by Croft, Rose
She seemed very desperate, which was crazy. Alyssa was one of the hottest models going right now. “I’m sorry, but I’m really tired.” I hugged her, and she clung onto me. I thought she was about to cry.
I pulled back and placed my thumb under her chin. “Hey, you’re going to get over this. You are a beautiful girl and a sweet person. But, you’ve got to let Andrew go. This isn’t healthy behavior. You’re better than that.”
She gazed into my eyes and nodded and seemed somewhat embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I guess I’m making a fool of myself. I won’t post that picture. I promise.”
“Thank you. Take care Alyssa.”
I said goodnight to the guys. As I was leaving the bar, I felt my phone buzz in my hand. It was a text from Andrew.
What the hell was that?
Oh great. This was just what I didn’t need. I’m sure he probably thought I encouraged that photo. I would be the first to admit I loved fucking with my brother, but I would never do something like send a picture of me with his ex. That was just stupid and spiteful. Andrew had zero interest in getting back with Alyssa. I knew.
Before I could respond, I felt an arm slung around me. “I take it you found a new girlfriend, huh buddy?” It was Kip’s drunk-ass hanging on me.
I shoved him off. “Get the fuck away from me.” I would have to take another shower after him touching me. And, I damn sure didn’t want to do something foolish in public, especially at a high profile club.
I kept walking. He followed. He slapped me on the back. “Don’t worry, man. I got you. Gimmie Miss Big Tits’ number. I’ll take good care of her.”
I paused, flexed my hand. My brain shut down, and I lost the ability to think sanely. Like time was overrated, I whipped around and punched him in the face, knocking his ass on the floor. I was so angry I didn’t even hear the commotion around me. This fucker waved a red cape in my face and I was a goddamned bull. I jumped on him, looking for the kill. I slammed my fist into his gut repeatedly and decked his jaw before some of my teammates pulled me off him.
“McKeon, stop! Are you fucking crazy? Do you want to go to jail?” Javier was yelling in my face along with a few other teammates who were dragging my ass out of the club before more attention was brought to myself.
They pushed me outside and hailed a cab. It wasn’t long until they were shoving me in one. I was still freaking fuming. As I sat alone in the back seat, I realized I’d just fucked myself—fighting in public. This would probably be on ESPN, MLB and other channels in the morning. Not to mention all over the Internet.
I wanted to call Rose, but knew she was in bed by now. When I stepped in my room, I saw Joey was asleep, snoring as usual. He was a good guy who didn’t drink or like going out. He spent most of his time playing video games or talking to his long-term girlfriend on the phone. He was the smart one. Why didn’t I just go back to my room after dinner?
I went to the bathroom and washed my face. There was a faint red spot on my left cheek, but that was it. I guess Kip did land one. I didn’t remember probably because he hit like a pussy. The knuckles on my right hand were red as I stared opening and closing my hand. I needed to wash the stench of tonight off of me and Kip’s tainted blood that dotted the back of my hand, so I took a shower.
After, putting on my boxer briefs, I settled on my bed and grabbed my phone. I already had texts and calls from my agent, the general manager, and manager wanting to meet with me in the morning. Shit. I would probably be suspended after this incident. At least I wasn’t in a brawl with one of the club-goers, and the police wasn’t involved.
I checked Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms and saw the photos and videos posted of our group in the club. There were many shots of the other players with their arms draped around girls. There were several of Alyssa and I, not the selfie that she took. However, someone else had taken a picture of her taking the photo kissing me on the cheek. This was going to look bad if Rose saw these.
Of course, the next morning it was all over the news. The worst part was there was speculation the fight was all caused over a jealous dispute over a blonde model. They showed the pictures in order like a timeline of her greeting me, sitting by me, and her selfie of us. The last couple of photos were when we hugged. Then I had my hand on her face telling her to get over Andrew, but it appeared as if we were about to kiss. Someone had video of the fight. The final photo was when Rose and I were kissing at the hotel earlier this week, so it looked like I was a player who jumped from one girl to another.
It was Friday morning and Rose was in class. I had texted her to call me, but had yet to get a response. I would wait until her scheduled break to call again, if I hadn’t heard from her.
“Dude, you’re screwed,” Joey said as he came out of the bathroom.
“Thanks for making me feel better.”
“Does your girlfriend know about this? Or are you only together,” and he put air quotes around together, “when you’re in the same city?”
“Really, Joey? Rose is my girl.” Joey was a good guy, but I considered busting his lip if he didn’t pipe down with the stupid comments. I exhaled and rubbed my eyes in frustration. “I wasn’t with that girl last night. She used to date my brother, and we were talking about him. Come on, you know how things can be blown out of proportion with phones and social media. And, I haven’t talked to Rose. She’s in class right now.”
“Why did you get in a fight with Kip?”
“Because he was drunk and made an inappropriate comment about Rose. I should’ve ignored him, but I let anger overcome common sense.” I was going crazy sitting around, waiting. I clicked the TV off, tired of seeing this circus run on replay. “Wouldn’t you have done the same if that disgusting piece of shit said something about your girl?”
