister’s friend Erin stood on the sidewalk behind me, a yoga mat slung over her shoulder. I’d known that she taught at a studio downtown because I’d heard her mention her new job at the bridesmaid functions. She’d also been trying to entice the rest of the Wonderwomen to sign up for her classes because she’d been having trouble filling them.
So yes, she was Aubin’s close friend and she was on the squad with me.
“Sissy? Sissy Frazier?” Her voice was a squeak. “What are you doing here with him? Were you just coming from his apartment so early in the morning? What in the hell is going on?”
Oh, damn.
Chapter 10
“I’ve never, ever been so disappointed. Ever. In my life,” my sister said. “Sissy, what were you thinking?”
I’d been thinking that I wanted to spend time with Bowie, that I was still scared of Ward, that our dad was MIA, that I’d slept better in that big bed than in…I didn’t know how long. I was also thinking that the real problem was me getting caught, not me doing it in the first place. “It was a mistake,” I told Aubin. “But it wasn’t what anybody is thinking.”
She shot me a look. “Is that really the defense you’re going to use? You were seen coming out of his apartment building in your pajamas.”
“No one saw my pajamas!” The bottom part of my outfit had been jeans, and the top part of it had been Bowie’s shirt, a giant flannel one that I’d plucked from where it had hung on his door knob and put on before we ran out. The t-shirt underneath that, the one I had actually slept in, hadn’t been visible at all.
“You, of all people, should know better. I was the Wonderwomen team captain when Caitlyn got in trouble with Kellen Karma! I know you remember that,” she continued to chide me.
“If you’re not going to be on my side, then you don’t need to be here,” I told her, and she stared. I didn’t usually talk to her like that, but I was so upset that I was losing my head.
“I don’t think you understand what you’re getting into. What do you think will happen when you walk into that conference room? It’s not going to be you getting a warning from Sam about a social media post, not this time,” she said. “They would have come down harder on you for that too except that I stepped in, so you’re welcome. You need all the help you can get from me now as well.”
“What do you know about a warning?” I asked, but Aubin only rolled her eyes. Of course, she was still aware of everything that happened with the team. “Why did Erin have to tell on me?” I continued, and that was a question I’d returned to many, many times. “She jumped to conclusions and she could have kept her mouth shut. Now everything is so messed up.”
“No, don’t cry,” Aubin ordered. “You’re only going to ruin your makeup.”
“You don’t understand how bad things have been,” I told her. “Bowie was only helping me through this whole thing with Ward.”
Her eyes widened. “Good Lord! Is this why Ward dumped you? Because you were cheating on him with a Woodsmen player?”
“No, I wasn’t cheating on him! I did the dumping, and Bowie and I are only friends.” I rubbed my eyes and Aubin batted down my hands.
“Your makeup!” she scolded. “Then why did you two break up?”
“You know that he’s not a good guy,” I started to explain to her, but then the door to the conference room opened and Rylah gestured to me from inside.
"Sissy, come on and let’s get this over with,” she announced.
I was going to throw up, I was pretty sure. I was also going to get kicked off the squad.
I walked into the room on shaking legs, and only the presence of my sister behind me kept me from turning around and running the other way. Well, I also had some pride. If I was going to get kicked off, then I was going to take it like an adult. No, I hadn’t done what they’d thought and I wasn’t sleeping with Bowie (besides when we’d actually slept), but I had clearly and obviously broken the rules in the Woodsmen Family Handbook. I had been spending a lot of time with one of the football players in a way that was not at all incidental and/or unavoidable.
And I’d enjoyed practically every second of it. I held my chin up and tried to walk like my sister, exuding confidence, to the chair that Rylah indicated. She went to the other side of the big, oval table, the side with Sam and a guy in a suit, and my sister sat down next to me.
“Aubin?” The other man seated across from us frowned. “Why are you here today?”
“Hello, Mr. Coelho,” she answered smoothly. “I’m here in support of my sister.” She put her hand on my shoulder and I had a hard time remembering the last time we’d touched each other. No, I did remember. It had been while we posed for the wedding photos and had been for staging purposes only.
“Your sister,” he repeated. “Oh, I thought the last name was just a coincidence.”
“We Frazier women are a long tradition of cheerleaders. Our mother was a Dame, back in the day. We’ve always been part of the Woodsmen family and that shouldn’t end.” She stared him right in the eyes and I thought, once again, that my sister was amazing. I decided to be like her for the rest of this meeting.