Chapter 11 #2
She shrugged instead. “I really don’t think so or she’d have kicked you off the team. I think she’s just annoyed about the article. Are you okay, by the way?” Wren looked at Rebecca then, really looked at her. She looked more than tired. She looked devastated.
“It did out me to my parents,” Rebecca said with a tragic sigh.
Wren’s eyes watered. “Rebecca, I’m so sorry.”
Before they could get into it any farther, their Lyft pulled up. The driver popped the trunk for them. Wren just nudged Rebecca towards the back seat and rolled both of their bags around to the back, helping the driver get their luggage situated.
The poor driver tried his best to diffuse the weird tension between them as he drove through the Twin Cities, and Wren did her best to keep him engaged on anything that wasn’t the two of them.
The result was just clunky and awkward. She didn’t know what to say.
Rebecca was very clearly trying to not fall apart in the seat next to her.
And she couldn’t exactly comfort her right now, not when their coaches had just told them to lay low.
Not when the driver might somehow recognize them.
She asked her third question about places they could potentially grab dinner when Rebecca’s hand slid into her own with a gentle squeeze. Wren’s eyes shot down to their hands, and then over to Rebecca’s face. Her hazel eyes were still watery, but a small goofy grin had slid in place.
“What?” Wren whispered, worried that the driver might be listening.
Rebecca let out a small laugh. “You’re interrogating this man for dinner options.” Rebecca made eye contact with the driver through the rearview mirror. “I’m awfully sorry, sir. We’ve had just the worst week.”
He let out his own small laugh. “It’s okay. It happens. Are you two here for business?” He had an accent that decidedly did not match the Minnesota scenery. Wren guessed East Coast, maybe Boston, even.
She sank back into her seat and let Rebecca be in charge of the conversation for the rest of the ride.
Thankfully, it was brief, and soon enough they had pulled to a stop in front of their hotel.
Wren was oddly sad when Rebecca released her hand to climb out, but she didn’t let her thoughts linger on that.
She still didn’t want to address what it might mean.
Instead of facing her deeper issues head-on, Wren had spent her time away from Rebecca conditioning, stressing, and trying to separate her stuff from Andy’s.
Their room was much the same as the two they had shared before. Two queen sized beds, a small bathroom, weird art that Wren would never understand how or why hotel chains selected it. It was also silent, cramped with the weight of the week.
They both tried to talk at the same time. “Rebecca, I’m so sorry,” fell from Wren’s lips at the same time as Rebecca said, “I’m sorry about Andy.”
Wren slammed her hands in the pockets of her joggers.
“Yeah, well. She never took that photo down, and she really did not react well to the fact that I lost my virginity to you. So. It was just a breakup waiting to happen, honestly.” Wren stepped around their luggage and paused, not knowing if Rebecca would actually appreciate a hug from her.
“I’m much more concerned about you being outed.
” Her hands fidgeted out of her pockets.
“Can I hug you? I don’t want to overstep. ”
Rebecca pulled her into a desperate hug. “I’m sorry. Seriously, Wren, about everything.”
Wren’s arms looped easily around Rebecca’s waist. “I know, Rebecca. I know. I’m sorry Coach T benched you. That’s shit. It’s honestly shit.”
“I was so worried they were going to kick us off the team. I’ll take being benched for a game. I just have to hope whoever plays in my spot doesn’t do as good of a job.” She buried her face in Wren’s shoulder and sighed.
“What happened with your parents?” Wren asked gently. She gripped tighter when she thought Rebecca might be pulling back.
Rebecca groaned. “They called me the morning after the article came out and asked if it was true. My best friend was there. We kind of had an ice cream and cry night beforehand. We watched Bend It Like Beckham and braced for the joy that is the Rothschild family.”
Wren laughed and pulled back a bit. “God, that should have been a sapphic film.”
“Thank you! I tell everyone that.” Rebecca let go of their hug, but she didn’t step back.
She just needed to gesture with her hands.
She looked down between them. A look of guilt passed through her hazel eyes.
“My parents were pissed.” She scrunched up her face.
“I think they’ve probably considered calling my oldest brother about going all lawyer mode on the magazine.
Defamation or something to that extent, but I told them to just leave it alone.
” She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair before continuing.
“They don’t know. Like, about camp. They don’t know.
I told them that we’re just teammates and working on being friends and that they can’t do anything that might make this worse for you. ”
Wren’s eyes watered again. “Thank you, Rebecca. Seriously. How’d they take the rest of it?”
Rebecca shook her head. “They hardly even addressed it. I actually think they’re pretending it’s not real. My mom asked a clarifying ‘you’re a lesbian?’ And that was pretty much it.” She wiped at her eyes and cleared her throat. “I genuinely don’t know if they’ll ever say anything else about it.”
“That’s so messed up.” Wren pulled her back into a hug.
She didn’t really know what else to do or say.
It was royally messed up, and Rebecca deserved better than that.
“Do you want to order pizza and watch shitty sapphic movies all evening?” She let go of Rebecca and backed up, trying to get a read on the taller woman.
The reality was that she hardly knew her teammate.
Sure, they had a past, but they had barely been more than kids.
She didn’t really know this Rebecca well at all.
That’s what had made Molly’s question so complicated.
Wren knew how she’d felt at sixteen, but now?
At twenty-two? She had no idea, just a lot of confusing, unresolved emotions.
Rebecca nodded, and oh she looked so devastated it made Wren’s heart hurt. “Yeah, that would be nice.”
“Okay, yeah. What kind of pizza do you like?” Wren asked, softly.
“Pineapple and ham,” Rebecca said, trying to stop the flow of her tears.
Wren scrunched up her nose. “Okay, because you’re having a rough week, I’m going to not judge you for that. But next week, you might get a scathing text.”