How could he sit in the stands and watch us slam into each other? Watch us use all the things he’s taught us against each other.

Should I ask him who he was cheering for?

Does he call Shannon Angel-face, too?

Forget it, he can call her Angel-face all he wants. And she can call him Daddy. I don’t want him anymore.

Make It Stop

REX

I can’t even be bothered with giving the play-by-play. We lose. Terribly. Russell Price scores thirty-seven. I score twelve. Couldn’t get anything to drop. Couldn’t get Carli out of my head. And now I want to erase her. Straight up. I want to find and destroy every little bit of her inside of me. Make it like I never caught her. Never kissed her. Never felt her. Never loved her. Like we were never anything.

CARLI

“Carli!” A locker bangs shut. “You need to bring your ass, Carli! I know you’re in here. I see all your stuff.” It’s Jordan. Sounds like she’s in the changing area. “Yo, we need to go! Everybody’s waiting on us.” And she’s getting closer.

I squeeze my eyes shut like it’s going to magically make me disappear. Stupid, I know, but I can’t go out there.

More banging as she kicks the bathroom doors open one by one. The screech of metal rings sliding on metal bars as she flings back the shower curtains.

Now she’s standing over me. “Get up!” she says, hands on her hips like she’s somebody’s mama. “You’re not about to miss the award ceremony just because you didn’t play the last few minutes of the game.”

Is that why she thinks I’m in here? But I can’t correct her. What am I going to say? Oh, Shannon is actually my sister. My dad fucked her mom and hid her from us all these years.

“What kind of sick shit is this?” she says, stepping over the used tampon. She grabs my arm. “I’m not playing, Carli. You need to get up.”

But there’s no way she can make me move. I’m way bigger than her.

“Okay, fine, then,” she says, picks up the razor, throws it into the shower stall across the aisle, and sits down. “If you’re missing it, I’m missing it.”

“Jordan, no. Go,” I say.

“I’m not going anywhere until you get up.”

“You’re being stupid. Go.” Basketball means everything to her. No way she’s going to miss the championship award ceremony because of me. And I know she’s going to get the MVP.

“Me? I’m being stupid? I’m not the reason we’re in here.”