Chapter 7
CHAPTER
SEVEN
WREN
Wren was livid, but she shouldn’t have snapped at Rebecca like that.
She leaned back against the door to the women’s restroom and took a deep breath.
She owed Rebecca an apology. Sure, Rebecca might owe her one too, and the truth of their…
situation from six years ago was genuinely ridiculous, but still, Wren shouldn’t have snapped.
Her phone was still ringing in her hand. She counted backwards from one-hundred by four. When she hit zero, she answered the phone.
“Hey, Barbs,” she said, trying to force a smile.
“Hey, Bird,” Barbara replied. There was a long uncomfortable pause. It’s not like they never spoke on the phone. It’s just that they didn’t speak on the phone often and usually when they did, it was because one of them was going through something major. “You okay?” Barbara asked finally.
Wren twitched. Of course she had seen it.
That was exactly why she was so mad about Andy’s post in the first place: because people who had no business seeing that much of her, had now seen that much of her.
It wasn’t even for something cool like the Sports Illustrated Body Edition.
It was just a thoughtless post. She let out a long, heavy sigh. “I’m sorry you saw that, Barbs.”
Barbara let out a laugh. “Me, too. Your dad is even more sorry though.”
“Fuck,” Wren covered her face with her free hand. “Sorry, Barbs. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Fuck. Now we’re even.”
That got a startled laugh out of Wren. She rarely heard Barbara swear and when she did, it was always some silly combination of words like bitch-tits or shit-nuggets. “Thank you for calling me.”
“Well, yeah. That’s what sisters are for. Even sisters you get late.”
Wren felt tears well up in her emerald eyes. “Thanks, Barbs. That really means a lot.”
“Don’t get all soft on me, Bird.”
Wren chuckled. “I won’t, but I do love you.”
“I love you, too. One more week for training camp, yeah?” Barbara asked, successfully changing the subject.
“Yep. One more week. How’s school going?” Wren asked. She had tucked herself in a corner away from the women’s bathroom and far enough away from the team where she could still see them, but she couldn’t hear them and there was no way they could hear her.
“School’s going okay. Your life is way more interesting, though. How’s the roommate?”
Wren groaned. “I take it dad told you?”
“Yeah. Have you hit her yet?” Wren could hear the excitement in Barbara’s voice at the question. Barbara had been at one of Wren’s college games where LAU played against NCU, and it had been particularly violent. Wren still had a scar on her ankle, just below her shin guard line from a dirty slide.
“No, I haven’t hit her yet. I do think I just bitch-slapped her with my words though.” Wren flinched again.
Barbara just sounded excited. “Oh, tell me! What did you say?”
“I actually think I need to apologize. She had followed after me to check on me.”
“Wait. Like she cared? About your feelings? After your stupid attention-seeking girlfriend posted your thirst traps without your permission, the Joker to your Batman came to see if you were okay?”
“Wow, harsh words on Andy.”
“Andy is on my shit-list. I didn’t need to see that last photo of you.”
Wren snorted out a laugh. “Totally fair. She’s on my shit-list, too.”
There was a long pause on the phone. Wren almost asked if Barbara was still there. “Did she apologize?” Her stepsister asked the question so softly like she had been the one to have been betrayed.
Wren’s heart lurched in her chest. Andy hadn’t apologized.
The opposite really. She had gotten defensive and upset that Wren would be anything other than ecstatic.
Wren had never minded that Andy wasn’t out publicly.
She was a firm believer that people’s sexualities were their own business, and Andy’s career was one where appealing to men and women alike was important.
Sure there were queer female models, but most of them were fairly established before coming out.
The feeling Wren had been trying to squash threatened to break free.
Andy had only gone public because Wren was all over the news right now.
Headlines were everywhere about her feud with Rebecca.
Now that they were playing on the international level, their names and faces were everywhere.
She felt used. Andy coming out and sharing their love should feel like a celebration.
Wren shouldn’t be wondering if Andy only did it like she did because Wren was currently a buzzworthy name.
“Wren?” Barbara asked. Her voice was small. It reminded Wren of when they first met all those years ago.
“Yeah, Barbs?”
“She didn’t apologize, did she?” Barbara sounded incredibly disappointed.
“No, Barbara, she didn’t.”
“Did Becky?”
Wren thought about Rebecca’s behavior over the past week, about how she had wanted to talk, even suggesting that they start over.
