Chapter Two
A fter orientation, the week was a blur of meeting my new teammates, remembering what it felt like to actually work out, and trying to get excited about the coming year.
My muscles were furious with me when I woke up Thursday morning, and I tried to apologize to them for the fact that I’d been doing the bare minimum workouts all summer. Groaning, I reached for my phone to find a few missed text messages.
COURTNEY: Happy birthday, V! Wish I could be there to celebrate like old times.
V: What, with blue tongues from Slurpees and Sour Patch Kids?
It had been forever since Court and I had celebrated together. The last time was probably Skate-Land in sixth grade. She’d been gone way too long.
COURTNEY: Don’t act like you wouldn’t still destroy a bag of sour candy if given the chance. I don’t care if you’re 19.
V : Guilty. I’ll call you this weekend with all the latest drama. There’s plenty.
COURTNEY: Can’t wait. Good luck getting your driving rights back. Have an awesome birthday. 3
Ughhhhh.
I’d almost forgotten about today being my parents’ made-up deadline to decide if they were letting me drive again. Legally, I could, of course, but while car-less and still living at home, the law wasn’t much help .
V: 3 you too.
I grabbed the first pair of cheer shorts I could find in my drawer but re-thought my strategy when I realized it was possible I’d run into a certain football player in the weight room today. Instead, I pulled on a pair of bright pink shorts and a razorback tank that made my boobs look spectacular.
I may have also put on a minimal amount of makeup. I hated myself even as I did it because I would give anyone else so much shit for putting on blush before going to sweat out half their body weight. But I didn’t have to follow those rules. I was the rule maker .
I’ll call it self-care. Feeling pretty on my birthday is obviously important.
“Good morning, Birthday Girl,” my dad said warmly when I bounded downstairs, the skin around his eyes crinkling with his smile.
“Pancakes?” my mom asked, her tone neutral. She seemed to at least be trying to be reasonable lately.
“Good morning,” I said suspiciously. “Are they real pancakes?”
My mother’s facade slipped a little as her eyes rolled. “Yes. What other kind would they be?”
The whole-grain fruit filled kind you normally try to pass off as pancakes.
But I held my tongue. “Then yes,” I agreed, plopping down next to my dad. With the promised pancakes came a small box with a shiny purple ribbon.
“To open right now?” I asked, my eyes growing wide. I didn’t care how old I was, presents were cause for excitement.
“I thought you might want it now instead of tonight, yes.”
I didn’t even let myself hope that maybe a set of car keys were in that box. B.A.D— Before Almost D.U.I—I was pretty certain I would get a car before I went off to college. It was all but a done deal. Now, not so much.
I pulled off the ribbon quickly and pried open the white box. Unexpectedly, tears pricked at the corners of my eyes when I ran my fingers along the hand-stamped letters pressed into the circular pendant hanging at the end of a silver chain.
It read: I Am a Real Mermaid . Next to it hung a sterling mermaid charm and a shimmery purple crystal.
Which was objectively silly. I knew that.
But The Little Mermaid had been my obsession since I was small—and I was not using the term ‘obsession’ lightly.
I was legitimately devastated to learn that mermaids were not real.
It affected me far more than Santa Claus ever did.
To this day, I still gravitated toward anything to do with them.
My eyes still shining, I looked at my mother and tried to convey my gratitude. I couldn’t think of another time she had put that much thought into a gift for me, or at least not since my Barbie Dream House on my eighth Christmas. This gesture meant a lot.
“I love it. Honestly, it’s perfect.” I didn’t care that I was going to the gym; I was wearing it anyway.
“I thought you might,” she replied, her tone satisfied.
“Looks good, kiddo,” my dad added, getting up to refill his coffee.
I imagined he was just relieved my mother and I were getting along for the moment.
I clasped the necklace around my neck, scarfed down two pancakes that I’d ultimately regret while doing wall-sits later, and heard Livy honk her horn in my driveway.
Grabbing my bag, I practically skipped down the driveway and catapulted myself into Liv’s Wrangler. It was purely luck that Liv found dorm-living beneath her, citing that she could not, under any circumstances, deal with a closet that small. It meant that she could drive me to school most days.
Silver linings.
“Happy, happy birthday!” she sang, accosting me with a small gift bag overflowing with candy.
Her bright red hair was tied up into a massive bun on her head, and judging by her holey t-shirt and oversized shorts, she was unconcerned about what anyone thought, regardless of whom we might run into.
I envied her that, though I wouldn’t admit it .
Nineteen might not have looked how I originally planned, but today was going better than expected.
* * *
The conditioning circuit our new captain had given us was not even disguised as anything. It was torture. Not only was I required to move my limbs, most of which were in serious disagreement with this plan, but I had to do it on my own because Liv was starting at the opposite end of the gym.
I was, admittedly, half-assing my wall-sits because my legs were shaking within a minute. My eyes focused in on the motivational posters hung around the perimeter of the gym, but somehow I was not inspired to be better than I was yesterday. I was fine yesterday.
