33. Violet
VIOLET
Friday night, The Hideout is packed with Valley students on the bar side. It’s standing room only, but we got here early to snag a table with the best view of the TV.
I was on the edge of my seat at tip-off, but our team took an early lead, and Oregon hasn’t been able to recover. Most people have stopped paying attention, but I’m still staring at the screen, eager for every glimpse of Gavin.
Jane snuck in a bottle of Malibu, and she and Dahlia keep disappearing to the bathroom to steal drinks from it, which means my friends are well on their way to being good and drunk. Or at least Dahlia is.
She comes back to the table, blue eyes lit with excitement.
“You look happy,” I muse as she takes the seat next to me.
“I am.” Her smile dims. “I’m sorry that my win is a loss for you.”
“Hey, no. Don’t think of it like that. We’re on the same team. When you win, I win.” I pause. “I’m not a sporty person, does that metaphor work?”
She nods. “Yeah, that was perfect. Maybe the sporty boyfriend is rubbing off on you.” She bumps my shoulder with hers.
“Maybe it’s my sporty roommate.”
She wraps her arms around my shoulders from the side and squeezes gently. “Thank you. Seriously. You’re amazing and I’m so thankful we found each other. You make me a better designer and push me to go out of my comfort zone. I never would have won this without you.”
“Right back at you. I’m thankful for you too. I’ve learned so much from you. We’re going to rule the fashion world someday.”
“Definitely.” She beams and sits back in her chair. “I feel invincible. I want to climb on the bar and dance or ask out the hottest guy in here.” She pauses and looks at me. “Please don’t let me. I know I’m drunk, but gosh, I just feel so good. I wish this feeling would last forever.”
“Why can’t it? You’re generally fabulous.”
“Well, for starters, I can’t dance. And you know how I get in front of cute guys. My brain stops working.”
“Then we should take advantage of this rare opportunity.” I scan the bar area, looking for a potential target. Mr. Blue Steele is at the bar with guys that I assume are football players by their massive shoulders.
I stand and pull her with me.
“Okay. I wasn’t being serious. Please don’t make me get up on the bar. I’ll be a viral video by the time I sober up.” Nerves creep into her voice.
“No dancing on the bar. I want to introduce you to someone.”
When we get to the bar, I squeeze in sideways between Felix and the person next to him.
“Excuse us,” I say, and lean an elbow on the bar.
Felix glances over and then a slow smile tips up the corners of his lips. “Hey. Violet, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Your boy is looking good tonight.” He motions with his head toward the TV behind the bar.
“He always looks good.” I get distracted from my mission for a second as the camera pans to him. He jogs down the court, dribbling the ball between defenders.
Dahlia squeezes my hand. Right. Dahlia.
“Felix, this is my friend, Dahlia. She is on the Valley golf team and is an incredible fashion designer. Penelope Hart just selected one of her designs to wear on tour this summer.”
“Is that right?” He shifts to give us more of his attention and aims a panty-melting smile right at my friend.
Dahlia opens her mouth, but no words come out, just a tiny squeak.
Oh no. This was a terrible plan. His smile even throws me a little off balance.
I lean into her for reassurance.
She still stares frozen at Felix’s handsome face.
“Well, congrats.” He lifts his beer toward her. “Can I buy you a drink?”
She shakes her head, sending the blonde strands around her shoulders
“Another time,” I answer for her. “We’re with some friends.”
“Okay. Good to see you. When you talk to Leonard, tell him good game for me.”
“I will.”
His blue eyes slide over to Dahlia once more. “Nice to meet you.”
I tug a still frozen Dahlia with me, and we slip back into the crowd of people.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
She starts laughing. So hard that she bends over and fights to catch her breath. I’m glad she’s laughing instead of crying. Pretty sure that’s the alcohol though. Like a good friend, I promise to retell the events of tonight with a much kinder lens than how it actually went down.
“Yeah, that was a good dose of reality.”
“It was?”
Nodding, she smiles. “Even drunk and on top of the world, I could never talk to someone like him. Wow. I mean, wow.” Her eyes widen.
“Come on. The game is almost over. Let’s find the girls.”
“Tonight was the best.”
“It’s not over yet.” I link my arm through hers.
“It isn’t?”
“No way. Sigma is having after hours. We’re going dancing.”
Valley wins the game by fifteen points. We hang out after long enough to see the after-game interviews. Gavin isn’t among them, but they flash his roster photo on the screen as one of the top performers of the game tonight and do the usual spiel about his parents.
At the frat house, Dahlia and Jane head to the dance floor; Daisy and Jordan are outside sitting with some of his teammates, and I’m clutching my phone in one hand and waiting for Gavin to reply to my congratulatory texts.
“You again,” Felix says as I nearly collide with him when I step out of the front door, where it’s quieter.
“Hey.”
“Lose your friend?”
“She’s dancing inside. Sorry about earlier. She’s shy.”
“I get that.”
I tilt my head and narrow my gaze. “You’re shy?”
“No.” He chuckles and runs a hand over his jaw. “But I have a sister that is.”
“Oh.” I glance down at the screen of my phone again.
“Are you going to the game Sunday?”
“In Texas?”
“Yeah, a bunch of the guys and I are driving.”
“I don’t know. I hadn’t thought about it.”
“I figured Gavin was begging you to come cheer him on.”
“He’s pretty focused on the games,” I say, but a prick of embarrassment makes my face heat. My phone vibrates in my hand. “That’s him.”
“Later, Violet.” He passes me and heads into the house.
