Chapter Thirty-One
Serenity
At the stadium perimeter, I exit onto the sidewalk, the two Danube security guards eyeballing me as I walk away.
I hug my bag close to my chest. Within seconds, I reach for my phone and try Jake’s number.
There’s no answer. He’s in the air and if Samantha Conway is correct, his phones have been impounded. He’s unreachable.
I tuck my hair behind my ears. My eyes are red and swollen; I can feel it. My entire face is puffy. On the inside, I feel numb.
I walk to the nearest bus stop. I try to hold everything in. Keep putting one foot in front of the other. Within moments of arrival, I hear a car approaching, its horn blaring out.
A large, white SUV shrieks to a halt. Harmony hollers at me from an open window, ‘Get in!’, and I look up in surprise. I spy Ashlyn in the back seat, her expression etched with both confusion and concern.
I do as I’m told and get in the car. Once the door is closed, Harmony swerves back into moving traffic, causing several cars behind to blast their horns at her.
‘What the hell happened?’ she demands as I buckle up.
My bottom lip quakes. ‘They fired me.’
Harmony punches the wheel. ‘Goddammit!’
I glance back at Ashlyn. ‘Will somebody please tell me what the fuck is going on?’ she says.
‘What did Kathleen say?’ I ask.
‘She walked into the locker room and announced that you would be taking some time out.’
‘Time out?’ I question. ‘Samatha Conway fired me. She said the words. I was escorted from the premises.’
‘I’ve called an emergency meeting,’ Harmony blurts from the driver’s seat, as we lurch into another lane. ‘We’re assembling at my place. What did she have on you?’
‘Everything. Said she’d received two anonymous emails, first thing this morning.’
‘You mean with best regards from your own son.’
‘They found Persia’s uniform. In my bag.’
‘Shit,’ Harmony says. ‘That asshole!’
‘Can you slow down a little?!’ Ashlyn squeals from the back seat when Harmony almost takes out a convertible. ‘I’d like to make it to your apartment alive so I can make sense of what just went down back there.’
‘Everybody, find a seat. Grab a space where you can. Get in here.’
The entire squad has gathered at Harmony’s apartment.
It’s a crush. The girls squeeze in, perching on the arms of the couch and huddling on the floor.
I look around at expectant faces. I can’t believe they’re all here.
For me. I know some of them have jobs to go to.
It seems Kathleen didn’t provide an explanation for my being escorted from the stadium, and nobody wants to ask, but all eyes are on me all the same.
Shame still washes over me in waves when I think about my meeting with Samantha Conway. It doesn’t matter to me that she knows. It was only a matter of time. But it matters to me that I’ve let all the girls in this room down. I draw my knees up to my chest and hug them.
Once everybody is settled, Harmony stands before us.
‘I’m not gonna sugarcoat this, alright? Serenity’s been fired. By Samantha Conway.’
There are gasps from every corner of the room. Whispers. Hands fly to mouths. I look at Jewel. She’s the only one who doesn’t look outraged. She just stares at me.
Slowly, I get to my feet.
‘You’re sure?’ Harmony asks me.
I nod my head. My eyes are still swollen. I knot my fingers and take a breath.
And so, like two nights ago in front of the Briars and Harmony, I begin my tale again, about the double life I’ve been leading.
When I’m almost done, I look around the room. A silence has descended. A few mouths have fallen open. Jewel has crossed her arms over her chest and is looking at the floor. The sight makes my heart ache.
‘Before anyone says anything…’ I continue, and the feeling is akin to something heavy pressing hard against my chest, ‘that’s not all. I need to tell you that—’ Tears well over. I swallow them down. ‘I broke the terms of our contract. I know I did. And I didn’t just do it once.’
I look at Harmony, perhaps because I need encouragement to say the words out loud. She looks sad, but she gives me a nod. I take another shaky breath and exhale.
‘Samantha Conway also fired me because she found out about the relationship I was having. With Jake Walsh.’
I look at Jewel when I say the words, because I want her to know that I wish I’d taken the opportunity to tell her first. I’m expecting hostility. Instead, I get a hint of excitement.
‘Hold up a sec,’ Angel blurts, raising her hand. ‘You were in a relationship with Jake Walsh?’
‘Am,’ I whisper. ‘I am in a relationship with Jake Walsh.’
This time, there is a collective sucking in of breath. I look at Jewel, my face the picture of a thousand apologies. Her eyes widen to saucers, and she jumps out of her seat.
‘Are you SERIOUS?’ she shrieks. ‘That’s what you’ve been hiding this whole time?’
‘Uh-huh,’ I nod. ‘I’m so sorry.’
For a moment, she’s speechless. ‘Sorry?’ she repeats. ‘What are you sorry for?’
‘I know how much you like him.’
Jewel screws up her face. ‘In a like… he’s a stud, from far away, you know? I’ve barely said two words to him. I mean, he’s cute, I’m jealous as hell, but… why didn’t you tell me?’
‘I didn’t tell anyone ’til Thursday night.’
Jewel launches herself at me and gives me the biggest bear hug, practically lifting me off the ground. ‘I’m so happy for you,’ she whispers, and relief floods my veins.
