Page 9 of The Rebel
“No, I don’t play,” she said quite tersely.
“You used to,” I said. “You used to be good.”
“No, not me. I was never good.”
I chuckled, sure she was being modest. “You won those trophies with Paris back in the day. Gee, how long ago was that?”
“In the under 10s,” she said, almost angrily. “Sooooo long ago.”
“And you and me played a few times.”
“We did?” Her tone changed to one of surprise.
“Yeah, remember Coach Lisa’s group?”
Valencia frowned. “You were in her group too?”
It was kind of a let down that she had no memory of it, but I tried some humor. “Yeah, but my tennis was unmemorable. Just as well I quit and took up soccer.”
She shoved her hands in her pockets and walked with her eyes down, like she wasn’t interested.
“Why did you quit tennis?” I asked, now genuinely curious. Valencia and Paris had already been playing tennis for years when I joined the Country Club tennis group. They were coached privately, but Valencia moved into my group for a while. I eventually stopped playing, my talent average at best, and I much preferred soccer.
Valencia shrugged and mumbled. “I told you, I was no good.”
She looked up, her lower lip pouting, her dark eyes narrowing and swirling with anger like she was annoyed. But I wasn’t sure if it was my questions or the after effects of the nosebleed.
“Uh, let’s see,” I said, reading the menu board. “Do you want whipped cream? And holiday sprinkles?”
Valencia pulled out her phone and stared at her screen for several seconds before putting it back into her pocket. “Yeah, whatever,” she said, but her mouth twitched and her eyes were welling up again.
And I had a feeling it had nothing to do with the bump to her nose and the blood streaming down her face after smashing into my brother and his sled.
Chapter 4
VALENCIA
Do not cry in front of Jade Sinclair!
That was the overriding thought in my head as I stood beside him at the coffee cart.
Jade had ordered four hot chocolate drinks, but I had no idea why I’d agreed to one. With a lingering taste of blood down the back of my throat, a sickly sweet hot chocolate was the last thing I wanted. But he’d been so nice to me after I’d collided with Oliver, and I didn’t want to seem ungrateful.
I could see Gabby and Scott with my friends over on the hill. They must have witnessed the collision, but I couldn’t deal with any of them at the moment.
My phone had vibrated in my pocket while Jade and Oliver had been tending to my nosebleed. Gabby’s message was a stark reminder that everything had changed while I’d been gone:Are you mad at me?
I’d had to bite my lip and pretend my eyes were watering from the blood, anything to not start blubbering in front of Jade and Oliver. How humiliating would that have been, crying because I crashed off of my sled?
Jade Sinclair had been one of Paris’s friends, and our moms had become besties because the boys used to play together all the time. Usually outside with a ball of some sort or riding their bikes, sledding in winter and swimming in summer. But after Paris started doing school online, we’d seen less of Jade at the house. And from what I could see, he’d changed a bit since then. Like gotten taller and bigger and...seemed he didn’t sled anymore, that it was a bit immature for him now.
So, yeah, sniffling in front of him and acting like a crybaby wasn’t an option. For now, as he handed me a hot drink, I had to keep all my emotions locked inside. Play pretend, like news of Gabby’s relationship withmy crushwasn’t affecting me in the slightest, though I wasn’t totally sure if I was more bothered by their relationship or the fact that Gabby hadn’t told me about it. So focused on holding it all together, I neglected to see Gabby, Jasmyn and Kelsey approach the coffee cart.
“Hey Vali,” It was Jazmyn’s voice that made me turn around. “Did you get hurt?”
“Yeah, it looked like you crashed,” Kelsey said.
“Didn’t we say it wasn’t safe?” Gabby said softly, but infused with an unmistakableI-told-you-sotone.
