Grey Skies

Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

I was going to kill her. Someone would have to pull me away and restrain me to a chair to keep me from doing it. Carly had pushed every single button possible today at practice. Before I even stepped foot on the field I was annoyed with her. She decided to change her parking spot today and take mine, leaving me with the furthest spot from the field. I let this originally slide because she did hold seniority over me on the team. She was here longer so I guess it justified the shitty person that she was.

Of course Coach Serris decides that today he wants to split the practice in two. Coach White was going to work with the defensive squad while he worked with the offense. This meant that although I would be with Beth, I would also have to work closely with Carly. What Coach Serris did not understand was that Carly and I did not work together whatsoever, let alone closely. Then again, he probably understood this immensely. That's why he focused drills around the two of us receiving balls from the midfield and working together in positioning before going for the goal.

Throughout most of the drills, Carly handled the ball while completely ignoring me. However, Coach Serris saw this as Carly taking initiative and being in the right place while I wasn't working hard enough and my positioning was off. I think Carly was his favorite. Carly never did anything wrong. Carly was amazing. Carly belonged with the pros.

Then again, maybe he was right. Maybe I just didn't want to believe it. I was so used to being first, being the most important, being central to the team. Now I had to submit to Carly of all people. I had to admit that she was the central focus. She was the one people wanted to give the ball too. I was her background. Her literal shadow. Her support and distraction for defenders. I wasn't used to this position or submitting to the idea of Carly being better. I wasn't sure I'd ever be ready to submit to her.

"Good practice Iris," Carly says to me as we grab water and our stuff.

"Fuck off Carly."

Beth starts to cough out her water and Val tries not to laugh because Carly was her friend, too. She didn't want to offend her or takes sides. I still couldn't believed that Val of all people betrayed me and sold her soul to the Devil.

"What the hell is your problem?"

I roll my eyes and walk away from her. Like she didn't know. She had annoyed me this entire day and then wants to tell me it was a good practice in front of Beth and Val to make me crazy. As if they'd restrain me, as if she was safe from my fury. She was just lucky that she was the coach's favorite, whether he admitted it or not. I was still new and replaceable. A fight with his star player wouldn't be the right move no matter how satisfying I imagined it to be.

Rather than going home after practice, I drive to Davis' house, I mean Tyler. It's still so weird. I can't bring myself to call him Tyler when he has always been Davis to me. He will always be Davis to me. Except he thinks that it's a little strange for me to keep calling him Davis when we have clearly moved past that stage. That didn't stop him from calling me Grey though.

"How come you get to keep calling me Grey but I can't call you Davis?" I asked.

He was making me breakfast and I was sitting on his kitchen counter. It made me think back to the first time he ever cooked for me, the day during the game and storm. The same day that I found out that my grandmother had died that morning.

"That's different. When I call you Grey it's a form of endearment. And no one else really calls you Grey. It's like my own little thing. It makes it special. Some of my students calls me Davis, you used to call me it when you were my student and hated my guts."

I smiled and pushed myself off the counter. His shirtless back was toward the stove as I approached him and wrapped my arms around him. He squeezed my hands with his free one as they rested on his torso and the front of my body pressed into his back.