Joey tilted his head to the side. “Yeah, probably. I’m sorry man.”
My phone rang, I grabbed it hoping it was Rose, but it was Andrew.
Here goes round one of what-the-fuck-happened. “Hey, Andrew.”
“What the hell is going on?”
“It’s not what it looks like. We were celebrating Javier’s birthday, and Alyssa was there with some friends. She saw me and was asking about you and still pretty bitter. She surprised me with the kiss-on-the-cheek selfie. Then, sent it to you. She was acting very crazy-ex-girlfriend-like about you, and I told her she needed to move on because her behavior was not normal.”
“Okay. Does Rose know this because there are pictures everywhere, and it doesn’t look good. Why would you fight in a club, a popular club, in New York of all places?”
I explained what happened. “Hey, does Loren know Alyssa sent the pic?”
“Yes, John. I tell her everything. I don’t want to keep any secrets from her. Alyssa and I have been done for several months, and I have no intention of ever seeing her again. You know Loren has always been the one.”
“I know, and I would never play stupid games like texting and taking pictures to piss you off. I’m still waiting for Rose to call me back.”
“You better clear this up with her because she doesn’t seem like a very forgiving person if she thinks she’s been burned.”
“Fuck.” I rubbed my hand over my head. “I know that. I will.” It was almost nine thirty. “Hey I gotta go because I have a meeting with the general manager.”
“Okay, man, I hope this isn’t too painful on your pocketbook.”
Of course, when I met with my coach and GM, they were not happy about the situation. I was given a three-game suspension, no pay for those games, and a $75,000 fine. Douchebag Kip was only suspended for one game since I threw the first punch. The GM told me how irresponsible I was putting the team in this position to have to defend my actions. He reamed me for jeopardizing our league standings by missing three games that were important. My manager ripped me a new one, too.
Instead of me flying to Cleveland with the team, I flew back to Chicago by myself. Rose still didn’t text or call. I wanted to howl and
punch something again. I hoped I didn’t screw this up when I was trying to do the right thing.
When I woke up the next morning, I was excited it was Friday. I was ready for the weekend, so I could get some rest. I was still adjusting to working on a regular schedule. It didn’t help that I stayed up until midnight talking and texting with John after his games.
I made a cup of coffee and turned on the TV to watch one of the nationally syndicated morning shows. It was either that or sports highlights. Who would’ve thought that I’d be so interested in sports?
As I mindlessly watched from the kitchen, I made breakfast, and heard the hosts say something about two baseball players getting into an altercation in a New York club allegedly over a girl. I froze when photos of John flashed on the screen with some blonde that looked familiar. Wasn’t she a model? Not just one picture, there were several of her kissing his cheek, hugging, and gazing into his eyes. They showed footage of him pummeling someone, but it was dark and grainy it was hard to see whom he punched. The final photo popped up of John and I kissing outside of my hotel. One of the anchors made a flippant comment about how he gets around.
My heart sank to my stomach. I felt like the biggest fool. Was this how it worked? I gave up the goods, and he was ready to move on? The first time I wanted to have a real relationship again, I had to start one with a professional baseball player. I couldn’t go through heartbreak and devastation once more like I did with Carlos. Of course, the situations were totally different. However, I couldn’t get attached to someone who wasn’t committed to me. I didn’t know if I could handle the unwanted publicity. Luckily, in our photo my face was turned so you couldn’t see my identity. Gosh, I was an idiot! This was my worst nightmare coming true.
As much as I wanted to wallow in self-pity, I had to go to work. I forced myself to take a shower and mentally prepared for my classes. I had to be there for my students. The first day of classes had begun on Wednesday, and I had approximately one hundred and forty students I taught throughout the day.
When I unlocked my classroom door, I had about forty-five minutes before classes began. Usually, I used that time to do any final prep work that I needed to do and check emails. Five minutes before the bell sounded, I received a text from John asking me to call or text him when I had time.
I’m here for you, always, he said. And, I fell for it like an unsuspecting fool on Catfish. I couldn’t do this at work. I couldn’t let this affect my work. Even on my break, I didn’t want to go into what happened because I needed to stay focused on my job. Anyway, in my profession, lunch and planning periods passed by quickly, and really left no time for personal business. That was somewhat true, but in reality I was just furious and hurt.
During my lunch break, which I normally used to take a bathroom break, suck down a quick bite like a boa constrictor, check and send emails, I noticed John had called and left a voice mail this time. Now, I had all of five minutes until my next class began. I was so pissed I deleted it before thinking. Then, got even angrier that I had.
As I laid my phone down, it dinged signaling a notification. It was from the sports app I had downloaded when I began following John’s baseball season. I glanced at it:
Breaking News—John McKeon was suspended for three games and fined $75,000 for fighting. Kip Cummings received a one game suspension and a $25,000 fine.
I shook my head. Well, I hoped she was worth it, asshole. I wanted to chop off his dick and throw it in a blender. I wanted to scream at him for breaking my heart. My crazy thoughts scared the crap out of me. I had to get it together. Leaving the phone on my desk, I tried to refocus and clicked on the remote of my SMART Board and waited for students to arrive.
