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“They’re all together?”
“Mm-hmm. Maybe I’ll start his freaking house on fire.”
“Damn, Babe,” I hear David say in the background.
I sigh. “It’s all Lake.”
“Does it matter? Tessa.” She breathes out. “David said he’d straight-up kick the shit out of anyone who did that to me. Why aren’t they doing the same thing?”
I snap my jaw shut. That’s what everyone’s been trying to tell me lately, and here I am still trying to make excuses for them. Maybe I just want to believe they wouldn’t keep doing this to me. Not after all that’s happened. “I thought after I made the team everything would be perfect.”
“It seems like it’s done nothing but get worse.”
She’s right. Everyone’s right. I need to do something about this, but not quit basketball like they all think I’m going to do. I’ll never do that. “I got to let you go, ‘kay? Talk to you tomorrow?”
“You sure?” Dawn asks. “I’m not above setting that house on fire.”
“Yeah, I’m good,” I tell her. Revenge would be nice, but I also don’t want her to really go through with it. I really like four-fifths of the guys in that house right now.
We hang up, and I immediately finish the bath, get out, and dry off. I grab some clothes from my dresser and change. Sneaking down the stairs, I look first into the kitchen, but then notice my mom’s on a float in the middle of the pool. I should’ve known. She always goes for a swim when she wants to be alone. I grab her keys off the counter and shut the front door behind me.
I’m not giving up basketball. But everyone is right, something needs to happen because I can’t keep going on like this.
My mom’s car starts, and I can barely tell it’s running. I ease it out the driveway and point it toward Rockport. Soon, I’ll be outside Ryan Linc’s house, so I can confront Lake.
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Sloan’s Jeep is in the driveway. I don’t see another car there, neither my father’s nor Ryan’s mom’s. Good. This started with the Ballers and me, it can finish with the Ballers and me.
I march up to the front door and knock before I can talk myself out of it. The last time I was here, it ended badly. This could turn out the same, but I’m not going to let the tightening in my stomach tell me not to.
Ryan pulls the door open. His face falls. Behind him, I hear Alec roar, “It’s not right.”
“Guys,” Ryan calls out. He opens the screen door, and I walk in. Alec and Sloan stand. Hayes turns toward me. His face is a mask of fury. I’ve never seen that much emotion out of him ever.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Lake says. “Who invited you?”
“I did.”
He stands. Hayes stands right with him, but Lake doesn’t even see. “Oh, you got something to say, Daddy’s girl?”
I briefly look at Sloan. He calls me that. It turned into something endearing, but now it just sounds hateful. I despise the nickname coming from his mouth. “You’re pathetic.”
He laughs cruelly. “I’m pathetic? Really? I’m not the one who got the start today because my daddy pulled some strings.”
I walk up to him, place two hands on his chest and shove. “My dad would never do that. You’re just pissed I got the start. It was one fucking start, Lake. One. And it was for a purpose.”
He steadies himself after stumbling back a few steps. “Oh, the WNBA scout, you mean? The WNBA scout your dad got to come?”
I’m shaking I’m so mad. I want nothing more than for Lake O’Brien to feel the anger I have wafting off me in waves. I raise my hand to punch him, but Ryan grabs my wrist and lowers it steadily. “It’s true, Tessa.”
I whirl. “What?”
“Your dad. He got the scout there.”
I shake my head. “No.”
“He told me.”