Chapter 9 #2
That didn’t appear to be the correct answer. “Look me in the eyes and tell me you didn’t have sex with her.” Andy shoved the magazine article in Wren’s face, stabbing Rebecca’s picture with her other pointer finger. When Wren didn’t immediately answer, Andy’s voice shot up an octave. “Well?”
Wren sighed, this was it. Time to tell the truth she had been avoiding. “Look, I didn’t have sex with her recently.” She gently eased the magazine article out of Andy’s hand and tossed it down onto their little couch as she stood up to look Andy directly in the eyes.
“What does that even mean? You had sex with her when? At your training a month ago?” Andy’s eyes watered for half a second and then flashed back to rage.
Wren shook her head. “No.” She still had never talked to Rebecca about any of this and she felt like she might be about to majorly violate their new found friendship trust, but her relationship was also spiraling around the drain, just waiting to sink.
“Do you remember when we first started dating and we briefly went through our sexual history?”
Andy didn’t answer. She just looked confused and mad.
Wren sighed again, feeling dramatic with the heavy sound that kept escaping her. “When I was sixteen, I lost my virginity at a soccer camp.”
Andy shrugged. “Yeah, so?”
“It was Becky. At the soccer camp.”
Andy’s eyes widened. “And then you had that crazy vendetta against her. And now you’re what? Rekindling lost love? What the hell, Wren? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was going to when I got back from that first two-week stint with the National Team, but I was so mad at you for posting that photo of me that I wasn’t really worried about some chick I slept with years ago and was more concerned about our relationship and about how little you value my privacy.”
Andy rolled her eyes. “This again? Oh my God. Wren, you can barely even see anything in that photo. I pose in thongs and see-through bras all the time.”
“That’s something you choose to do. And it’s fine if that’s what you’re choosing, but that picture wasn’t that.
It wasn’t even me in a sports bra. It was a sexy photo meant for your eyes and your eyes only.
It’s one thing if I do a brand ad in a sports bra.
Or if I one day do the body issue for Sports Illustrated or something.
That’s completely different than a photo that is intentionally and contextually sexual. ”
“I don’t even know why I let you derail the conversation to that, when you had sex with someone else.”
Wren’s eyes widened. “No, I didn’t. Should I have told you about our history? Probably. But I didn’t cheat on you. Whatever that article is saying isn’t indicative of anything.”
“It says you left the club together early, Wren,” Andy yelled. “You two are all over each other, leaving the club early, and now I find out you actually have had sex with her?”
“She was puking her brains out in the bathroom. I’m her travel buddy.
It’s my actual responsibility to get her out of there.
As her friend, it’s my responsibility to get her out of there, but you would know that if you had any actual friends and not just people your agents send you out with.
” Wren’s jaw clamped. That was too far, and she knew it.
Andy looked like she had been slapped. “Fuck you. I’m done.
We’re done,” she yelled as she stormed into their bedroom and started packing a suitcase.
“You’ve never really believed in my career.
You’ve always hated what I had to do to make it.
That’s why you never come out with us. If you did, you’d see that the people that I hang out with are actually really cool.
They’re not fake, like you’re so determined to think they are.
They’re more real than you. They would never have kept something like having had sex with their “travel buddy” a secret. ”
Wren didn’t really have anything to say to that.
On some level, she thought Andy was right.
She should have told her. There was another part of her that was just really tired of trying to make this relationship work when it hadn’t for the past month.
Their goals were different. Their dreams were different.
At this point, they were really just in each other’s way.
Andy dramatically rolled her bag to the front door and spun around to glare at Wren again. “I hope you’re happy.”
Wren wasn’t one for dramatics. She was one for calm, logical conversations.
This could have been avoided if they had just had a calm and rational conversation.
When Wren didn’t respond to Andy’s antics, Andy yanked open the door and slammed it shut on her way out.
She sharply inhaled and let out a shaky breath into her now silent apartment.
She wondered if it was a sign that this was the right path when her first thoughts went straight to the logistics of their breakup.
