Page 6 of Rumor Has It

Becky’s eyes widened with disbelief, but she knew better than to protest. From the strain in Wren’s jaw, she knew that Wren clearly felt the same way. “Thank you for the second chance. We won’t let you down,” Becky forced out, shooting up from her chair, desperate to get out of there before any other punishments could be levied on them.

Wren nodded. “Agreed. Thank you, both.” Wren stood uncomfortably and they stepped back into the hallway. “Well, this blows,” she muttered heading back towards the locker room.

“Eames, wait.” Becky steeled herself for the brilliant green eyes that were about to turn her way. They were filled with rage and rightfully so. “Wren, I”—

—“You just almost got me kicked off the National Team. You know, I don’t know what your problem with me has been for the past four years, but we’re on the same team now. So can you just get over it?”

“You don’t know what my problem has been?” Rage spiked in Becky’s chest. She could feel years of frustration ready to boil over. She grabbed Wren by the wrist and led her down the hall, searching for an empty room she could drag her into. As soon as she found one, she slammed the door behind them. “Are you fucking kidding me right now?”

“Am I kidding? No. You’ve been a raging bitch for the past four years, and I tried to be nice to you at camp and this morning and surprise, surprise, you’re still a bitch.” Wren was practically shouting.

“Do you just honestly not remember?” Becky studied Wren’s face, waiting for realization to finally come. Wren still looked lost. “Soccer camp? Those two weeks together when we were sixteen?” Becky hissed, lowering her voice so that even if Coach T was waiting outside the door with her ear pressed up against them, she wouldn’t be able to hear. “Do you need more clues? How about, I dunno, you took my virginity?”

“Yeah, and you took mine. Then you proceeded to block me on every social media. And then when I saw you two years later and tried to say hey, you told me to stay the fuck away from you.” Wren looked livid, and worse, hurt. But also like there was a good chance she might throw something. “I texted, I called, and then you said”—Wren’s voice cracked. She shook her head as if shaking away the memories.

Becky had never heard the story from her perspective.

“Let’s be clear about one thing,” Wren said, her voice low and fierce, “I’m here to stay. If one of us is getting kicked off of this team for their behavior, it sure as shit won’t be me. If it’s not travel or required for practice, how about you take your own advice and stay the fuck away from me. Not all of us have backup plans and safety nets and wealthy mommies and daddies to call if they get kicked off the team. Some of us kind of need this shit.” And with that, Wren spun on her heels, ripped open the door, and stomped off in the direction of the locker rooms.

CHAPTER

FOUR

BECKY

It hadn’t been Becky’s first soccer camp, but it had been her first camp out of state. Her parents had let her go to the North Carolina University camp every year since she had been old enough, but Becky had begged and pleaded with them to let her go to the Los Angeles University camp. She was sixteen, she had a phone, she knew what to do in the event of an emergency, and more importantly—in her opinion—she had never really been anywhere without her parents. She was going off to college in two years; and even though there was a really good chance she would be going to the same school everyone else in her family had attended, it would be nice to at least see what other schools had to offer.

Her father had finally agreed on the condition that she still attended the NCU camp when she got back. Becky was thrilled. She didn’t even mind that her dad made her do all the legwork. She’d had to book her own flight, arrange a way to get from the airport to the campus, and then prove to him that she had a plan and that she knew what to do if she needed a backup plan. The most frustrating part was that he had called the head coach and confirmed everything with them, making sure she wouldn’t need a chaperone to drop her off even though she had given him a brochure that had already answered all of his questions. But that wasn’t the point. The point was she would get to go.

At check-in, girls were shrieking and hugging and laughing and catching up with friends they hadn’t seen since the summer before. Becky had never done well in those situations. She stood awkwardly off to one side of the check-in table, waiting for further instruction. One of the coaches handed her a packet of information and pointed her towards the dorm rooms where she would be staying for the two-week duration of the camp. Becky would never forget the next part. She knocked on her dorm room door a few times before jamming her key into the lock. Before she could even turn the key, the door swung open and the most beautiful girl Becky had ever seen was standing there in the doorway. Becky must have looked like an idiot, stunned into silence by tan skin and green eyes and a scar through an eyebrow that she inexplicably wanted to touch.

“Hey, I’m Wren.” God, she had dimples. “Are you Rebecca?”

Becky had managed a nod. “Yeah, yep.” In her mind she corrected her to Becky, but that would have been too many words, so she had just nodded along.

“Well, come on in. We’ve got about two hours to get our room rearranged and unpacked before dinner and the opening games.” Wren moved out of her way and ushered her into their shared room.

Becky remembered everything about it: The way that Wren wanted to put the furniture in the least ‘feng shui’ arrangement they could configure because it was only for two weeks and admittedly it would be hilarious. They laughed the whole time, working together to push the beds at weird angles in the middle of the room, stacking the desks on top of each other because they wouldn’t have any use for them. In two hours, Becky felt more rebellious than she had in her entire life and all she’d done was an intentionally shit job of a room remodel.

“Girls, dinner is being served in the first floor cafeteria. Please make your way down. Welcome to camp,” the intercom rang out.

Becky looked around their room. It was ridiculous and barely functional. “Well, how do you feel about it?” she asked Wren, unable to not smile at the shorter girl, marveling at the way her green eyes sparkled with delight.

“I hate it. It’s perfect.” Wren laughed, a warm, real, open laugh. A sound lighter than Becky had ever heard.

And for almost a week, it was perfect. Mediocre breakfasts followed by conditioning, then skills drills, then usually semi-decent lunches, then games and scrimmages, then dinner, then free time. Free time at first was Wren and Becky just hanging out and getting to know each other.

Like in all relationships, they started with the basics: Becky was the youngest of four with three brothers. Wren was an only child, raised solely by her dad. They avoided the deeper things in the beginning, but as the week progressed, their conversations got more serious. Wren had minimal contact with her mom, and though she knew how much she looked like her, she was terrified she would act like her, too, becoming the selfish type of asshole that could abandon her family for another man and the promise of a life of luxury and excess.

In exchange for that vulnerable truth, Becky admitted that she had no real desire to live up to her parents' perfect ideal image of her. She finally said out loud that her father cared more about his career and his public image than he did about his wife or his children. She even admitted that she kind of hated him for it.

Wren reached across the awkward angle that separated their beds, grabbed her hand, and told her that it was okay to not want to live up to someone else’s idea of perfection. She smiled the warmest smile Becky had ever seen and told Becky her dad was a loser for missing out. And Becky, for the first time in her life, felt free and seen.

The next night changed everything. Wren, always easy going and charming, had made friends with some of the other forwards. And one of them had snuck a bottle of vodka into camp.

“Come on, come hang out with us?” Wren asked, her bottom lip jutting out in a pout.

Becky had never had alcohol and was more than a little nervous to drink around someone who made her heart flutter while sober. She had no idea how the whole lowered inhibitions thing would go.