When the final class ended, I was still busy because I had students meeting with me to ask questions about their first big assignment, which took another hour to conference with them all. Then, I went over my lesson plans for Monday making certain I was prepared. By that time, it was almost six.
There were still quite a few teachers in the building on a Friday evening, which was normal at the beginning of the year. We were still trying to settle into our classrooms.
I was about to check my phone when two of my colleagues popped in. Daniel and Tracy also taught English, and we collaborated with each other. Daniel was a couple of years younger than me with this only being his second year teaching. I basically mentored him last year. Tracy was thirty, four years older than me, single, and liked to mingle. She was fun to be around and a great teacher. The kids loved her.
“Rosie Rose, what are you still doing here?” Tracy asked as she and Daniel approached my desk.
“Trying to finish last minute stuff. Why are you two still here? I thought you would already be at a bar hitting happy hour.”
“That’s what we plan on doing now. You wanna go with us? Come on, we need to blow off some steam. You know how stressful the beginning of the year is.”
“I don’t know. I’m exhausted. I’m still not used to this getting up early business.”
“Please? Besides, I feel like we haven’t spoken in forever,” Tracy begged.
“Yeah, and I need to be around adults since I talk to kids all day. And tomorrow is Saturday, so you can sleep late,” Daniel added.
I really would like to chat with them since we didn’t ever have time at school, and anything was better than sitting at home making myself sick wondering what John was doing.
“Okay, one drink.” I grabbed my purse, and we walked out to the parking lot together chatting about our day.
We met at a low-key place that wasn’t far from where I lived, and the drinks were cheap. That always worked for teachers. As I parked, I checked my phone, I read the several texts from John and one from Loren.
At 1:00p.m.:
Please call me. Just landed in Chicago. I got suspended.
1:30p.m.:
Nothing happened last night. Everything was blown out of proportion.
1:50p.m.:
Seriously Rose, nothing happened. That girl was Alyssa. Andrew’s old girlfriend.
2:00p.m.:
ROSE!!!!! Are you really going to ignore me??????
Then, Loren texted around 4:30pm.
You need to call John.
There was another voicemail from John, the suspense was killing me, and I wanted to check the message. I heard a knock on my window and jumped, startled. It was Tracy motioning for me to get out of my car. I shoved my phone in my purse.
We found a table and had a round of drinks discussing our classrooms, and gossiping about any changes that had occurred since last year. Since it was a large high school, I never knew what was going on in other people’s lives. But Tracy sure as heck did. Within thirty minutes I knew Jeff, our AP Biology teacher was sleeping with Ms. Johnson, the assistant principal. Leslie, one of the calculus teachers was going through an ugly divorce. So and so had botox, while another teacher had CoolSculpting. Why in the world would anyone confide in Tracy? I loved her, but dang she knew more about dirty laundry than a dry cleaner.
Tracy ordered another round for us. “Tracy,” I warned.
“One more Rose. That’s it.”
I conceded. I didn’t want to drink too much and do something stupid like call John and profess undying love to him or tell him how much he’d hurt me. My phone buzzed.
John: I need to talk to you, please don’t ignore me.
Of course, the one drink had loosened my resolve. My thumbs tapped out a message before I could stop them.
Me: I’m busy right now. I’ll talk to you later.
I laid my phone down. Then, another text sounded.
John: Busy? With what?
OMG! He had a lot of nerve asking that. I bit my tongue and hammered out a reply.
Work. I’ll call you later.
John: Still working?????
I glared at the text briefly and set my phone down. He always seemed to go overboard with the question marks. After last night, he needed to check himself on the q
uestioning.
“Anything new going on in your life?” Tracy asked with a smirk.
Get it the fuck together, Rose, in front of nosy-ass Tracy. “No. Not really.”
“You sure about that? You’ve been checking that phone every other minute. Right, Daniel?”
He smiled uneasily, not one to be invasive like Tracy. “I don’t know. I guess.”
“No I haven’t,” I denied. Yes, you have.
“And when I saw you in your car you were staring intently at it. I thought I interrupted a private moment.” Tracy made love eyes at her phone trying to mimic me.
“I’ve been texting back and forth with my friend Loren.”
“Yeah, right, Rose,” she said unconvinced.
As if Loren could hear me, she texted again, and I flashed the phone to Tracy so she could see her name, and said, “See?”
When she saw it, I pulled the phone back. “Who is John?”
I hadn’t read the message when I showed her, but in the text Loren had asked if I had talked to him.
“Just a friend,” I mumbled as I replied yes to Loren, which wasn’t exactly a lie hoping she would leave it at that.
“You, you got what I neeeeeed…but you say he’s just a friend…” Tracy sang out the old-school hip-hop song swaying her arms over her head and nudged Daniel to join in with him.
I laughed. “You two are definitely trippin.’”
“Word up,” Tracy joked, and we all started singing.
After I finished my second drink, I switched to water as we snacked on appetizers. By the time we left, it was almost eight-thirty. When I arrived at my apartment I found the closest available parking spot. Most spots were taken since it was Friday night.