After her most recent sponsorship agreement, she would qualify for this apartment by herself.
There were clothes and furniture and things to discuss and divvy up, but for the most part that would be easy enough.
The bed had been hers from before they moved in together, and the dresser had been Andy’s.
The couch they bought together, but Wren had paid for it.
The fact that she wasn’t sad was the saddest part.
She flopped down on the couch and picked up the magazine article that Andy had shoved in her face.
She had seen her face on the cover of the trashy magazine while she was in line at the grocery store getting Gatorade right after practice, but she hadn’t bothered to read what had been written about her.
Now though, it felt vitally important to know what had been said.
She skimmed the article. There were recent photos of her with Andy out to dinner and the backstory about how Andy had bravely come out recently.
And then there were photos of her with Rebecca leaving that club.
She cringed, wondering if Rebecca had seen this.
It wasn’t that Rebecca looked bad in the photos.
For someone who had just thrown up, she looked pretty good, but it implied that she was queer.
And as far as Wren could tell, Rebecca wasn’t out.
Wren skimmed farther and groaned when she saw that photo of herself.
This wasn’t a good look for her or Rebecca.
Wren pulled her phone out of her pocket and scrolled to Rebecca’s contact.
They had only sent each other a handful of text messages since exchanging numbers at the end of training in Georgia.
Wren didn’t really know how to start. She took a picture of the cover of the magazine and sent that first. Then she quickly typed out:
Wren Eames (7:42 PM): Just wanted to send you a heads-up. This article implies that we’re hooking up.
Wren Eames (7:43 PM): I don’t want any word to get back to any of your family/friends/teammates without you being prepared.
Wren watched as three dots appeared and disappeared in her text chain with Rebecca. Then her phone started ringing in her hand. She had never spoken to Rebecca on the phone before. She frowned, but slid the answer bar across the screen.
“Hey?” Wren said, though it was definitely more of a question.
“Do you really read trashy articles about yourself?” Rebecca asked. Her voice was teasing, and she had completely blown past a greeting.
Wren bit her bottom lip and sighed for the thousandth time that hour. “Not normally, no.”
Rebecca’s tone immediately changed. “Wait. Are you okay?”
Wren hummed, thinking about the question.
Was she okay? Kind of. But her answer was going to be a heavy one and she knew it.
“Yeah, I think I’m okay.” She didn’t know if she should elaborate.
Calling Rebecca the second she was single and announcing that she was single felt…
intentional in ways that weren’t Wren’s actual intentions.
All she had wanted to do was give her a heads-up.
She flinched, realizing suddenly that she had technically just outed Rebecca to Andy, and she did not trust that Andy wouldn’t weaponize that.
“Wren, you don’t sound okay.”
“Okay, Rebecca. You caught me.” Wren took a deep breath.
“I think I owe you an apology. Andy confronted me about what the article insinuates. She asked if you and I hooked up. And… well, we have.” Wren swallowed nervously but powered on.
“And I didn’t want to lie to her on top of everything.
So she knows. And then she dumped me and left in a rage and I’m genuinely concerned she could try to use that against me.
But in the end, it would just hurt you. I meant it when I said I didn’t want to hurt you anymore.
I’m so sorry. I was trying to save my relationship, and it really backfired. ”
There was a short pause before Rebecca responded. “Wait, Wren. She dumped you?”
“Yeah.” Wren shook her head. “But Rebecca, please know I didn’t mean to put you in a spot. I was just trying to explain to her that I didn’t cheat on her. You and I happened so long ago. I was just trying to explain that.”
“Wren, it’s okay. I’m not mad. I just feel awful.”
“Rebecca, I’m so sorry. She’s turned into this attention seeking bitch. She wasn’t like this when we first started dating, but I’m seriously worried she’s going to use this against me and it’s just going to hurt you.”
Rebecca let out a soft, pitiful laugh. “Wren, that’s not why I feel awful. I feel awful because I feel like I just ruined your relationship. My parents were going to find out one day—my brothers have known for years. If this is what officially outs me to everyone else, so be it.”