Page 86 of Call the Shots
“Ihave no idea what Montoya’s going through?” A hard laugh burst out of me. “Me?” At June’s puzzled silence, I scoffed. “Acting dumb is cute. What, you want details?”
“What are you talking about?”
“We’ve been dancing around it, and I don’t want to do that anymore. Paisley leaked my nudes, haha, it’s so funny.”
For silent seconds, June stared, eyes wide, and it was too confusing for me to handle while drunk. Of course June knew. If Xavier announced it at parties, he must’ve told June.
My heart slowed as I thought about the possibility…
“You…don’t know.”
“Paisley leaked your nudes?” she whispered.
Embarrassment clung to me. My biggest baggage hung out there, and I didn’t realize we were having this kind of conversation until I stumbled into it. I swallowed hard.
Fuck.
“I—uh—Wade was my best friend. We stayed in touch after camps in high school and we were incoming freshmen for North Dakota together. We got really close.” I shuffled back to the door, leaning against it again. “During the summers, his parents let me crash at their place. I knew his sister had a crush on me—that’s Paisley, she’s a year older. Everyone was waiting for us to get together. Junior year, I thought—fuck it. They let me stay at their house, I was close to the family, why not.”
I refused to answer any of the questions from my new teammates about why I left North Dakota. Talking about it out loud was fucking uncomfortable. Yet here I was, telling June.
“I put in effort, but I knew it wasn’t working out with her,” I continued. “I kept trying to end it and she blew me off. I didn’t want to hurt her, and I didn’t want it to fuck with Wade and me,so I pulled back.” I snorted, twisting the bed sheet between my hands. “I thought she’d get the hint, and I guess she did because I missed her fundraiser, and she posted my nudes everywhere.”
June’s mouth fell open.
“Videos, pictures, with my full name and school info—face included. They were on these revenge porn sites, which I didn’t know existed, and there was this ND group chat with like five thousand students. The moderators couldn’t handle every photo dump.”
“Oh my god,” she whispered.
“Then I check the profiles of this shit. The accounts had number five—Wade’s jersey number—and our mascot in the usernames, these breadcrumbs, it’s Wade too. It’s my best friend doing this shit.”
I had no idea I was this drunk, but I couldn’t stop talking.
“You really didn’t know?” I pressed. “I thought you knew. I mean, I don’t care that my dick’s out there, whatever. The comments are flattering, I had to turn off my DMs. But it’s…uh…the fact that sheknew…” I hesitated. “She knew it’d hurt me, and she did it anyway.”
“Is that why you transferred?” June asked, her voice gentle.
“North Dakota socials had these innuendos. Girls showed up to games with pictures to flash on the boards. One day, I opened my locker, and it was stuffed full of prints. I figured out who did it—two seniors—and I beat the shit out of them. I sent them to the hospital.”
June watched me, eyes wide.
“I talked to my coach, nothing was getting done about the situation, whatever. I was going to the NHL, right? I didn’t give a shit. Except my coach wanted me for another season. I said no, so he contacted my new coaches about the fights. Suddenly, the Bulldogs are telling me they need to determine if I would be a ‘healthy addition to the team.’”
“But you’re drafted?—”
“Drafted, not contracted. It works differently in the NHL. They have my player rights, and they can dangle them and I can’t doshit.” I smiled, humorless. “How funny is that? I’m drafted to a pro team, and it doesn’t fucking matter because of some nudes I didn’t even want to take.”
“Bear?”
“Yeah? Want an autograph? A signed copy?”
“I’m so sorry.”
I studied her face, searching for the jokes and the punchlines, but all I saw was her pale face and her bloodshot eyes. I didn’t know what to make of it.
“I’m really sorry.” Her hand curled against her chest. “That’s horrible.”
“I thought you knew. It feels like everyone knows.”
