I nodded slowly, still keeping an eye out to make sure no one was around. “Do you need help?” I whispered.
Kulti’s eye started to twitch, but he shook his head. “I’ve been sober for over a year.”
I closed one eye and made a face. His timeframe was debatable.
“With the exception of that one day, I have no problem not drinking, but once I start…” Kulti knuckled his brow bone. This was hard for him to admit. Who wanted to admit their failures? Not me. Definitely not him. “I let myself down, and I know there are people that this news could disappoint even more. There won’t be any bars in my future anymore either way. I would rather stay home.” He nudged me. “Or at your home.”
Yeah, I was a total sucker, forgiving people way too easily.
My facial expression must have said that because he nudged me again. “You and I fight, yes? It’s in our nature. I think you should get used to the idea.” The corners of his mouth tipped up just a bit. “Are we fine now?” he asked earnestly, expectantly.
Were we? I knew what the polite thing to say would be, but I wasn’t a liar. At least I wasn’t usually. I told Kulti the truth. “Mostly. You’re still a jackass for what you said, but I’ll forgive you because I know you were upset and some people say things they don’t mean in the heat of the moment. So as long as you don’t say something so stupid again, I can live with it this once, Reindeer.”
The look he gave me was blank for so long, I wasn’t expecting him to react the way he did. I thought for sure he’d argue with me some more about how I needed to get over being pissed at him, however small the amount.
He didn’t.
Instead almost a minute after I finished talking, the doors were opening to the main level of the office building; Kulti burst out laughing. I swear he said something like “Reindeer” under his monster laughs.
Chapter Nineteen
“Hey, Gen. Good morning,” I said to Genevieve as she walked by me the afternoon of our next game, two days after the meeting in Gardner’s office.
The younger girl, who had always been friendly with me, kept on going. Her eyebrows went up as she walked by and that was that.
Now, I didn’t think too much about it. I was used to being around girls. Girls with all kinds of reactions to their periods: the ones who got unnaturally angry, the ones that cried, girls who retreated within themselves, the ones who wanted to stuff their face all day—all those and more. It wasn’t a big deal. Mood swings, been there done that.
I figured maybe she was having a crappy day or something. There was also the possibility she was on her period. Who knows.
Not even fifteen minutes later, right at the beginning of the team’s warm-up, I overheard someone behind me. “Did you see the pictures?”
I couldn’t exactly pinpoint the person speaking, and I didn’t want to turn around until I heard a little more. It wasn’t like there were any other pictures besides mine and Kulti’s, but whatever.
“What pictures?” the other voice asked in a regular volume.
A second later, the original speaker said “Shut up,” and was then followed up by “Ouch.”
Now speaking in a lower voice, the second person asked, “What pictures?” in a whisper.
“The ones of—“ there was a pause, “and Kulti.”
“What? No. What of?” the second voice asked.
There was another pause followed by “—was coming out of some building with him, and it shows them getting into his car.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. It’s—“ pause “—for sure. I heard they had a meeting with Cordero and Gardner about it and that they didn’t deny it—“
I felt awkward, so, so awkward. Even after I made myself stop listening to what they were saying, I still felt aggravated. It had already begun, the rumors and the stretched truths. The urge to turn around and tell them that wasn’t exactly how it’d gone was overwhelming, but I had to practice what I preached.
I hadn’t done anything.
The only problem was that the longer practice went on, the more I felt the weight of multiple stares on me. I overheard a few of the whispers. It wasn’t every girl, but it was enough of my teammates to make me feel dirty,
I knew that I hadn’t done anything to be embarrassed about and Kulti knew that we hadn’t, so it shouldn’t matter what everyone else thought.
If I reminded myself of it enough, it was easier to ignore the girls that gave me funny looks.
Besides the looks and the whispers, practice went okay. The last game before our week off, on the other hand, didn’t go so well. We lost in overtime. The locker room was filled with disappointment afterward. It wasn’t until the coaching staff had left and I’d started changing, intent on showering once I got back to my place, that Jenny saddled up next to me on our way out.