| Alex |
"So tell us what's wrong, Al." Ash commands as she takes her usual seat - beside Ali, as we get coffee a few hours before practice.
"Yeah, you've been kinda quiet since yesterday." Ali adds her input before she sips her coffee.
I stare at the couple for a few minutes, thinking my concern over. Am I being an overbearing parent and just worrying without real reason to? "I'm worried about Cody."
"What about her?" Ali asks immediately, concern lacing her own tone of voice.
"Relax, Kriegs. Let Mom number 1 give us the deets before you get worried." Ash nods at me, silently telling me to continue.
"Hope told me she's going to a party...actually, she told me Jack's dragging her."
"And?" Ash asks as Ali watches on "Sounds like normal teenage stuff. Why are you worried?"
"Because of that woman?" Ali asks, seemingly able to read my mind. I just nod in response.
"I get it...but Al, she's in Idaho. If you're really worried, call Hope, but you have to let her live. She's gotta have space to make mistakes, it's how we grow." Ash informs me, and while I hesitate and think about calling our old 'keeper, I ultimately decide against it.
| Cody |
"WOOOO! FUCK YEAH!" I flinch away when Jack screams in my ear as we enter the house party that our teammate Ally is throwing. She must be happy her parents aren't here cause...damn.
Before we even entered our teammates house, we could smell the joints being puffed on, the yelling muffled by the music, and the street littered with cars left barely parked before the drivers and passengers obviously jumped out in a hurry to get wasted.
It's beyond anyone's control - kids acting like adults, getting so drunk that they're stumbling all over the place, leaning against walls just so they don't fall. Couples and strangers making out on the stairs, the couch, pretty much anywhere they can sit down. Beer pong, body shots and some poor lone teen mixing drinks for people in the kitchen of the once respectable house.
Ally has taken it upon herself to be the resident DJ for the night, and I can't complain, her taste in music isn't too bad. If it was Justin Bieber on repeat, I'd be long gone. And I mean on my way home, not drunk.
Jack immediately leads me to the kitchen, closing in on the teen acting like a blender who hands her a drink. I shake my head, and grab a bottled water from the fridge as I scan the room, observing my peers acting like animals.
Here we go.
______
We've been here for hours, now it's 1AM and the party shows no signs of slowing down. I grab another bottled water from the cooler filled with bottles of water, the beers quickly disappearing, being claimed by teens who tell their friends that they can handle their alcohol but we all know they're gonna be throwing up in the later hours of the morning.
I exit the house, walking to the backyard in need of some air and as much peace as I can get which isn't much as the vibrations and sounds of the music seem to follow me outside. I take a long sip of my ice cold water, enjoying the feeling of it as it travels down my throat to my stomach, the coolness in deep contrast to the intense heat from indoors created by the mass of dancing, sweaty, drunk teenagers.
My ringtone goes off, startling me mid-sip, and I jerk in surprise, making the water dribble down my chin and over my shirt.
"Ugh. Of course." I pull my phone out of my pocket, sighing and expecting it to be Alex. I know she gets stressed when she finds out I'm going to any kind of party, and the fact I haven't heard from her yet means it's only a matter of time before she calls. "Hmm." My brow furrows when I check the caller ID before answering, only to see that it's not Alex.
Incoming Call - Ellie The Auzz 🦎
"Hey Australia!" I beam down the phone, ecstatic to hear from my friend, who I haven't seen in a while.
"Hey Cody." She replies, sounding exhausted.
"Are you okay?" I ask, but don't hear her response as I pull the phone away from my ear to check the time. "It's late there, why aren't you sleeping?"
"I can't." She sighs, only making me more worried for my friend. "Do you know where Jack is? She isn't answering my calls."
"Yeah, she's around here somewhere" I answer, glancing back at the house, wondering if I should even tell her I'm at a party. "Are you two okay?"
"Not really." She pauses before continuing "I can talk to you as a friend without you telling Jack, right?"
"Yeah. You're my friend, Ellie. I'm gonna be here for you, so what's up?"
"It's tough, I mean...long distance is hard but Jack seems to be really struggling with it."
"What do you mean?"
"She thinks I'm cheating." She sighs out and I can hear her voice shaking. "I don't even have time to cheat even if I wanted to, but any time we talk now...she always brings it up. Last time she did, I kinda lost it, we yelled at each other and now she won't talk to me. I really need to talk to her, Cody. I know you're at a party and the last thing I want to do is ruin her fun, but I need to talk to her."
"Okay, I'll go look for her. It's pretty loud in there, so beware." I tell her, and I begin my search through my teammate's home, going from room to room in search for our captain, as I keep her girlfriend on the call with me. I almost give up when I hear someone yelling about a game room in the basement.
It takes me five minutes to find the staircase to the basement, and if it wasn't well lit at the bottom, it'd definitely look fucking creepy. I yelp when two teens appear out of nowhere and run by me up the stairs. I make it to the bottom and round the slight corner hoping to find Jack playing a video game. However, I find her in the midst of a very heated makeout session with one of the gymnasts from our school. As they're rubbing up on each other, I remember about Ellie, and I suddenly feel guilty and awful.
"Uh...Ellie." I say into my phone, bringing it up to my ear. The name of her girlfriend catches Jack's attention and she immediately pulls away from...what's-her-face, and looks at me with wide eyes. "I..uh...I have to call you back." I don't wait for her to answer me, I hang up, and by the time I've finished putting my phone back in my pocket, Jack is standing in front of me.
Jack follows me as I try and make my way to the stairs, grabbing my hand as she begs me not to tell Ellie.
"I won't. You're gonna tell her. If you're having problems, sort it out or break the fuck up with her, don't do this !" I motion my hand at the very drunk girl my best friend was making out with. She's so hammered she doesn't even hear me.
"You're right. I'll sort it out with her tomorrow." Jack tells me, with a solemn expression before her eyes glint with mischief "You should have a drink, Codes."
"No. I told you I'm not drinking. I gotta drive us home later."
"We can stay here, Ally already offered. Besides, you need to cut loose - have some fun! Soon you'll be in Florida for college, and Alex will be watching your every move, you know she doesn't want you to drink."
"Okay, couple things. I never said I was going to Florida. Also, don't say that about my mom, she's not a stalker who watches everything I do." I chuckle as my friend throws her hands up in mock surrender.
"You're right. My bad. But come on, Codyyyy!" Jack starts, holding an unopened bottle of beer in my face. "What's the worst that could happen?"
| Ali |
The Next Day
I arrive at the stadium with Ash and we enter the locker room. It's empty, except for a pacing Alex, who looks extremely pissed off. I exchange a glance with Ash, and we cautiously approach the striker.
"Uh...Hey, Alex. Are you okay?" I ask, only to instantly regret asking when she turns to me, eyes burning with rage.
"No. I'm not." She answers through gritted teeth. "I'm going to kill my daughter." Before we can ask why, she hands her phone to us. We look at the screen to see that it's already loaded onto Jack's page.
Ashlyn tries and fails to contain her laughter as we scroll through the pictures, only increasing Alex's anger at the situation.
"Sorry. It's not funny, but Jack is." Ash starts, only to stop. "Does that make sense?"
"Alex, relax." I brush Ashlyn off, hoping to calm our teammate "You can kill her in person, instead of over the phone, when we travel to Houston to play the Dash. Hope is taking Cody and Jack to the game."
"You're right." Alex takes her phone back, throwing it in her bag and grabbing her cleats to leave for the field. It's something she does when she's not in a great mood - she takes shots before we all show up, and works off that anger so she doesn't take it out on anyone else.
"Well. Cody's dead."