Kate Christie by Beautiful Game

Author:Beautiful Game [Game, Beautiful]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2011-09-13T09:04:09+00:00

122 Kate Christie

Holly seemed surprised. “You got dissed? That’s gotta be a first.”

I stared at her across the table. “I told you, I wasn’t hitting on her. And anyway, you know none of that gossip is true. Jesus, Holly.”

She held up a placating hand. “Take it easy. Calm down, Cam.”

“Why should I?” I stopped. I rarely called Holly on anything she did that annoyed me. I rarely called anyone on anything.

Except Jamie Betz, maybe. I stood up as Becca returned to the table. “I gotta go. I’ll see you guys later.”

“Fine,” Holly said shortly, her scowl matching mine.

Outside the student center, I pulled on my fleece, hopped on my bike and took off. When I got to my dorm, though, I didn’t stop. Instead, I veered onto a road that led off-campus.

I needed to get away. Thoughts of soccer and Holly and Jamie and Jess were all swirling through my mind, one unresolved problem after another. I wasn’t used to this. Usually I just let things happen as they might and didn’t worry about the end result. But nothing was working out the way it should. I was sick about soccer, uninterested in most of my classes, worried about the whole Jamie Betz thing, and now I wasn’t sure if the friendship I had going with Jess was really what I wanted. I’d thought it could be enough, but after the previous night, I wasn’t so sure anymore.

I ended up at Seal Beach, standing on the wall at the end of the walkway letting the surf crash at my feet and splash me with spray. The ocean soothed me, its wildness something tangible I could taste in the salty dampness of my skin. It was a windy day, the waves high, gray clouds moving quickly overhead and blocking the sun. It probably wouldn’t rain, though. Southern California was in the grip of a drought that felt permanent. Not like lush Oregon. Or rainy Seattle.

Seattle. I checked my watch. National finals would be underway right now. At this moment, I should have been heading a cross out of the air, or tracking down a breakaway. I should have been saving a certain goal in front of a crowd that included my family and friends. Instead I was standing on a concrete walkway Beautiful Game 123

staring out at the dark, gray Pacific, pondering my plethora of recent failures.

My life really was amazingly good, I knew. I was healthy and playing my way through school, my future wide open and waiting for me to discover it. I loved my family and they loved me. They had even accepted my sexual orientation as natural and somewhat unavoidable, probably because I’d always been a tomboy and good at sports—the stereotypical lesbian. I was lucky, I knew. I just didn’t feel like it right now.

I made my way down to the beach and lay in the sand near the rocky cliff wall, watching the low-flying clouds pass overhead.

I emptied my mind of everything but the worry eating me up inside and let it have its way.

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