Chapter 34
SOPHIA
Sophia gripped the receiver so tight that her knuckles hurt.
Click.
Max slid the accordion door open. “Are you okay?”
She bobbed her head as feelings of defeat welled up inside her.
“Why am I even doing this to myself?” She put her head in her hands.
The last thing she wanted to do was break down in front of Max, but the emotions came from nowhere.
“Before I met you, I was fine. Now it’s like I’ve opened Pandora’s box, and I can’t get the lid back on. This is all too much.”
Max touched her hands and pulled them away from her face.
“Hey, it’s okay. You are trusting your gut, and I admire that.
” He took his thumb and gently wiped at the stubborn tear that betrayed her.
“Soph, please don’t cry,” he said, and the gentle way he cooed laid her bare.
Max pulled her in a one-armed hug, and she could feel his heart thumping against hers.
Sophia’s mind went to mush, and her body felt a longing she had never known before.
“What’s going on here?”
Max let go first. Sophia looked past him and saw Willa with an Echo scarf fashionably tied over her hair.
“Why were you holding each other like that?” Willa glared.
Shivering, Sophia gathered her school sweater tighter around her.
She could see the questions in her roommate’s eyes, and she couldn’t bear it.
She knew how his arms had felt and could only imagine how she and Max had looked to Willa.
It wasn’t what Willa thought, but Sophia couldn’t tell Willa the truth.
Not until she was sure of things. So she lied.
“I just got some bad news from back home.”
Willa crossed her arms over her ample bosom, looked from Max to Sophia, unconvinced, and then asked, “What?”
“My brother. He’s fallen ill, and I hate that I can’t be there for him.”
“One of the twins?” Willa whispered.
“Yes.”
Willa nodded with concern.
“I’m just feeling overwhelmed with everything, that’s all. Max just happened to catch me.”
From the corner of her eye, Sophia noticed Max looking down at his feet. He hadn’t said anything to defend their behavior. The tension among the three of them was all too stifling on top of the fruitless phone calls.
“I gotta go.” Sophia pushed through the two of them and walked out of the cafeteria. When she was out of their eyeshot, she took off running, just as it began to pour down rain.
Sophia hadn’t missed a class since arriving at Forest, but she couldn’t sit through her afternoon periods.
She didn’t have the energy it took for her to be invisible.
Instead, she hid out in her dorm room with her head tucked under her pillow, listening to the rain.
What was wrong with her? She had turned her world upside down and wished that she could forget it all and go back to her life before she’d discovered Ethel Gathers and her Brown Baby Plan.
The hope and anticipation she put into each phone call only to be met with disappointment was draining her.
Why couldn’t she just leave it all alone?
When she gazed over at the clock, she realized that basketball practice started in an hour. If she left now, she’d have the entire gym to herself. She could run around until she was too tired to think.
The rain had stopped, but she was careful not to walk on the soggy grass in front of the Athletic Center.
The smell of sweaty socks comforted her as she dropped her bag on a bleacher.
There was a stray ball in the corner beneath the scoreboard, and Sophia picked it up and started shooting.
She hadn’t even bothered to change out of her school blouse and skirt.
She just ran after the ball and shot, dribbled, shot until she worked up such a heavy sweat that the back of her blouse was soaked through.
Ten minutes before practice was scheduled to start, she heard voices outside the gym and scurried into the locker room to change.
The tube light above her locker flickered on and off.
Sophia spun the combination to her padlock and yanked the metal door open.
Taped to the inside was a picture of a red fox with the eyes blacked out.
She ripped the picture down and balled it to the floor.
She knew only one person on the team would be so bold as to trespass into her personal space.
Sophia gritted her teeth. The sound of footsteps rang out from the gym, and Sophia used the door of her locker to shield her as she stripped down to her underwear.
“Look what we have here,” Patty croaked, seeming to appear out of nowhere.
Sophia didn’t acknowledge her or her two flunkies. She hated being naked in front of anyone, especially the girls at school. But she couldn’t ignore Patty, because when she reached for her gym shirt, Patty grabbed her wrist and thrust it up in the air.
“Get off.” Sophia tugged, but Patty’s grip was firm on her arm.
