SKYLAR
I’d never considered myself a mean person or a vengeful person or even a jealous person, but when Lindsay cornered me in the crowded hall after school, I felt a little of all three.
People gave us a wide berth as they walked past but slowed down and strained their necks to listen. In their minds, Cody’s girlfriend and his mistress were about to have a cat fight. Maybe we were.
“What do you want?” I wasn’t in the mood to talk or to be nice. Zoe called Lindsay a drama queen, a liar, and a threat to my relationship with Cody. I was beginning to believe her.
Lindsay swung her hair to the side, used it as a shield to those on our left. “I just wanted you to know that it wasn’t Cody’s fault. He was defending me.”
Duh. I was his girlfriend for crying out loud. “I know. Cody tells me everything.” Okay, maybe that last part was unnecessary, but, seriously, did her eyes have to be so dang blue and innocent looking? No wonder Cody wanted to save her. “Damsel in distress” was in her DNA.
“Yeah, of course he does. Good. I was worried you’d be upset and with everything that happened sophomore year with Tom Baker and the pictures, he’s just really sensitive about things.”
I flinched but kept myself still. “Right. Sophomore year.”
“But he was so excited about meeting your dad; he really was.”
For a moment I could only panic. “What did he say about my dad?”
Her eyes widened. “Just that he was really scary. And he asked a bunch of questions about wrestling and the future.”
My mouth dropped and my emotions moved from mildly irritated to fully ticked off. He was talking to her about me? About my dad?
Her voice became rushed, and I wondered if she could see the damage she was doing with this little contrived apology. “I’m saying all the wrong things. I’m sorry. I just wanted you to know how much he cares about you. And after all his struggles, and after all he’s been through, I want him to be happy.”
“Yeah. Me, too.” Zoe was right. The girl oozed sweetness and cyanide at the same time. “Listen, I gotta go.”
I walked to my car in a daze. He told her things about us. Things about him I didn’t know. All our secrets we shared. Had he shared them with her too?
*
The electricity in the Greensboro Coliseum was a living, breathing thing. It bounced off the walls, swirled through the stands and settled on the wrestlers sparring in different areas. It zapped me, too, my heart pounding in anticipation.
It was nine in the morning on Saturday, and after a sleepless night in a lumpy hotel bed and four unreturned calls to Cody, I fed off the energy. Ten circle mats lined the floor with teams surrounding them. Stadium seating ran the length of the mats and, while mostly full, Zoe and I found an entire row to ourselves.
“I’m so nervous for him,” Zoe said, squeezing my hand. Chugger was stretching and getting ready for his first match. “He doesn’t think he has a shot, but I know he really wants at least one win.”
The guys walked toward the circle with puffed chests and killer expressions.
I bit back a laugh. Wrestling uniforms were ridiculous. It was like Speedos and overalls collided to produce a fashion disaster. I wondered what Cody would look like wearing one. His body was muscle and sharpness. The lines in his arms carved like stone. Every inch of his broad chest would be on display, his tight six-pack etched in the black spandex.
Zoe poked my side. “Why are you blushing?”
“What?” My cheeks burned. “I’m not.”
“Oh, yes, you are.” Her mouth hung open. “Skylar Da Lange, what were you just thinking about?”
“Nothing.” Cody. “I was thinking how ridiculous their uniforms are.” And how hot Cody would look wearing his. “Stop staring at me like that.”
The whistle blew the same time my phone dinged.
Cody: I finally got my phone back. Are you at the match?
Zoe hit my arm and pointed to the arena floor. Chugger struggled against his opponent, the two spinning as they hung on to one another. Blake catalogued every move from the sidelines, cheering on his friend. I wondered if Cody would do the same thing. If he’d find joy just from being here and watching the sport he loved.
Me: Can you FaceTime?
The noise level was manageable. Most people were either engrossed in a match or waiting for one while they played on their phones.
Cody: Yes. Hold on.
Seconds later, the face I hadn’t seen in twenty-four hours hit my screen.
“Hi,” he said with a grin as wide as mine. “Gotta love technology.”
“Were you in a lot of trouble?”
“Yes and no. Yes, because of how I handled it. No, because I was defending someone. Only grounded for a week.” He lay back on his bed, and I noticed he had a dark blue pillowcase with stripes on the edge.
I wanted to see more. Know what his world was like when he wasn’t in school. Know what happened his sophomore year. “Show me your room.”
“No way. It’s messy.”
“Ah, come on. I want to see what posters you have on the walls.”
Panic flashed in Cody’s eyes, and I burst out laughing. My dad. Hundred bucks said my dad was on his wall. “You have his…”
“Don’t judge.”
Zoe nudged me. “You’re missing it. They’re about to start round three.”
Cody sat up. “Is Blake wrestling?”
“No, Chugger. It’s his first match. Wanna see?”
There was a twinge of pain in his eyes, but he said, “Yes.’
I walked down the steps, holding the rail for stability. When I hit the fourth row, I held up my phone, so Cody could watch the match over the spectators’ heads. “Can you see?” I asked into the speaker.
“Down just a little. Okay. Yeah. Hold there.”
I stood at the rail through Chugger’s last round. He beat his opponent, I think, because Blake hollered, and I heard a faint “yes” through the phone. Chugger ran back to his coach and got a slap on the back. I turned the phone back around.
“Good?”
Cody heaved a big sigh. “Yeah. That was cool. Thank you.”
I sat on the closest empty seat. Whistles reverberated off the walls, and two men with huge drinks stepped past me to get to the aisle. I ached to ask him what Lindsay meant about Tom Baker and the pictures but wouldn’t do it over the phone. “I miss you. I really wish you were here.”
Cody brow dipped. “I know. I wish I was there, too. What are your plans?”
I groaned. “I think we’ll be here forever. And I’m already kinda done.” It wasn’t that I wasn’t having fun, but wrestling was pretty boring to watch, and without Cody, everything felt empty. My first real independent outing, and all I wanted was to be home. Sad. Very sad. “What about you?”
He tapped his lips. “Hmmmm. Well, I’m grounded from TV. Grounded from the Internet. I finished all my homework an hour ago. So, I guess I’ll sit and mope.” His smile said he was teasing, but he fell silent. The kind of silent that told me he was sorting though a million thoughts.
A knock had Cody dropping the phone. My screen was suddenly a close up of his comforter, but the voices remained clear.
A woman’s voice, whose tone definitely implied authority, spoke. “You have a friend here. Five minutes.”
“Who?”
“She said her name was Lindsay. Was she the one?”
The curiosity and innuendo in her words made my heart pound against my ribcage. I sucked in a breath to calm myself and licked my suddenly dry lips. I heard a faint, “I’ll be there in one second,” and then a door closing.
Cody’s face appeared back on the phone. “I have to run just real quick. Can I call you back?”
I forced a smile. “Sure.”
The rumors swirled in my head. The ones I chose not to believe. The ones that said Cody and Lindsay had been intimate on more than one occasion. Had she been in his room? Did she know how his bed felt? Had she seen my dad on his wall?
A painful pulse started beneath my skull as I trudged up the steps to Zoe.
She beamed like sunshine against my darkness. “He won. Did you see?” She practically bounced in her chair until she noticed my scowl. “What’s wrong?”
I clenched my phone. “Nothing.”
Everything.