Chapter 9
Tape: The band of fabric along the top of the net. It sort of looks like a strip of tape, I guess. I don’t know.
Ice the server: Calling a time-out right before someone is about to serve. It messes with their head and makes them more likely to miss the serve after the time-out. Works more often than you’d expect.
When Jess woke the next morning, there was a brief window of blissful nothingness, a sweet, empty Sunday stretching ahead of her, and then everything crashed over her in a dark wave, the kind that tossed you off your feet and sent water up your nose, then rushed back to the sea, leaving you breathless and battered, sand down your shirt and seaweed in your hair.
Jess hadn’t replied to Skye’s rejection text because she hadn’t known what to say, but now, looking at it again, she wondered if that made her even more pathetic.
Hey Jess. It was really nice hanging out with you, but I’ve realized that I’m not in a place where I can be in a relationship right now. I need to focus on myself. All the best!
All the best.
What an absolutely … bitch-ass thing to say.
All the best to you too!!! Jess smashed with her thumbs, hoping her true feelings came through with all the exclamation marks. But then she sighed and deleted it. Okay, take care, she typed instead. She rubbed her forehead and swiped out of the chat without sending anything.
There was another message from Vivienne waiting.
This time it was a picture of a whole crowd of them at the bar, hoisting green shots.
Vivienne’s tongue was out, licking a drop off the rim of her glass.
Jess stared at the tongue longer than she should have.
She didn’t like the way that tongue made her feel.
We did a shot for you, the caption read.
Everyone says you have to come next time.
Jess scoffed. She didn’t believe that for a second.
Surface-level, she got along with everyone, but she knew that, aside from Tania, no one really cared if she was there or not, unless they needed something off a really high shelf.
With another look at Vivienne’s long, pink tongue, Jess pushed back her covers and teetered out of bed to the bathroom. Fleming needed a walk.
When they came back after a trip around the block, the jar of shells winking in the sunlight caught her attention.
Getting dumped was so distracting, she forgot to track yesterday’s loss.
“See, I’m not obsessed with winning and losing, Vivienne,” she muttered as she took a shell from the win jar and put it into the loss jar.
Thirteen shells in there now. Four wins, and forty-three games to go.
There was still plenty of time to turn the season around. “Right, Fleming?”
Fleming huffed a doggy sigh and wandered over to his water dish for a few halfhearted laps. He didn’t seem convinced.
And rightly so.
Jess fell into a funk that Fleming must have been able to smell coming.
Over the next few days, she still did all the things she needed to do—worked, bought more bananas, walked Fleming, met Tania at the gym …
but it was like there was a veil over the sunshine, the world shadowed around her.
She stayed up late with her telescope, thinking that might snap her out of her fog, but thick clouds drifted by and she only caught a few sorry glimpses of the quarter moon before giving up and going to bed.
Even the next chapter of Queen in Shining Armor didn’t help, despite Queen Andromeda revealing herself to the rival queen at the masquerade.
Every night, she tossed and turned in tangled sheets and hardly slept.
Thursday, game day, Jess woke up with a splitting headache. “Fuck,” she muttered, reaching for her glass of water.
Fleming trotted over, his beloved stuffed crab in his mouth.
“Hi, baby.” Jess sat up and scratched his head. “Ugh. I don’t have it in me today, Fleming. Can I just stay in bed all day?”
He dropped his crab and studied her with a cocked head.
“I know. You’re right.” She sighed. “I’ll get up. Tania will be waiting for me.”
Fleming yipped.
“And a walk, of course. I would never forget.”
When Jess arrived in the locker room before their match, Tania was peering into a mirror, smoothing her bun. Her face pinched with concern as soon as she saw Jess. “Are you okay? You look like … Are you okay?”
Jess massaged her eyes. “Thank you for not finishing that sentence with ‘shit.’”
“Rough night?”
“Rough week. Haven’t been sleeping great. I have such a headache.”
“You want some ibuprofen or something?” Tania moved to rifle through her locker.
Jess waved her off, setting her bag down. “I took some already. I’ll be fine once we get going.”
“Okay.” Tania studied her, chewing the inside of one cheek.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“What?”
“Nothing, amiga.” Tania smacked her butt. “Let’s go win this game.”
Their opponent was another Sunside team—Billi and Raya—who were feisty, loud, and a lot of fun to play.
Well, normally they were, but Jess’s world was still muffled, and their antics didn’t make her smile as much as usual.
As the match began, the more the energy swirled and flowed around Billi and Raya, the more it drained from Jess and Tania.
