Page 1 of Breaking the Rules
ONE
“What’s this?” Noble asked, walking out of his shared closet, holding a packet of abortion aftercare paperwork.
He’d read it – thoroughly. Checked the dates, recalled all the times he slept with his fiancée.
He played back conversations of wanting to start a family.
Especially when the loss he’d experienced within the last year had been so great.
He read it again. They were due to be married in two days.
He was going to move his sister and niece out so they could be close because she swore that family was the most important thing to her. However, what he’d read didn’t add up.
His brain couldn’t make sense of it. And his heart refused to believe that the woman he was sure he could vow his life to had done this without even considering him. He stood – planted, with bated breath – waiting for anything. A lie, an omission – the truth.
The longer he waited, the more his body felt like it was being crushed, and his feet were cemented to the plush carpet. He couldn’t even flinch a muscle without an answer.
“I want an answer,” he stated.
Mecole, his fiancée, looked at the stapled papers then at him. “I don’t even know what those are for you to want an answer, Noble.”
A rattle of unamused laughter quaked his being.
It came from his toes, radiated through his core, and belched out of his mouth.
“You don’t know? Imagine me looking for a pair of socks in the basket and this was at the bottom.
Since you don’t know what it is, let me read it to you.
Because I’ve read this six times and it didn’t fuckin’ change.
Patient: Mecole K. Roberts. Procedure date: May 23 rd .
Abortion after care. Follow up with T. Manos, OBGYN. When were your pregnant?”
Mecole swallowed the lump in her throat and attempted to snatch the paperwork from his hand. There was something she’d forgotten in the moment, Noble caught balls flying at one hundred miles per hour. He leapt, ran, and trained his body for years to be agile. She wasn’t getting the papers.
“Why would you go through my shit?” she huffed. “What are you trying to do? Get out of marrying me? If you didn’t want to marry me, that’s all you had to say.”
“Nah, you’re not going to gaslight me and turn this shit around. When were you pregnant?”
She swayed. “That’s none of your business, Noble.”
“No? It ain’t?” Noble slammed the packet down on the dresser her back was against. The motion boxing her in and making her jump. “I’ll tell you, four weeks ago, when I was in Ganton Hills for those five games back-to-back. The ones you couldn’t come to because what did you tell me?”
He snapped his fingers. “Oh yeah, your mother was sick. If you flip over to the next page.”
He flipped the page and pointed to date. “Eight weeks pregnant. Which means when you and I were talking about starting a family you were already pregnant. The issue is that week, month or whenever you could’ve gotten pregnant, I was in training camp.”
“Noble, let me explain,” Mecole whimpered. “I-I messed up.”
“I’m listening,” Noble rumbled. “Talk fast. I got practice.”
“You were up and down after your dad passed. Flying back and forth to see about your sister and niece. I was lonely and upset that I couldn’t take your pain away, and I messed up. It wasn’t supposed to happen,” she rambled off, attempting to grab his shirt, but he stepped back out of her reach.
“Who?”
“It’s not important, baby. I love you, I want to marry you. I messed up. I never wanted it to happen,” she cried. “You have to believe me.”
Noble let the one-syllable word come out of his mouth again. “Who?”
“Baby, please.”
This time, he roared. “WHO THE FUCK WAS IT?”
She jumped again, whimpering. “Please, we can work this out.”
“Mecole, I swear!” His fists clenched at his sides, and his nostrils flared.
“O-oman,” she spoke just above a tearful whisper. “I swear it was just once.”
“Was it? Or you lying about that, too?”
She buried her face in her hands.
“How many times did you fuck my teammate? Huh?” he asked, clapping his hands together in a thunderous beat of anger.
“A few.”
“When it start?”
“A-fter after the funeral.”
“After I buried my father? And you want me to believe you only fucked that nigga three times in the last year? Ha. I look fuckin’ stupid to you?” he challenged, back in her space, glaring down at her. “Where you fuck him? In my house? In my bed?”
“Noble, please,” she sobbed. “I’m sorry.”
“Where?”
“Yes. Sometimes at The Majestic or his house when his wife was gone. Is that what you want to hear? I messed up. I’m sorry. I’ll do whatever I need to do to fix this.”
The sight of her repulsed him.
“Take it off,” he grumbled.
Mecole paused her sobbing to ask, “W-what?”
“My ring, take it off.”
“No! It’s mine. We’re getting married in two days!”
“We aren’t doing a gotdamn thing. Take it off!”
Mecole hurried to take it off and place it on the dresser. “Happy?”
“Not even close. Pack up your shit and get the fuck out of my house. When I get back, you better be fuckin’ gone.”
With that, he spun on the balls of his feet and marched out of the room before he did something he couldn’t take back. In his car, he sped to the practice facility with a one-track mind. No one was practicing today.
“I’ll kill your ass, muhfucka!” Noble bellowed as he stormed into the locker room.
