Downfall of the nation's hero

Chapter 9

We end up winning by twelve against Iowa State. It was an ugly win, mostly because of my sabotage during the first half but our locker room thing with Ren made me change my mind. And let's be real, if I play well, no one is beating us. That might be why Fox didn't say a thing to me after the game, or why the rest of the team, even though they were obviously annoyed, stayed quiet.

Now we are back at the hotel, it's just me and Sophie. She hasn't talked to me the whole day. I get why she might be angry, but I know she saw it coming. And I know she won't go easy on me now. She's too smart to not figure out something wasn't right about my confrontation with Ren.

"So are you gonna tell me what happened between the two of you during halftime?" Sophie starts the uncomfortable conversation. "I mean, don't get me wrong, Mattie, I was glad that you decided to be the bigger person and actually started playing, but when Hailee told me Ren stayed in the locker room with you, I seriously thought you were going to murder each other. And as a captain, it wouldn't look good on my resume if two of my teammates killed one another during my first game at the position."

She's not wrong, I was about to commit a homicide, but then it all went down. And I mean literally. Us, my guard, the walls I had been building to protect myself, and the single moment completely shuttered it all. My cheeks start turning red at the thought of us making out on the floor. How right it felt to have her in my arms, how sweet she tasted.

"Okay, now I'm invested." Sophie says when she notices how red my face has become. I try to hide it from her, but it's too late. She starts laughing at me as she nudges me with her elbow. "Come on, Mattie, spill the tea. You didn't kill her, so how bad can it be?"

Oh, it can be even worse, Sophie, you have no idea.

"I... we..." I can't find the right words to say it. "You know how we always went off against each other and how I never understood how you could be friends with someone like her?"

"You're seriously not making this about me, are you?" Sophie gives me the 'Are you fucking serious' kind of look.

I shake my head, which clearly satisfies her and she nudges me to continue.

"Well, I confronted her about the leaked information..." I begin explaining. "She threw her water bottle at me and told me that she didn't do it. Well... She yelled at me that she didn't do it." My heartbeat gets faster when it's time to admit what happened next. It's like coming out all over again. I nervously scratch my neck and try to say it, but my vocal cords don't make a sound, making me bury my face in my palms from embarrassment. Why is it so hard to admit?

Sophie then gasps loudly. "No, you fucking did not!" She grabs me by my shoulders and starts shaking me. "Mattie, I swear to fucking god, if you don't tell me right now that you didn't..."

"I can't." My voice is so quiet, but it still breaks. "Because we did."

I'm afraid to look at her. But the silence that follows makes me do it. Sophie's eyes are open wide and she's got her hands over her mouth to prevent her from screaming. But she looks... excited?

"Oh my god, Auds, that's great!" She exclaims when she calms down a bit. "Is it great, right? How do you feel about it?" Sophie always makes sure to validate my feelings and this time is no exception. She knows how important it is to me, and I love her for it.

"It was amazing. But then..." I remember how I panicked when we stopped. Sophie's eyebrow arches curiously at my hesitation. "Then I panicked, and started accusing her again." I admit, and the pain from reliving the situation gets even worse. "It seemed too good to be true, you know?"

Sophie wraps her arms around me, trying to comfort me. "And how did she react?"

I'm just about to answer her question when someone knocks on our door. Sophie, being the overprotective friend she is, gets up from the bed and heads towards the exit of our hotel room. She half opens the door to check who's there, but when she sees the person, she turns back to me with a smirk on her face.