Wren also thought about all the ways that Rebecca had always misread her and her intentions.
Wren couldn’t remember exactly how her Facebook profile looked from when she was sixteen, but she knew without a doubt that 99% of her posts included Molly.
That was true all the way up until college.
It would still be true if she and Molly lived in the same state.
She didn’t know how that must have looked to Rebecca.
Sure, she should have called and she should have asked.
But how would Wren have felt if the situation had been reversed?
She sighed heavily before answering. “I think we’ve both messed up along the way and could both stand to say we’re sorry.”
“Are you going to?”
“Yeah, kiddo. I think I’m going to do that tonight.”
“I’m proud of you, and I love you.” Barbara laughed. “And I’m really sorry that last photo of you got shared all over the internet. You’re probably going to be in the news again.”
Wren groaned. “Ugh, don’t remind me.” She let out a little laugh though. “At least I looked hot.”
“Ew, I’m hanging up now.”
“Hey, Barbs, thanks for calling.” Wren meant it. Her stepsister was a really good human. She was lucky that she got to be part of her life.
“You’re welcome. Have a good last week of training.”
After dinner, the team wanted to go out to a club to dance the night away.
Wren would rather have done literally anything else, but she wasn’t about to play the party pooper when most of the team wanted to congratulate her for dating a model.
She wasn’t the only one who clearly didn’t want to be there.
Rebecca spent more time on her phone that evening than Wren had seen her on it the whole trip.
When Rebecca finally broke away from her little group of defender friends to head to the restroom, Wren broke away from Courtney and Danielle to follow after her.
Rebecca was just pacing when Wren pushed the door open. Thankfully and surprisingly, there wasn’t anyone else in the restroom.
“Hey,” Wren said, awkwardly. She shoved her hands in her pockets and rocked back and forth on her toes.
Rebecca looked surprised to see her. “Hello,” she whispered after a moment of awkward silence.
Wren swallowed her nerves. “I wanted to apologize… for earlier. Well, for everything, really. But particularly earlier. You came to check on me, and that was incredibly kind. Then I went and snapped at you. So, I’m sorry for that.
” Wren’s right hand fidgeted out of her pocket and made its way to the back of her neck.
“As for the last six years.” She exhaled loudly.
“I don’t even know where to start, but I’m sorry for them. ”
Rebecca’s eyes watered. She stared up at the ceiling and took a deep breath. Wren could see the effort in her shoulders. “I feel like such a jackass,” she whispered. Her cheeks were blushed pink.
Wren smiled softly and shrugged. “It’s okay.
It’s in the past, yeah? Thank you for tonight—for coming to check on me.
It’s hard getting treated like the woman of the hour when you just want to cry or barf.
” She bit her bottom lip. She probably shouldn’t share, not with Rebecca anyway, but here they were. “My dad saw it.”
Rebecca stepped closer, reaching out. She stopped herself before she actually made contact with Wren, though. Wren wasn’t entirely sure if she was happy or sad about that. She could honestly use a hug. “Did he know? Or did that post out you?”
“Oh, no. He knew. He’s known since I was like fourteen or fifteen. But still, it’s gross. That’s my dad. Hell, that’s the whole world. And I’m clearly naked. Like, I know you can’t see anything, but still. I don’t post shit like that.”
Rebecca’s eyes widened, but she nodded. “Well, that’s good. At least it was just a photo you didn’t want shared.” She smirked. “It was a flattering photo,” she teased. “I bet you earned yourself some new fans tonight.”
“Fuck. I don’t need you teasing me, too,” Wren shot back. She was surprised at the playfulness of her own tone.
Rebecca held her hands up in mock surrender. “Sorry, sorry. I’ll stop.” Her expression sobered suddenly. “I’m sorry, too. For everything. If I had just called or messaged you… well, who knows what would have happened.”
Wren shook her head. “Nah, Rebecca, really. It’s okay.
We’ve been on this dramatic trajectory for so long.
What if we just kind of turned it around?
” Wren thought for a second. All of their drama had come from misunderstanding, lack of trust, and a clear issue with communication.
Wren had been working on her communication skills for a while now.
There was no reason why she couldn’t put that practice to work.
“From here on out, even if I don’t understand your actions, I’m choosing to believe you mean everything as my teammate and my friend… unless you tell me otherwise.”