21. Eliana
TWENTY-ONE
“What doyou think they’re talking about?” Maliah whispers.
Her, Kairi, and I are in my room spying on Griffin and Colton from the window. They’re both talking animatedly, and I can tell from their body language it’s a mostly positive conversation.
“Boy things, probably,” Kairi sighs, walking away from the window and throwing herself onto my bed, staring up at the ceiling.
Maliah and I share a glance before we walk over to her and take a seat on either side. She folds her arms over her stomach and sighs deeply.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
She sighs again. “Nothing that I want to talk about right now. Tell us about your sex-filled night with Fin.”
Maliah’s eyes jump to mine, a huge grin spreading across her face as she claps her fingertips together excitedly. I laugh as I feel my cheeks grow warm.
“We didn’t have sex,” I say, flopping on my back next to Kairi.
She snorts and turns her head to look at me. “Yeah, okay.”
“I swear.”
“There’s no way you spent the night with him, and nothing happened between you two.” Maliah pouts.
I pause. “I said we didn’t have sex, not that nothing happened between us.”
They both squeal and Kairi sits up, grabbing one of my accent pillows and hugging it to her chest. I roll my eyes and sit up as well, facing them both as they stare at me expectantly like a child in a candy store.
“Spill the details,” Maliah presses.
I sigh. “We may have done other stuff.”
“There is not a single detail in what you just said,” Maliah says flatly.
I hear a cough from the hallway and the hairs on my arm stand.
“Maybe we should plan a girls’ night out and talk there,” I whisper.
They both nod in agreement before Maliah slowly stands up and tiptoes to my door, swinging it open. Zale, who was pressed against the door falls right in, cheek slamming against the wooden floor.
“Fucking hell,” he groans, grabbing his head with both hands and rocking side to side in agony.
Watching him suffer through this hangover is giving me flashbacks to my own hangover in Hawaii. I was certain I was going to die, and I swore off tequila from that day. Poor guy.
“You would think someone with a hangover as bad as yours wouldn’t be up doing stupid shit,” Maliah chastises him, returning to her spot on my bed.
“Fuck off, Mal,” he groans, “I came to show you guys this.”
He waves a rolled-up newspaper in the air, and I lean over taking it from him and opening it up. It’s a copy of today’s local newspaper, The Coastal Times. The front page is a picture of Colton, with his bleeding forehead, being escorted away from Griffin by Kairi. The headline reads “Coastal Conflict: Ex-team member’s Griffin Jones and Colton Harrison fight it out at secret beach bonfire bash.”
I read the article, tuning out the others’ talking and by the end I feel stressed and disgusted. The journalist that wrote the article focused more on painting Griffin in a bad light, claiming he attacked Colton and beat him until he was bloody and unconscious, all because he left the team. It also hinted at a girl coming between the two, but it never mentions a name. I flip the newspaper back to the front and search the paper until I find what I’m looking for. The journalist who wrote the article is Meghan Martinez.
“I knew she had bad intentions from the moment Griffin introduced her to us.” Maliah jabs a finger at Meghan’s name.
“She was always asking so many questions and would get so jealous whenever he wanted to spend time with us instead of her,” Kairi adds, sadly.
“She had a really nice ass, though.”
All three of us swing our heads toward Zale who is still laying on the floor, head in hands. He slowly lifts his head and glances around, his eyes widening in fear.
“But that was the only good thing about her,” he adds. “Your ass is better, Eli?—“
“You can stop talking now,” Maliah cuts in.
“Stopping right now,” he rolls onto his stomach and slowly stands, clutching his head, “I’m going to call it a day and go back to bed.”
“It’s nine in the morning,” I say.
“See you tomorrow.” He waves over his shoulder as he exits my room and walks down the hall to his.
I look back down at the article. This is a mess, and it’s not going to go over well with the teams’ fans and sponsors. I need to kill this story before it gets any bigger.
