We arrived to the fields early, but neither of Julian’s cars was there. Hollin was hopping out of his truck right as Piper parked. He came around to the side to grab his bag, and his hulking bulk got right up in her space.
She cursed under her breath. “Hollin, personal space exists.”
“Oh, don’t act like you don’t like it, Medina.”
“You wish.”
He smirked. A primal thing that made Piper’s back stiffen. “You know, if you ever need to get that stick out of your ass, I could always help.”
She glared at him as she slammed the car door. “Fuck you, Abbey.”
He winked. “We’ll see.”
Steam rose from the top of her head. She was so pissed at him. I thought she might launch herself across the small space and claw his eyes out. Blaire and I were both paralyzed on the other side of the Jeep, waiting to see what she’d do.
But as if realizing that he was getting to her, Piper just slung her purse onto her shoulder and brushed past him without a word. Blaire and I exchanged a look. She shrugged like she didn’t know. I didn’t either. Hollin sure liked pushing her buttons though. And he swaggered away onto the field like his shorts couldn’t contain the junk between his legs.
“They’re something,” I muttered to Blaire.
“Tell me about it.”
“What the hell happened?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Nothing as far as I know.”
We headed toward the fields. No sign of Julian or Jordan or any other Wrights for that matter. Isaac and Annie were already on the field, kicking the ball back and forth. Cézanne’s box braids were swinging as she tried to get around her boyfriend and the goalie, Gerome. He laughed and blocked her easily, even as he pulled his locs up out of his face. Nora was sitting on the bleachers, next to her best friend, Tamara. August stood between them, smiling at both girls as if he had a very dirty dream in front of him. We were just missing Julian.
“Going to warm up,” Blaire said, dropping her bag. “Julian will be here. He never misses without letting us know.”
I nodded. I didn’t know why I hadn’t gone over to his house yesterday. It wasn’t like I needed an invitation. But he also always responded to my messages. I was overthinking, overreacting, but my anxiety did that. The Xanax was keeping me calm as I waited.
“Two minutes, y’all,” Isaac called. The rest of the team moved onto the field toward him. His brow furrowed as he looked around for Julian. But there was no Julian. “Where the hell is he?”
Everyone shrugged. The whistle blew to get into position for the game to start. And then they were off, playing one man down without Julian, one of their best players. What the hell?
“Here!” Julian called. He was dashing toward the field, his soccer bag banging into his thigh. He flashed me a smile as he passed, but he didn’t stop. “Sorry.”
“Get your ass out here, Wright,” Isaac called from his midfield position.
“Yep. Yep,” he said, sliding into his cleats and stuffing shin guards into his socks. “My bad.”
And then he was jogging in place while he waited for the ref to let him on. He hadn’t even said a word to me. Just one slightly manic smile. And he had been late. Julian Wright was never late.
I sank into a seat next to Piper. She was lathering sunscreen onto her tan skin, a hat atop her head to block her face. She offered the bottle to me. “Mi abuelita always says, ‘Better safe than sorry.’ ”
“Thanks. I burn like a lobster.”
“What’s with your boy?”
“What’s with yours?” I countered.
She arched an eyebrow. “Bradley and I are off-again.”
“We both know that’s not who I meant.”
She huffed. “Hollin can go fuck himself.”
I smirked. “You know he likes to see your reaction.”
“Yeah, whatever.” She eyed me again. “And Julian? I saw that deflection.”
“No idea, honestly. He hasn’t returned my messages since yesterday, and he’s never late, but here he is.”
“Late.”
I nodded.
“Well, boy needs to get his shit together. If he hurts my friend, I’ll cut him.”
I saw something savage cross her face and didn’t doubt her for a second. But the thought of Julian hurting me made my insides twist.
“Maybe it’s a misunderstanding.”
She shot me a look that said I couldn’t be that naive. And she was right. My anxiety never let me think the best of someone.
So, I sat and watched the game. Blaire was a force to be reckoned with. Her feet were quick, and her shots were on fire today. August kept getting in her way, not passing the ball, but somehow, she made up for him. Hollin made a few incredible stops, and Gerome saved more balls than I’d ever seen. In fact, this might be the first match that I’d seen an even competition with the other team.
And it was the wrong day for that to be the case. Because Julian was off his game. Completely off of his game. I’d never seen him flub so many passes and seemingly trip over his own feet. He usually had mad ball skills, toying with the other team. Today, two times in a row, the ball had been stolen from him by a tiny girl about Nora’s size. She was good, but she wasn’t better than Julian on a good day.
I frowned at the display. “Something’s wrong.”
“Yeah, your boy sucks.” Piper laughed when I frowned at her. “I mean, arguably, I know nothing about soccer, but he looks bad out there.”
He did. And the team couldn’t recover from him screwing up. At the end of the day, we lost, and it was hard to place the blame anywhere else.
Everyone trudged off the field, exhausted and dejected. Isaac tried for a pep talk, but no one was really listening. They downed their water bottles and changed out of their cleats.
Blaire plopped onto the seat next to Piper. “Well, that blew.”
“Better luck next time,” Piper said.
I patted Blaire on the shoulder. “Sorry.”
She laughed and shrugged it off. “No big deal.” She was looking down at her phone.
Then she gasped.
“What?” Piper and I asked together.
“You posted the Campbell picture!” she almost shrieked.
“Uh, yeah. So?”
She whipped it around to me. “Cosmere fans got ahold of it. It’s viral. You already have over a million likes.”
My vision blurred, and I took the phone from her to look at it. Thousands of comments. A million likes. On one image.
“Oh my God,” I gasped.
“Congratulations!” Blaire said, throwing her arms around me. “I knew it!”
“This is so great, Jen,” Piper said.
I handed the phone back. “Wow. Like…wow. What do I do?”
“First off, don’t read the comments. Second, actually, why don’t I handle your social media for you for a while?” Blaire said.
“Good idea.”
“You look like you’re in shock.”
“I am.”
“This is good!” Blaire said.
“What’s good?” Julian asked, appearing next to us.
Blaire gave him the rundown, and his eyes widened.