Page 65 of Base Block

“We’re fine,” I quickly wrote back. We were hanging out for a little while, waiting with the Woodsmen fans until more of the other people left.

“I knew this was a bad idea. Hell.”

I kept reassuring him that everything was ok. We went down with the Racer Stadium security people to Anara’s SUV, got in, and started the drive north and home. “We’re totally fine,” I texted again. “Totally.”

“We should have gotten a suite for you,” he wrote back, and that was a big no. Those cost thousands to rent and I wouldn’t have spent money on it. No way.

There was a pause in his messages and then he resumed texting once they were on the bus (luxury coach) and on the way to the airport. Unlike me and Anara, they were flying home. “Did the other fans hassle you?” he asked.

“People were mad but they didn’t take it out on us,” I responded. “Did they hassle you?”

“Not too bad.”

So, that meant yes. “The other fans bothered the Woodsmen. They did something to Callum,” I told Anara.

She immediately started jamming the buttons on her steering wheel and ordering her car/phone to call Demitrious, who didn’t answer. I had to listen as she poured out her love in a voicemail and then told him that she hoped he’d gotten pictures of the hooligans but if not, she would dig up security footage and bury those people herself.

“Don’t you think it might be better to turn the other cheek?” I suggested after she hung up (after she told him she loved him a few more times).

“I don’t do that with anything regarding Demitrious. I go out for blood,” she told me. “I’ll cyberstalk them and bring them down.”

“Would you really do that over their behavior at a football game? It’s really scary for the person on the receiving end. It’s very upsetting.”

“What I’m getting from what you just said is that you know about stalking personally. Is that correct?”

“I wouldn’t call it stalking, but one of the other girls from Damian’s house was trying to get in contact. She posted that terrible picture of me to get my attention.”

“What did she want?” Anara asked.

“I don’t know. I just ignored her.”

She turned to stare.

“You have to watch the road!” I ordered.

She did comply but had more questions. “What if she had something important to tell you?” she asked.

“Then she could have just said it,” I answered. “She sent a bunch of messages and they all basically said, ‘Girl, let’s talk.’ I didn’t want to talk to her. I don’t want anything from that life to come back and mess up what I have going on now. I can’t let it.” My voice had gone up a little. “I don’t want to connect Callum to that, not when everything is going so well for him.”

“That’s really dumb, Rainey,” she said, shaking her head. “Life isn’t like that. Unless you decide to be a hermit and totally cut off the rest of the world, you have to deal with the past. If you do want to become a hermit, several people have done it with varying degrees of success. Currently, in Siberia—”

“I’m not going to become a hermit,” I informed her. “Moving to Siberia is out but I can still become a new person now.”

“Sure. Yes, I absolutely believe that,” she said. “Demitrious was such an unserious student when we first met but now he’s working on his PhD.”

“A PhD? Really?”

She nodded. “It’s going to take a while because of football, but he’s very dedicated.”

“But being a bad student isn’t so awful,” I pointed out.

“Neither is being a party girl and living off some dumb musician. He really is dumb,” she told me. “I tried to listen to some of his songs but they’re one hundred percent skips. Unpleasant to the ears.”

“If you listen to his early tracks, you can see how people could have liked him, at least little. He had one certified hit and that was enough for him to think that he could rule the charts and take away Pippy Polluelo’s crown.”

“Who?”

“Never mind.” I looked out the window at the cold rain falling on the freeway. It wasn’t snowing here, but it might have been further north. “I’m not personally embarrassed…” I hesitated. “I keep saying that I don’t care, but I do. Maybe I didn’t before, when I was with Damian, but the stakes are higher now. I am embarrassed. I don’t even feel like the same person anymore and I don’t want the people around me, like everyone who came to Thanksgiving, to know about Damian and Sage and our life there.”