Bringing the phone out in front of my face, I answer to an exhausted-looking Gavin. “Hey. Congrats.”
“Thank you.” He adjusts the hat on his head to give me a better view of his face. He looks like he’s seconds from passing out. “Where are you?”
“Sigma. Jane and Dahlia are inside tearing up the dance floor.”
“I’m shocked you aren’t with them.”
“Oh, I will be. I just wanted a quiet spot to talk to you first.” I smile bigger. “You’re going to the Elite Eight!”
“Yeah. I don’t think it’s sunk in yet. Too exhausted.”
“I bet.”
He leans back against the headboard of his hotel bed. “Noah’s already crashed.” He angles his phone to show me his sleeping roommate on the bed next to him.
“I assumed you’d be celebrating.”
“Not yet. We celebrate when it’s over. Coach has us on a strict schedule every night.”
“What will you do tomorrow?”
“Practice in the morning after breakfast. We have the day to catch up on homework and turn in any assignments due, some of the guys are doing interviews and press, then we’ll watch the other teams play, so we’re ready for whoever comes next.”
“Interviews, huh?”
“Not me. I bailed out of those.”
“Why?”
“They wanted to do some Leonard legacy piece.” His tone is bitter and his features harden. It lasts only a few seconds before a little of his carefree demeanor returns. “I have a ton of homework anyway. It would really suck to retake Spanish next year.”
“Are your parents there at the games?”
“My mom is in St. Louis.”
“Oh right. They’re still playing too. That’s really cool that both of your teams are still in it.”
“The coolest,” he says.
He doesn’t mention his dad.
“Hey, I ran into Felix tonight. He wanted me to tell you good game.”
“Oh no, did Blue Steele win you over with his charm and good looks?”
“No.” I laugh. “But he did mention that he and some of the guys are going to the game on Sunday.”
Gavin nods.
“He asked if I was going.”
“I knew it. He’s hitting on my woman. Do not get in the vehicle with him, Violet. Promise me.” He smiles, so I know he’s joking.
“Do you want me to come?” It honestly never occurred to me that people would be traveling. I don’t even know if there are still tickets, or how to get them. I’m basically clueless about all of it.
“Nah. Don’t worry about it.”
“I want to worry about it if it’s important to you.”
“It’s just basketball.” His expression is so blasé that I don’t know what to make of it.
“Baby steps for you, Vi. You just watched your first game on TV. Two hundred thousand fans cheering on all of us stupid jocks might scare you off for good. We’re the worst, right?
” A little of that bitter tone seeps back into his voice.
Throwing my words back at me hurts more than expected. I said it. I might have even meant it at the time, but things have changed. I’m not an idiot, I know basketball is important to him, regardless of what he says.
He yawns and sinks lower onto the bed. His eyes close. “I better go before I fall asleep on the phone.”
I feel like crying or yelling and I’m not sure why, but I force my tone to remain even. “Congrats again. Get some rest and I’ll talk to you later.”
“Night, Vi.” He hangs up before I can respond.
“Night,” I say to myself.
I stand in the front yard of Sigma, replaying the conversation in my head. Eventually, I head back inside. Dahlia and Jane have retired from the dance floor and sit on a worn couch pushed back against the wall near the bathroom.
“Hey!” Jane lifts her arms to greet me.
I fall into the spot next to her.
“What’s wrong?” she asks.
Dahlia sits forward with a concerned expression marring her pretty features.
I tell them about the phone call with Gavin, trying to repeat it word for word, so I can get their take on it.
“He probably didn’t want you to worry about getting there,” Jane reassures me.
“I don’t know. It felt weird, like he didn’t want me there.”
“I think he just thought you wouldn’t want to come,” Dahlia says.
“Do you want to go?” Jane asks.
“Yeah. I do. He acts like it doesn’t matter because he isn’t going pro, but I know it’s a big deal for him, and I want to be there to show him how much I support him.”
“Then let’s go,” Jane says.
“He just told me not to.” I can’t decide if him telling me not to come is him trying to be considerate or if he’s holding on to some resentment for the things I said when we were fighting. He has to know that I don’t really hate all jocks, right?
“I think I screwed up,” I admit to my friends. “All my grumbling about jocks.”
“You were hurt,” Jane says. “People say things they don’t mean when they’re hurt.”
“That doesn’t make it okay.” I like him so much. All of him. And I want to be there to support him and this thing he loves doing. We’ll never make this work if we’re both holding on to things the other said or did in the past. And I think I just realized how much I want this to work.
“Dahlia, back me up,” Jane says. “We should go to the game, right?”
“I love it when my family and friends are standing on the sidelines during a match.”
“See?” Jane smiles proudly.
“But,” Dahlia continues, “every player is different. There’s a girl on my team who gets really nervous when her boyfriend comes to watch her play.”
I tuck my phone into my purse. “It was a dumb idea anyway. Getting a flight or hotel is probably hard this late, plus tickets.”
Jane stares down at her phone, thumbs flying over the screen. “Hotel prices are outrageous, but there’s still availability.”
“I don’t think I should go. Wouldn’t he be more pissed if I show up after he basically told me not to come?”
“No,” Dahlia and Jane answer at the same time.
“I’ll come with you,” Jane adds. “It’ll be fun.”
I shake my head. “Thank you, but no. I’ll watch the game here with you guys. Maybe we should have a little dress-up party at our place and watch the game.”
“A red carpet would really improve basketball.” Jane smiles. “I’m in.”
“Are you sure?” Dahlia looks disappointed with my decision.
I fake a smile for their benefit. “Positive.”