“Opal.” Patty snickered with her friend. “Do you remember that book we found in the library about the girl on the auction block? Looks like someone is stripped down so that everyone can see what a fine field nigger she’d make.”
Heat spread across Sophia’s face. She abhorred that word, and Patty was the first person to ever hurl it directly at her. For a few seconds, she felt like the wind had been knocked out of her.
“Let me go.” Sophia tugged, which made Patty hold on even tighter.
“How much would you pay for her? Look at these strong biceps. She’d do good work,” Patty sang. “She already has experience working with livestock. Can’t you smell it on her?”
Opal laughed. “I’d pay fifteen cents for her.”
“I’d pay a quarter,” said the girl who played small forward.
“Come on, now. This redhead must be worth more than that. Somebody give me fifty cents,” Patty said, smirking.
“Go to hell, Patty,” Sophia shot as Patty pulled her wrist above her head, exposing the patch of red hair beneath her armpit.
“Look at this beastly hair. Told you she was a savage.”
“I wonder what’s growing in her underwear.” Opal clapped her hands.
“I’ve often wondered the same thing. Why don’t we take a look-see?” Patty pressed her elbow into Sophia’s stomach, pinning her against the locker. “Do it,” she urged Opal.
Do what? Sophia’s stomach dropped as she tried to flail her legs, but Opal put her hands on Sophia’s knees to steady her.
“Stop it,” Sophia called out. Opal’s fingers felt clammy against her skin.
“I’m not playing.” Sophia tried wrenching her arm free, but Patty was taller and stronger, and Opal had her pinned against the locker.
“I said do it,” Patty said with a sadistic grin. “My daddy always told me to stay away from the nigger boys here on campus. Said they had tails.”
“You think she has a tail too?” Opal said, wide-eyed.
“I’ll give you a dollar if you find out,” the third girl called out as Sophia thrust her torso and stomped her feet, trying with everything in her to wiggle away.
“Get the hell off of me,” Sophia growled, and squirmed, but the girls just laughed.
“I was told that they had superhuman strength, but maybe that’s just the boys.” Patty tightened her grip as Opal grabbed the edge of her panties and started pulling them down her thighs. Sophia bucked her torso, but it didn’t stop Opal from exposing a thick shock of red hair on her pubes.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Sophia cried, still jerking her body.
“I told you she was an animal.” Patty smirked. “Only animals have flaming red hair.”
“Maybe she’s the devil’s daughter?” Opal cracked. “Look at those red welts on her arms. They look like fire.”
“They shouldn’t let animals into the school,” Patty said.
Then the door to the locker room slammed open.
“What in the hell is going on here?” It was Margaret.
Opal let Sophia’s knees go, and Sophia reached for her panties, dragging them up to her navel, shaking like a desert rat plunged into a bucket filled with ice water.
“Patty, get your hands off of her. Now!” Margaret’s voice was loud and demanding. All the laughter stopped, and it was then that Sophia saw two other girls in the corner, watching the action. Had they been there the whole time and done nothing to help her?
“Pipe down, prom queen. We were just having a little fun.” Patty released her grip on Sophia. “She doesn’t need you coming to her rescue every time she gets a little paper cut.”
As soon as Patty released her arms, Sophia shoved Patty into the locker with a loud thud. “You’re fucking sick,” she said. “I should beat your ass.” Sophia pointed her finger in Patty’s face and bared her teeth. Rage surged through her, and she felt like she could choke Patty with her bare hands.
“That’s what animals do,” Patty hissed back. “Go ahead, and you’ll be out of this school and back in the mud so fast your head will spin.” Patty flashed her teeth, and Sophia wanted to punch each one from her mouth and watch her bleed.
“Come on, Sophia, she’s not worth the aggravation,” Margaret said. It took all of Sophia’s strength to back away. Her long-sleeve T-shirt was on the floor. She slipped it over her head and put on her shorts. The air in the locker room was thick.
Margaret put her hands on her hips. “Get out there and start layup drills. Coach will be here in five minutes, and I don’t want him to know about any of this. We have a game to play tomorrow. Get your heads into it. Now go.” She pointed to the door.
Sophia pushed past them. Feeling humiliated and more displaced than ever before.