His dark eyes were laser-focused on his target, third base outfielder, Oman Marshall. The man he’d called friend since landing in Majestic Falls three years ago. Now he was an enemy. A man who’d violated him while smiling in his face.
Noble’s outburst caught the handful of teammates who were early to practice off guard. This was a drastic change from his otherwise cool demeanor, the team had grown to love and respect. The moment Oman looked up, Noble had his hands balled into fists and landed a punch square in his nose.
There was no talking. No airing out their business, just blow for blow.
Oman fought back but not with the vigor that Noble fought.
Not with the rage Noble had. And every ounce of it was justified.
It took six men to pull Noble off of Oman.
He sported a puffy eye, but Oman looked a lot worse than he did.
Bloodied nose, busted lip, two swollen eyes, and a cut above his right eyebrow.
Alec Smalls wrapped Noble in a bear hug and pulled him out of the locker room before he could cause any further damage to Oman or his career. In an occupied room, Alec released him and then shoved him backward.
“Yo, what is wrong with you? Huh? You lost your damn mind?” Alec barked, trying to understand where his friend was. “You trying to be in jail two nights before your wedding?”
“Ain’t no fuckin’ wedding,” Noble shared. “He fucked her.”
Alec paused, trying to make sense of it himself.
Yes, they were all on the same team, but Noble, Alec, and Oman were the trinity.
The three that got drafted together and navigated this sport together.
When they all landed in the same city, it was a reunion they didn’t know they needed.
Oman stood alongside Alec at Noble’s father’s funeral as pallbearers.
In two days, they were due to stand beside him as groomsmen. They were supposed to be family.
“What you mean?” Alec asked.
“I mean that that nigga fucked my woman in my house. She was pregnant dawg! She was carrying his fuckin’ baby!”
Alec closed his eyes, hearing the pain crack Noble’s voice. He’d heard it a year ago when he’d gotten the news about his father’s untimely death. This was like death had come all over again.
“Dammit man,” Alec huffed. “Shit, now I want you to go back and beat his ass some more.”
“I’ll kill him,” Noble stated matter-of-factly. “I’ll fucking strangle the life out his bitch ass body.”
“I can’t have that. Beating is one thing, ruining your life and career over them, never worth it.”
The door opened, exposing the coach and the assistant trainer.
“Noble,” Coach Jones spoke up, observing the state he was in. “The cops are on the way. What do you want to do?”
“You know what I want to do,” Noble stated. “Tell me your friend sleeps with your wife, what would you do?”
“I’m not saying you were wrong. I’m trying to save your career from imploding. Tell us what you want to do. We can let them come in here and drag you off. Make a mockery of everything you’ve worked for. Or we can stop them and drive you to the precinct.”
The assistant trainer, Maggie, spoke up, her voice stern and sure. “I won’t let them ruin your good name for a bad moment.”
Noble rolled his lips over one another. “Alec, call my manager, tell him to meet me downtown.”
Noble dug into his knickers and handed Alec his keys.
Alec nodded. “I got you.”
Maggie spoke again. “Come on. We’ll leave out the back.”
Noble sat in jail for three days. On the fourth day, a Monday, the judge released him on his own recognizance. He was a fan. That small blessing didn’t soothe the coming storm. He sat in his living room watching his manager pace back and forth.
“The Mavericks promised him forty-seven million. Cut the check and I’ll get him on the first thing smoking out of here.
If you bench him, his contract is as good as gone…
I know he assaulted his teammate. In his defense, Frank, the man was sleeping with his fiancée.
A deal is a deal. This man took y’all to the World Series three times!
Any team would be happy to have him…then let another team have him…
that’s rich, Frank. Fuckin’ rich. You know what, I’ll take you up on that offer.
” Carl, his manager and agent, hung up the phone and looked at Noble, who sat stoically on the couch.
“You know he can blackball you from ever playing again?”
“That wouldn’t be in his best interest.”
“What are you going to do? Beat him up too?” Carl quizzed.
Noble barely swayed his head. “Nah, we hang niggas like that over the balcony.”
“For God’s sake, we’re not in Los Oceania anymore.”
“You’re right, we aren’t but we could be. Here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to get me on the Royals. I promised my niece I would be home to take her to the beach after my birthday and that’s what I’m going to do.”
“You don’t make shit easy for me do you, Deuce?”
“Nigga, you wanted the job. Do the job.”
“At least tell me where you’re staying when you get back to L.O., your pop’s place?”
“Nah, my sister is there and I’m not havin’ this energy around babygirl. I’ll be at Sincere’s. You get me a spot on the Royals with my money in hand, and we can move on from this.”
Carl huffed and shook his head. “What are you doing with this?”
“Sell it and everything in it. I don’t want none of this shit.” Noble hiked the stairs and wandered into the bedroom that wrecked this chapter of his life. The engagement ring still on the dresser. “Rule number one: never let another woman into your heart. That shit is for suckers.”