The noisy pair built a quick lead, with lots of laughing and smart-assed quips.
Tania called a time-out at 1–6. “We’ve got to get some momentum going over here,” she muttered in their huddle. “They’re really cheating inside on defense—let’s go for the line, okay? And listen, they’re both hitting right at the tape. You can block them.”
The frustration in her voice was hard to miss. And Tania never got frustrated. Jess nodded and gave herself a shake. “Okay, right. Got it.”
Fortunately, Tania’s time-out paid dividends right away and iced Raya’s next serve. Tania went back to the line for her turn and ripped a great jumper down the middle. Billi made an okay pass to Raya, then tore in for their hit.
Block this, Jess. She jumped and reached as hard as she could into Billi’s attacking space with two big, solid hands.
She stuffed Billi, hard. The ball smashed off her palms with a satisfying thunk and slammed straight into the sand. The familiar thrill of a stuff block was there, but still muted.
Tania charged in and hugged her. “Sweet block, Button.”
Jess nodded and kicked the ball toward the linesperson. “Thanks.”
Billi studied her from across the net. “Jess, if you don’t smile soon, I’m gonna get Raya to flash you her boobs.”
Raya called from farther back in the court, “I’m not flashing my boobs, Billi.”
Billi half turned. “Why not? They’re nice boobs.”
Raya gasped. “Nice? How dare you.”
Billi brushed the sand off their ass and went back to get ready for Tania’s next serve. “Sorry. I meant to say they’re exquisite.”
“Hmph.” Raya pouted. “That’s better.”
A grin finally cracked Jess’s face.
Billi threw her a quick wink before the ref blew her whistle and Tania sent her next serve over.
Jess blocked Billi again.
“Fucking hell, Jess!” Billi laughed. “Did you grow?”
“Try hitting around her,” Raya called helpfully.
Billi flipped her a cheerful middle finger.
Raya blew a kiss back.
Jess’s smile grew. The score was 3–6. They were catching up.
But then Tania’s next serve went straight into the net and was accompanied by a small hiss of pain.
Jess’s head jerked around at the sound. “You okay?”
Tania rubbed her right shoulder, grimacing. “Yeah. My shoulder’s just been bugging me lately.”
“You need a time-out?”
“Nah.” Tania rolled her shoulders. “Let’s get a pass here.”
Jess nodded and slapped her hand, but as they turned to face the next serve, Tania’s brow remained furrowed.
“I thought maybe we were going to pull that one off,” Tania muttered, tugging her hair elastic out.
“Yeah.” Jess slumped next to her on the locker room bench and rubbed her face.
She had thought so, too … but then Billi and Raya had adjusted to her block and she lost confidence in her ability to do anything at the net beyond jump around uselessly, and Tania’s shoulder was clearly hurting, although she wouldn’t admit it.
Plus throw in a few unlucky breaks, and they lost a heartbreaker in the third, 12–15.
“Your shoulder okay?” Jess asked, watching Tania rub it.
“It’ll be fine. I’ll ice it tonight, go to PT in the morning.” Tania paused, then asked, “Did you reply to Skye?”
“No … should I?”
“I don’t know.” Tania peeled her top off and wrapped herself in her towel. “Are you feeling okay about it?”
Jess took a swig of water. “I’m not feeling great about it.”
“I know, Button. But maybe it is better to just move on.”
“I’m trying.”
Tania nodded. “I know you are.” She removed her bottoms from underneath her towel and tossed them into her locker. “Hey, what time do you want to meet tomorrow?”
Jess blinked at her. “Tomorrow?” She was fairly confident they didn’t have a game.…
Tania mumbled something in Spanish and rolled her eyes. “Tomorrow, Jess! The festival?”
It took a moment for Jess’s brain to clunk into place, then she remembered. “Right! Tomorrow.” The Sunside Surf and Sand Festival was on that weekend—a surfing competition in the mornings and live music after. “Uh, what time are we meeting again?”
“George and I are going to the surf competition before he has to be at the restaurant, then there’s the music at five.
Backyard Chickens, aren’t you excited?” Tania nudged Jess in the ribs and Jess tried to give her a smile.
Tania wasn’t exactly a fan, but she liked watching the surfing and agreed to go with Jess since she loved the band so much.
“We could meet at, like, four thirty? Grab some food first?”
“Sounds good.”
When they left the locker room, Tania’s family was hanging around waiting for her.
“Jess!” She melted into Tía Diana’s warm hug. “Dinner at my house Tuesday! You’ll be there?”
“You bet. Thanks, Tía.”
Diana kissed her cheek. “I’m making your favorite.”