Page 26 of Ready to Score

“For two years.”

“We’re talking about the same Caroline Bailey who had her superintendent mother fire our English teacher sophomore year for having us readThe Crucibleeven though it was literally in the curriculum?” Miri asked.

“Uhhhh…” Lim trailed off, looking like a deer caught in headlights.

“It can’t be the same Caroline Bailey who sent around a petition to declare cheerleading a civil rights offense?” Jade asked.

“Yeah, that actually does sound like her.”

Jade scarfed down another fry. “How in the hell did that happen?”

“We met at a queer burlesque show my friend was performing at in Houston. Caroline was hosting, and we ended up talking backstage. Within like two months, I was convinced that she was the love of my life, and I moved here with her thinking we were going to… I don’t know… get married or something. It didn’t last long. A few months after that, she ran off with some girl she met during a pottery-making seminar in Charleston. I haven’t heard from her since.”

“Fuuuuck,” Miri breathed out.

“She just left you here?” Jade asked, her heart sinking into her stomach at the mere thought of that type of callousness. She might have been a bitch, but she at least had morals.

“I literally came home to her packing her shit up into one suitcase and hopping into the other girl’s car like it was nothing.”

“That’s so… fucked-up,” Jade said, trying her hardest not to sound pitying.

“Why did you stay?” Miri asked. “Why not just go home after all that?”

Lim was silent for a few moments, a small wrinkle appearing between her eyebrows as she contemplated. Then she flashed a look at Jade, and it nearly knocked her out of her seat. It wasn’t the sad, defeated look she’d expected from someone who’d been stepped allover. There was fire there, the kind that came from someone who was ready for a fight.

“I saw an opportunity here,” Lim answered. “I still do. I’m trying to show myself that I didn’t just upend my life for some girl who didn’t give a shit about me. I want something good to come out of all this. Something great, actually.”

“I hear that,” Miri said, and she raised her peach tea in solidarity.

Lim laughed, not smug or condescending. A genuine, tinkling sound that felt in direct contrast to the smokiness that was normally in her voice. It made Jade’s throat feel thick.

“That search for something great has you encroaching on dangerous territory, girlie,” Jade remarked.

The condescension rolled from Lim like water off a duck’s back. “I told you before, Jade, you don’t scare me. I’ve dealt with bigger and badder than you.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Next to her, Miri snorted but otherwise kept quiet. Lim crossed her arms, her posture immediately more defensive than Jade had ever seen it.

“I’ll admit that I’ve never had a town hall meeting called over me, but this one time, one of the dads on my AAU team literally picked me up and carried me off the field against my will.”

Jade’s spine straightened in an instant. “What?”

“Excuse me?” Miri was incredulous.

“One of the kids on my team did AAU and played for his school at the same time. He had one of those dads who never made it pro himself and was pushing his kid way too hard to make it happen for him. You know the type.”

Jade nodded, mouth hanging open slightly.

“He’d had problems with me all season, questioning every decision I made, complaining about me to the head coach, that sort ofthing. Anyway, we were in a playoff game, down by eight points, and I pull his kid because he’s clearly tired and he’s moving slow. And the second I get him off the field, his dad rushes me and starts screaming in my face and shit. He starts getting progressively more furious, and I just stand there straight-faced, trying not to sock him in his big, nasty mouth. I guess he got enough of that because all of a sudden the dude just picks me up under my arms, carries me off to the side of the bleachers, and tells me I belong there and not on the field.”

Now Jade’s jaw dropped open so wide she was surprised her tongue didn’t touch her shoes.

“What did you do?” Miri asked, her tone colored with all the shock Jade felt.

“I shrugged it off because that’s what you have to do. My coach got him ejected from the game and his kid was basically banned from competing in that league, but nothing like that would have ever happened if he hadn’t felt like he had a right to literally command my body because I’m a woman.”

“No, it wouldn’t have,” Jade agreed. “His cowardly ass probably would have been too scared to get in your face at all.”

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