“I am getting far too much satisfaction from watching you squirm and struggle over here,” a low voice rumbled from my left. Immediately, I sucked in a breath and dropped myself a few inches lower into my stance. For absolutely no reason.
Zack Rhodes is not the czar of your workout. Get yourself together.
I had been far too eager the last time we met, and I told myself I was going to play it much differently when I saw him again. Defiantly, I met his gaze. Then some of my defiance quickly melted out of me because the way he was letting his eyes roam over my body was kind of dizzying.
“I’d like to see you do it better,” I said sweetly, grinning before I dropped out of my squat and reached up to stretch, alternating shaking out my legs.
“Sweetheart, I could do it better with you sitting on my lap.”
My gut reaction was to say, “prove it,” and make him do it. But I also just met my new captain, and I didn’t know if she would appreciate me taking a time-out to sit on the quarterback’s lap during our work out.
Unlikely.
“Sadly, I have to move on to my next rotation, but I’ll definitely give you the opportunity to be wrong another time.”
I could feel my smile widen even further when his eyebrows raised in response. It was the best choice I could have made, wearing my hot pink workout ensemble. I looked like Cheerleader Barbie, and I wasn’t going to let it go to waste.
“Interesting proposition. You’ll be at Vader’s tomorrow night, right?”
“I think so. You’ll save me a spot?”
“Of course, I—”
“Hey, Vanessa, you don’t get a free pass just because it’s your birthday,” Stephanie, my new captain—and maybe the most terrifying human being I knew in real life—said sternly before she turned her attention to Zack. “Rhodes. Your team doesn’t even have the gym today. Leave.”
“Take it down like seven notches, Steph. I’m here on my own, and I swear I’ll just lift weights in that corner over there, taking up as little space as possible,” he said smoothly, though his condescension was not missed by anyone.
“Oh, fuck off,” she replied, rolling her hazel eyes and almost smacking him in the face with her long brown ponytail when she whipped around to leave.
“She really likes me. We go way back,” Zack said quietly once she was gone.
“Well, she doesn’t really like me. Yet. So, I’m gonna go before I get in more trouble,” I whispered back.
He’d wandered much closer to me since his exchange with Stephanie, and I watched his eyes drop to my mouth as I bit my lip.
His presence was kind of overwhelming this close—he was just big , and I found myself holding my breath to find out what he would say or do next.
A part of me wanted him to throw me over his shoulder and haul me out of there, and the other part wanted to back up out of his air space.
He finally made that decision for me by shifting his position, and it felt like the reality of our surroundings came back into focus .
“Fine, fine. I’ll be over there,” he said, pointing to the far wall, “pretending I don’t exist. And apparently, I owe you a ‘happy birthday’ as well.”
“Sentiment accepted. And a happy workout to you.”
My eyes widened in surprise at the words I just let leave my mouth. I bounded over to the weights and tried to look invested in my instruction sheet to remind myself what exercises I was supposed to be doing.
‘A happy workout to you?!’ What the actual fuck, Vanessa? You were on a roll. Easy, breezy, even. And then that was your finale? Jesus Christ.
I was out of practice. That was the problem. I used to be able to flirt with anyone, anywhere, without saying stupid things. Not now, apparently.
Whatever. Just do your workout .
I grabbed the weights and started the required tricep curls.
With determination, I did not look at where Zack was across the weight room.
However, this meant that I saw Luke Miller waltzing in like he owned the place.
His face lit up with what I could only assume was glee at his chance to get bonus points for annoying me on my very own holiday.
“Conditioning on your birthday has to be some sort of karmic retribution, no? I’m dying to know what naughty things you did to deserve it.” He tossed his bag down and set up far too close to me to start on his free weights.
My eyes rolled so hard it was amazing I didn’t fall over.
Would it be too obvious to drop a weight on his foot?
He wouldn’t be able to play basketball…but their season didn’t start for months.
“I’m sure you are. And you’ll never be in a position to find out.”
He just chuckled and pulled off his long-sleeved shirt, revealing a tank top underneath, and it really was annoying how hot he was.
A delicious candy shell over an obnoxious, bitter filling.
I chanced a look over my shoulder and found Zack’s eyes already on me, his expression a whole lot less enthused than it had been earlier.
At least Luke was good for something.
“How’d you even know it was my birthday?”
“Oh, it’s on my calendar. Obviously.”
“Right. Or you saw Livy on your way in.”
I glanced around the room to find my traitorous friend, and sure enough, she was beaming at me from the Stairmaster.
“Are you collecting random athletes like Pokémon, Vanessa?” Stephanie said when she made her way back to me, exasperation now ringing loud and clear in her tone.
“You,” she said pointedly at Luke. “I don’t know you, but leave. You can go cower in the corner with Rhodes if you want, or you can wait until we’re done.”
“Yes ma’am,” Luke replied amicably, his grin never leaving his face.
Steph glared at him expectantly until he put back his weights and sauntered to the half-court to do whatever he came to do.
“Next station,” my captain grumbled, walking away.
A sigh escaped my chest, and I glanced down at my pretty new necklace. Unfortunately, I was feeling less like a mermaid and more like a fish out of water.