‘I was so scared to tell you. And, anyway, it’s lost me my job.’
‘Is that why Samantha Conway fired you?’ Ashlyn asks.
I pull back from Jewel and nod again. ‘For both those reasons.’
‘Hold up,’ Harmony says, getting to her feet. ‘Serenity’s not finished. Y’all need to hear everything.’
I offer her a pleading look.
Jewel is aghast. ‘There’s more?’
‘Serenity was being blackmailed. By Brody Conway,’ Harmony states.
It takes me a few more minutes to bring everybody up to speed, all the way up to Dalton Briar accompanying me to Brody’s apartment last night. Jewel remains with me and holds my hand as she listens.
‘That’s how I got Persia’s uniform back. He wanted me to wear it, but I took it, put it in my bag and brought it with me to the Danube this morning. It was still there when Kathleen brought it to the office when Ms Conway fired me. So, it now looks like I’m a thief too.’
‘But you said Brody didn’t know about you and Jake,’ Tori says.
‘He didn’t. But I kissed him in the basement parking lot. The whole thing must have been captured on CCTV. Brody had all the evidence he needed.’
‘And you think he’s fed the whole thing to his mother anonymously?’ Shawny comments. ‘What a rotten creep.’
Jewel hugs me again.
‘Does Jake know you’ve been fired?’ Imara asks.
‘Sam Conway ordered me not to contact him. Said she’d already told Coach Holland to take away all the players’ phones before the game.’
‘The game is tomorrow night!’ Angel exclaims. ‘What are they, twelve? That’s ridiculous.’
‘Surely we can get a message to somebody,’ Lacey echoes.
The room erupts again. Harmony shushes everyone.
‘I’ll send a message to Ally Briar. She’s gone to Tennessee.
But, right now, there is nothing the men can do,’ she says.
‘This is up to us. When Persia got fired, I let it happen. I didn’t push back.
All she did was go to one party. Her actions didn’t warrant her losing her job.
The same for Mona. She was going through a rough time, and nobody had her back. I blame myself.’
Almost the entire room objects to her statement.
‘Plus, I’m sure that Serenity is not the only one to have harboured a few secrets in this squad,’ she says.
A second silence descends.
‘I include myself in that group,’ Harmony adds quietly.
‘Please tell me you finally slept with Hud Briar,’ Angel voices out loud.
There is laughter. ‘I may have had some very good, very hot sex with Hud Briar, all night on Thursday and most of yesterday afternoon, yes.’
The room erupts once more and this time I giggle, because finally it’s not me we’re talking about.
‘And do you regret not doing so earlier?’ Ashlyn says with a salacious grin.
Harmony bites her lip. ‘Let’s just say it was worth the wait. And then some.’
Everybody squeals. A few of the girls punch the air. A weight lifts from my shoulders.
‘Anybody else sleeping with a football player?’ Jewel laughs. I give her a look of apology, but she squeezes my shoulders.
‘I might have something,’ Angel says. ‘I mean, if we’re sharing.’
The room quietens. All eyes go to Angel, mostly in surprise at where she might go with this, except she’s glancing at Shawny. Shawny flushes an uncharacteristic shade of pink, and there’s something in their shared look.
‘By that I mean, we,’ Angel adds.
Shawny smiles knowingly at Angel. Angel blows her a kiss and I gasp.
‘I mean, the contract says we can’t fraternize with the players, right?’ Shawny says with a shrug. ‘There’s nothing about us not fooling around with each other.’
It’s the first time I’ve seen her embarrassed about anything. Once the room has gotten over the latest revelation, Solana shrieks, ‘Oh my god, are you guys actually a couple?’
Shawny rolls her eyes. ‘I mean… we’re practically living together.’
‘You see, this is exactly what I mean,’ Harmony says, before anyone else can ask questions, and she’s back on her feet, next to me and Jewel.
‘We are a sisterhood. We stand up for one another. We have one another’s backs.
And hey, some of us more than others. But we didn’t stand up for Persia.
Or Mona. And I’ll be damned if we’re gonna sit on our asses this time around and watch Serenity lose her place on this squad.
I say we take a stand. We show Samantha Conway and Kathleen we mean business.
That we don’t get paid so little to get treated like infants or stand accused of things we categorically did not do.
’ She points to each face in turn, looking hopefully up at her.
‘You come after one of us, you come after all of us. Now, who is with me?’
Almost every female in the room raises her hand. Everyone except Ashlyn.
Ashlyn says, ‘Harm. I love you. You know I do. We joined as rookies together. But… and I know I keep saying this, but you know what we signed up for.’
‘What do you stand for Ash?’ Harmony fires back.
‘Are we not in this together? Are we just window-dressing… here to make everybody else look good, for no money I might add, while our medial hamstrings are slowly shot to hell? What are we, if we’re not a team?
Are we just gonna stand here and watch our own backs? ’
Ashlyn watches Harmony for a moment, as though digesting her words. She swallows. Slowly, she nods her head. ‘Alright, I’m in. So… what is the plan exactly?’
‘I got an idea,’ Jewel says as her hand shoots into the air.