Tryst Six Venom by Penelope Douglas

needing to run to get rid of the urge to scrub the front of her locker with nail
polish remover. The janitors will take care of it tonight.
My head overflows with lava, and it just keeps coming and coming, the
fact that she’s not here. And she won’t be here tomorrow.
Krisjen takes up Liv’s place on the field, Amy and Ruby laughing and
joking around, everyone carrying on their conversations like she’s not gone.
Like she wasn’t important.
She’s smart. She works hard. She’s in that theater every night, without
pay, no one more devoted to earning everything she deserves. She comes
from nothing, works her ass off, is honest, and a good person. She’s the
muscle on the team, and they’re all just acting like we actually have a shot
without her. Like she isn’t irreplaceable.
But to them, she’s nothing. She’s just the dyke who once went here.
“Come on!” I yell when Krisjen misses the goal again.
“I can’t…” She gasps. “Clay, I can’t. It’s too fast.”
“Too fast?” I bark, getting in her face, the numbness of the last few days
gone. “Are you kidding?”
Krisjen backs away from me, scared.
“Gibbon’s Cross is gonna be a lot harder on you. Stop pussing out!” I
yell.
Everyone stops, sweat coating my back and no one’s fucking laughing
now.
“I’m not losing the biggest game of my senior year because everyone
wants to get lazy all of a sudden!”
The game is in two days, for Christ’s sake!
“Collins…” Coach warns.
But I throw down my stick and my eyewear, sprinkles of rain hitting my
arms. “God, you guys suck!”
I stomp off toward the locker room. Coach grabs my arm, but I yank it
away.
“Coach, it’s okay,” I hear Krisjen tell her as I keep walking. “We’ll go.”
I leave, heading for the locker room without looking up.
It’s fine. Everything is fine.
I yank my locker door open, but I haven’t had enough, and I do it again
and again, tears spilling down my face as I dig in my backpack for the pill
bottle.
I fumble with the cap, finally giving up and resting my head on the locker