Chapter 3 #2
She was leaning back on the bar with both elbows on the polished wood, smiling, then she turned to face the woman next to her.
It took Jess a second to realize that the woman was Yellow, in aquamarine this time.
Vivienne said something. Yellow laughed and scooted closer—so close their chests were touching.
The tension between them was palpable from Jess’s table.
She could almost taste it, feel the heated air between them.
… Then Vivienne closed the gap between them and kissed Yellow.
It was soft, lips gentle, short and sweet, then they leaned apart and smiled at each other.
Yellow pushed a piece of Vivienne’s hair behind her ear, hooked a finger into her jean shorts, and pulled her closer for another kiss.
This one was not short. Flashes of Vivienne’s pink tongue were visible as the kiss deepened.
“Night’s going well for Viv,” Tania’s voice interrupted.
Jess jolted, mortified to realize she had been staring. “I guess,” she muttered.
“I didn’t know she was queer.”
Jess took a swig of her beer. “Me neither. Not that I care.”
Tania paused, like she was considering saying something. “Why do you hate her so much?” she asked after a beat.
Jess shrugged. “She’s too perfect, and she knows it. She’s so smug. She actually…” Jess frowned as another thought came to her.… One she had pushed away many times before.
“She actually what?”
Jess fiddled with her bottle, unsure if she wanted to finish that sentence out loud. But it was Tania, and she’d had a few. “She reminds me of my first girlfriend.”
“Oh?” Tania raised an eyebrow and waved at April for another round. “Do tell.”
So Jess told her. “In high school I was basically confused and closeted, but the first time I saw Phoenix in the USC gym … I just knew. I knew that I loved her.”
“Aw.” Tania rested her chin on her hand.
“Yeah, well…” Jess smiled through the tears prickling the backs of her eyes. “She was already on the team, a junior, and we did everything together—practiced, trained, studied.… She used to braid my hair while I quizzed her on organic compounds.”
April dropped off their next round. Tania didn’t move. “And?”
“And it was all so good. Phoenix was a starter and I rode the bench my first year, but I was so happy to cheer her on. I honestly couldn’t believe someone as cool and confident as her even noticed I existed. It was a dream.”
Tania reached for her beer and slid Jess’s over, too. “But?”
“Yeah. But.” Jess drained her first bottle and picked up the next one.
“But Phoenix graduated at the end of my sophomore year. We had talked about getting an apartment together while she tried out for the VL and looked for a job and stuff … And then … on the last day of classes she told me … she had found a dream job and was moving to Florida where her grandparents lived. And … it was over between us.”
“Oh my God.”
“I remember standing on the sidewalk outside her residence. She kissed my forehead and told me she’d always remember me.” That was the last time Jess ever saw her.
Tania clutched her heart. “Jesus, Jess. I’m sorry. That’s so brutal.”
Jess cleared her lungs, then sucked in a fresh breath. “Yup.” She took a long pull from her bottle.
“I mean, damn.”
Jess shrugged. “She was my first everything. First kiss, first girlfriend … first heartbreak.”
“And Vivienne reminds you of her?”
Jess blinked. Right. She had forgotten they’d been talking about her. “Yeah. Dark hair, beautiful, but it’s more the confidence, the smoothness, like life has always been easy for them.”
Tania quirked an eyebrow. “How do you know things have been easy for Vivienne?”
Jess swiveled her head to take in the escalating make-out session by the bar. Yellow had a leg between Vivienne’s. “Have you ever seen anything be difficult for her?”
They lost to the team from North Bay on Wednesday.
It had started off well. Despite the butterflies in Jess’s stomach, they came out strong.
The other team was indeed “huge,” both of them taller than Jess, and while that was an advantage for them at the net, it was more of a liability when it came to moving around the rest of the court.
Jess and Tania’s carefully placed roll shots—deep corners, or sharp and short crosscourt—had been effective …
until the other team adjusted their game plan in response.
They started to dig everything up, and that, plus the wall they put up at the net.
… Errors crept in on Jess’s side. They lost the first game 19–21.
So close but, as her clenched stomach reminded her, close didn’t matter.
If we lose this, Jess thought to herself while waiting to pass a serve early in the second set, that makes four in a row going into our next match.
She shanked the ball into the crowd. She shook her head and tried to refocus.
I cannot face Vivienne and Lee on a four-game losing streak. She shanked the next one the other way.
They lost in two straight sets.
“Fuck!” Jess chucked her towel at the bench in the locker room, then sat and yanked her hair tie out. “At this rate, we won’t even make playoffs.”
Tania sat next to her and wiped her forehead. “Jess, it’s early still. It’s only May.”
“Almost June, which is practically July, and then before you know it, it’s October. Besides, what teams do you know who make playoffs that have a win percentage anywhere near as bad as ours?” She sighed and rubbed her scalp. “What are we doing wrong?”
“I don’t think we’re doing anything wrong. Sometimes things don’t go your way and you just have to keep going.”
“Mm-hmm. Maybe we need to ramp up our workouts.”
“Sure, Jess.” Tania sounded very tired all of a sudden. “We can do that.”
“Let’s hit the gym hard and talk strategy. Do you have some time now?”
“Yeah, sure. Now’s fine.”
“Great. I am not losing to Vivienne and Lee on Saturday.”
They worked hard that week. Strength training Thursday, cardio Friday, some yoga Saturday morning before the game.
Jess made sure to hit her protein target and get lots of sleep.
Well, she tried to get lots. She had some trouble falling asleep, so she read the next chapter of Queen in Shining Armor.
Queen Andromeda had a chance to kill the enemy queen, but instead she helped her escape from the battle.
Late night romantasy adventures aside, when Jess arrived at the pavilion on Saturday, she felt ready.
Jess and Tania typically showed up well ahead of their start time, but this time Jess got there even earlier because she wanted to be sure she didn’t run into Vivienne in the locker room.
Uniform in place, hair tied back tightly, her lucky stud earrings in—sparkling suns that her parents gave her before she left Vancouver—she was ready to hit the court for warm-up.
But on her way out of the locker room, she ran into Vivienne. Almost literally—Jess just about threw out her back wrenching to a halt before she crashed into the person hurrying around the corner on their way in. She got a whiff of vanilla before Vivienne drew away, scowling.
“Sorry,” Jess forced herself to mumble.
“It’s fine.” Vivienne’s hair was already pulled back in a perfect pony. Her eyes traveled up and down Jess’s body so quickly Jess almost missed it. “Good luck today.” Her lips quirked in a smirk.
Jess rolled her eyes. She didn’t want luck from Vivienne Morris. She flounced past her without a word, brushing Vivienne’s shoulder with her arm on the way.
She could have sworn she heard Vivienne chuckle under her breath.
Jess clenched her teeth. Vivienne Morris is going down.