𝐇𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

THIRTY FIVE

Constance

"...and so I'm sorry to everyone, especially the girls who had to witness the way Angelle was acting."

"Thank you, Clark," Coach Wang nodded at me approvingly, clapping. The girls joined in, whispering already.

"Okay. Let's get into practice!"

Kynlee came up to me and gave me a fist bump, a sort of sad look in her eyes that I knew was due to her best friend being gone.

"Laps around the gym," I waved my hand around, my mind still on Vee not being here. The girls broke out into a run and Wang approached me. "I already heard about Vee. I don't know what's getting into that girl. Has to be some sort of bad influence. It just isn't like Vivianne to keep getting into this much trouble," she commented.

I felt guilty. I had to be the reason.

"Yeah, we don't know when she'll be able to come back to practice," I said.

"Oh, you've spoke to her? Her father only called. She tried to come by during her passing period and talk but she didn't wanna get a tardy."

"She has a lot of family issues at home right now," I said vaguely.

"Oh...I see."

"Push ups! Stay where you are and space out!" I shouted out.

"I think they'll win this next game. What about you?" Wang nodded, smiling out at the court.

Even though they hadn't won last Saturday, I had seen a new glow to her eyes that wasn't the teary shine of alcohol. She saw hope in this team, and maybe saw a bit of hope in her capabilities too as a coach.

"For sure," I nodded along.

After practice, I was helping the girls put up some of the balls they had been using today when a little cluster of them approached me, the team captain hanging towards the back of the group.

"Constance, can we ask you something?" one of them said.

"Sure," I agreed, not really looking up as I made sure everything was put away.

"Is it true that you work at the library?"

"Yeahhh," I said awkwardly. What? Was they finna laugh at me or something? I needed to get money some sort of way. I finally looked up, taking in their flustered expressions.

"What time do you work?"

"How'd y'all learn that?" I asked, amused.

"Someone overhead you and Wang talking about your job," one of the girls giggled.

Kynlee walked past, hearing the girls and not hiding her disapproval.

"Hm."

"What timeee?" one of them giggled.

"Late at night, past your bedtimes," I gave them all a smirk. "Now someone take this to the storage for me."

I left the girls to finish cleaning up, heading out of the gym through the side door. I went out to my car, nodding at some girls outside waiting for their rides to pick them up out in the burning sun.

I got in my car, and put on my Calculus podcast, something I hadn't done in awhile, and got ready to head back to my apartment, then work.

I already know Angelle is gonna be a handful today, if she certainly wasn't before. Maybe I'd get lucky and she wouldn't fully remember the party, but I'm sure if that was the case, Arnae surely would have filled her in anyways. There wasn't gonna be any escaping her level of pettiness.

Hooray for me.

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