Knee Pads

14 | derby wife

CHAPTER FOURTEEN | DERBY WIFE

another skater who has your back. they are the person who sticks up for you on and off track, and will support you throughout your derby career.

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          Katrina had successfully managed to corner me.

          At least, she'd had the decency to do so when I was by myself, with a minimal amount of people around us, and I knew this wouldn't get out into the world, as it was mortifying enough even when I was the only one who knew it. Granted, Corinne kind of knew about it, kind of didn't, choosing to be pettily cryptic instead and denying she was doing it, and that was all the Corinne-induced frustration I could deal with at the moment.

          Katrina Stone, my beloved, didn't have a mean bone in her body, and I could count on her to not make a big deal out of things, but I wasn't sure I wanted to trust anyone with this knowledge. It was honestly embarrassing and Katrina had known Corinne for way longer than I had; surely, she would be able to tell me just how badly I'd screwed things up.

          "Can we . . . not do this here? Please?" I asked. "I really need to take a shower."

          Her eyes widened. "Wow, okay, I'm definitely counting that as confirmation. I was just messing with you at first, but I was expecting you to either deny it or ironically admit to it just to get me to shut up." I groaned, pulling her away towards the showers by an arm. "Oooooh, this is juicy. Since when? I thought you hated her—"

          "I don't hate her. Actually, I think I hate you a lot more."

          She scoffed. "Please. It's impossible for anyone to hate me. I'm a very lovable person."

          "Really? I'd beg to differ right now."

          "You're stalling." She crossed her arms, leaning a shoulder against a wall. She was barely taller than me, but I still felt significantly smaller when cornered like this. "Elaborate, please. I'm all aflutter."

          "Look, it's not a big deal, okay? It's really not. You're blowing everything out of proportion—"

          Kat quirked an eyebrow, already skeptical. "Wren, no offense, but if it really wasn't that big of a deal, you wouldn't be freaking out nearly as much. It's only a big deal because you're making it out to be a big deal; Corinne is just a person—"

          "Then why did you corner me like this? It honestly just feels like you're trying to get a reaction out of me, and you even said you thought I hated her. If anyone is making a big deal out of this, it's you." She straightened her shoulders. I hated arguing with her, as it felt horribly similar to yelling at a puppy, but my frustration was growing increasingly faster. "I don't know how it happened or why, but it just did. They're really, really small feelings, like the ones you get over that one pizza you ate at some obscure restaurant you never found again. She gave me a ride when I really needed to be somewhere in time, then we grabbed something to eat on the way back to campus."

          "Why didn't you ask me? I could have given you a ride wherever you wanted to go."

          I knew my personal life story would eventually come out the longer I stayed in Connecticut and was part of a tight-knit group, with people with zero sense of personal space, but this hardly felt like the right time or place to spill it all out to Katrina. I'd like it to come out on my own terms, the words spilling out of my own mouth out of my free will, not maliciously whispered and treated as hot, petty gossip.