“Coach is going to blow the roof off this house when he gets back and sees this,” Kairi mumbles into the pillow she’s hugging.
“Knowing his connections, he probably already saw it,” Mal mutters.
I stand up and rush to my desk where my camera is charging, an idea forming as I run down the stairs and burst out the back door. I spot Griffin and Colton still sitting side by side, their laughter carried over by the wind.
“Hey, mind if I take a picture of you two?” I ask as I jog up to them.
They both look over their shoulders at me then back at each other before nodding. “Go ahead,” Colton says.
“Perfect,” I walk around to face them both, raising my camera and aiming, “pose and smile, please.”
They both hold up their hands, thumb and pinky extended outwards as the rest of their fingers curl inward, and smile at each other as I quickly snap the photo.
“Why the random photo?” Griffin asks.
I take the newspaper out from under my arm and pass it to him. Colton leans over and they read it together, both of their smiles slipping from their face replaced with anger.
“I think posting a photo of you two is the perfect way to kill this story before it gains any traction,” I say.
“This should be illegal,” Colton smacks his palm against the sand in frustration.
“I think it is,” Griffin says.
“We should call Gabriel,” I suggest.
“Absolutely not,” Griffin stands up and dusts the sand from his pants.
“He’ll literally fly back and kill us all,” Colton says.
“I’m calling him.”
They both groan. “Fine but put him on speaker.”
I pull my phone from my back pocket and find Gabriel in my contact list. Both Griffin and Colton look worried which only adds to my own worry, but I push past it and hit the call button. He answers after the first ring.
“Eliana, please tell me those two idiots didn’t fight,” he says as soon as he answers.
I give them both apologetic smiles and then fill Gabriel in on what actually happened.
“So, you’re telling me that Colton drowned because he got hit in the head with a piece of driftwood and Griffin saved him by performing CPR?”
“Yes, exactly.”
“Eliana, I don’t know you well enough to know if you’re lying or not, but that sounds less believable than them fighting it out.”
“She’s telling the truth, Coach,” Colton says, finally speaking up, “I would have drowned if it wasn’t for Fin.”
Silence, followed by Gabriel clearing his throat.
“Harrison, please tell me you guys aren’t at The Shredder House right now.”
We all exchange worried glances.
“I let him stay in my room for the night since he was hurt,” Griffin says.
“You know better than to bring someone from another team into our house where all of our training and tactic notes are kept,” Gabriel raises his voice, “especially someone who knows where we keep those notes because he used to be on the god damn team!”
We both wince when he screams the last three words into the phone.
“Coach, I want to come back.”
My jaw drops as I look up at Colton. He’s staring down at my phone, brows furrowed but from the way he chews on his lip and picks at his fingernail, I can tell he’s nervous.
“What did you just say?” Gabriel asks, tone disbelieving.
“I said I want to come back,” Colton repeats, “leaving was a mistake.”
I hold my breath, unsure if this will make things worse with Gabriel or better. After what feels like an eternity, he finally speaks.
“Eliana, do you have any content you can use to distract our followers from this story for now?”
“I have a picture of the two of them smiling together. I was planning on posting that today to squash the story.”
“Alright, post that and caption it as a way to announce Colton’s return to the team,” my head snaps up to look at Colton and Griffin, all of us grinning, “as a substitute member.” Gabriel adds.
The grin fades from Colton’s face as well as Griffin’s.
“Gabriel, come on?—”
“No, Fin, he needs to prove to all of us that he’s serious about coming back. Being on our team is more than just being able to compete, it”s also about committing to the family we”ve built together.”
Colton stares down at the sand, frowning, before he sighs and gives a small nod. “Okay, Coach, I’m okay with that and I understand.”
“Good,” Gabriel says. “Move back in today. I’m not taking any chances with you staying around the Rip Raiders.”
“But we don’t have a room for him.” Griffin says.
“You two can share a room like the good old days.” Gabriel hangs up before anyone can protest, leaving the three of us to stare at my black phone screen.