Page 14 of Rumor Has It

Becky held her hands up in surrender. “No, I actually came to check on you.” Wren’s shoulders slumped, and her eyes shifted away, her focus going anywhere but back to Becky. Becky took a small step forward. “And I came to apologize. When I heard you calling someone “Baby” after you had made that bet, I never thought that the “Baby” you were referring to would be a model. I assumed you were still totally fine with cheating on someone and I jumped down your throat for it, and I’m sorry.”

Wren’s eyebrows furrowed together. “Still? I’ve never cheated on anyone.”

That hurt more than Becky expected it to. “Look, I came in here to check on you, not to bitch at you for shit from six years ago.”

Wren took a step towards Becky, her green eyes were filled with such a clear mix of confusion and rage. “Six years ago? What are you even talking about? Camp?”

This was so not how Becky had wanted to do this, but it was too late to do anything to stop it. “Yeah. When I got home from camp, I went to add you on Facebook and you clearly had a girlfriend. Literally every single photo of you on Facebook was either you playing sports or with you and some other girl.”

Wren’s face went through so many emotions it was almost comical. “That’s why you blocked me? You thought I had a girlfriend?”

Becky nodded as if that were the most obvious explanation in the world.

Wren looked like she might laugh, cry, or both. She stepped dangerously closer, until she was so close Becky could smell her cologne again. It was making her kind of lightheaded in the worst kind of way. “You mean all of this”—Wren gestured back and forth between Becky and herself—“is because you thought I was dating Molly Andrews?” Her voice cut through Becky. Becky was a bit surprised that Wren had known exactly who the girl was from all those years ago. Becky didn’t know offhand who her Facebook profile photos had been with through the years. Molly Andrews must have meant a lot to Wren if she could recall her name that readily.

Becky nodded again, all of her conviction gone.

“The reason Molly Andrews was in all of my photos is because my dad raised me by himself. He’s not exactly the “Let’s take a selfie” type of guy. Molly was my neighbor and is still, to this day, my best friend. Her mom is why I even have photos of myself as a kid. Of course her own kid was going to be in them too.” Wren’s phone started to buzz loudly in her hand. Her eyes darted down to the screen. The name Barbara popped up, and Becky couldn’t help but read it. Wren stepped around her, careful to not make contact with her. “For the record, Molly is married to the guy she started dating in the fifth grade. I didn’t get my first girlfriend until near the end of my senior year, and this”—Wren pointed at her phone—“is my stepsister, not some random woman I might be sleeping with.” Wren pushed the bathroom door open and stormed out, letting it fall shut with a thud behind her.

The silence of the bathroom rang in her ears while Wren’s words tore through her. She had been wrong all along.

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?”