“Okay,” he took her hand away from his cheek and kissed it. “Just know that I’m gonna have a serious problem with it if you ever spend any amount of time with this guy, and that includes on the phone. I don’t like him.”
Smiling, she tilted her head. “He doesn’t have my number. He was just saying that to push your buttons. But that’s fine; I don’t care if I ever talk to him again or not.”
She really didn’t. Ben had been a friend way back, and he’d done wonders for her ego. But ever since Vincent showed up last summer, he’d pretty much consumed her every thought. Then when she moved in with Grace, Sal had added her onto their cell phone plan and got her a new phone along with a new number. She’d lost her entire contact list. Even back then she knew better than to add Ben back onto her list.
Vincent had made no secret about this side of him. Via texts it was always fun especially because it was usually her just playing with him. He’d get all riled up anyway, but seeing it in person had been almost scary. She’d known even back in the beginning that Ben was not someone Vincent would be crazy about her being friends with, so she hadn’t bothered trying to get his number or reconnecting. She could’ve easily done so through Facebook.
Vincent and Lorenzo went and sat in the bleachers where they were joined by Grace, Sal, Sal’s youngest brother Angel, and his wife Sarah. They often came to watch her games. Having both played sports all through high school and college, they said they missed those days and liked watching her play. Sal had even printed out her schedule for them.
The first game of the tournament went well with them shutting out the other team. Vincent said he loved watching her play. He said for such a sweet girl, she was a badass on the field. She had to be. She played sweeper. If the ball got past her, the other team would likely score.
They were nearing the end of the first game and were up one to zero. All they had to do was shut them out, and they had the first game in the tournament won. Rose had been playing sweeper since she was seven. The other team’s forward was fast, but Rose was not only faster she was taller, and after knocking this chick on her ass twice already, Rose knew she’d intimidated her.
Wincing when she saw her last defender get beat and the opposing team’s forward heading for the goal, Rose turned it on going at her full speed. Running side by side, Rose did what she did best and used her body to push the girl toward the sideline away from the goal. She could hear everyone screaming for her to get in front of her, and when she got the chance, she did. She stepped in front of her and stopped dead in her tracks making the girl flop off her back.
Rose lifted her hands in the air when she heard the girl hit the floor with a grunt. She continued dribbling the ball away from the girl she’d just slammed on the floor, glancing at the ref to make sure he wasn’t going to call a foul. What she’d done was completely fair, but sometimes these girls flopped so hard and really turned up the dramatics that the ref called it. When he didn’t, she turned and kicked the ball, clearing it all the way to the other side of the field as the sidelines cheered.
“That’s how you do it, Rose!” Caleb, a guy she knew from the boys’ soccer team yelled, loudly clapping his hands on the sidelines as she held her hips catching her breath. “Way to use that body!”
She smiled, taking a quick peek up at the stands. Sure enough Vincent was watching the guy but continued to clap, while Lorenzo placed his fingers in his lips and whistled.
After the game while the coach gave the in between-games pep talk, Rose checked her phone. Sal had spared no expense. It was one of the fancy ones that had everything including Internet, and she saw she had a few updates on her Facebook page.
She clicked as her coach recounted the few mistakes they had made in the first game and what else they needed to work on since the next school they were playing would be tougher.
Her heart nearly dropped when she saw a picture of her and Ben at the prom on her Facebook wall. It wasn’t the formal picture Grace had hung in the front room of their old apartment either. Even that would’ve been bad because it was obvious why Ben posted it on her wall. He was being jerk.
That alone would’ve set Vincent off. But this was so much worse. It was one of them dancing a slow song, but since Ben and his friends had always been such clowns, the friend taking the picture had asked Ben to dip her. He did, and when Rose let her head fall back for an even more dramatic effect, Ben had kissed her neck. His friend snapped the picture at that very moment. It was all in fun, and she’d laughed at the time, but now here it was on her Facebook wall for the entire world to see, including Vincent, with a caption that read, “We have to do this again. I’ll call you.”
She couldn’t believe he was doing this now. He’d never been this type of guy. Vincent had obviously pissed him off good, but to want to cause her problems? How could he? He had to know she had no control over Vincent’s reaction, and he saw her try to calm Vincent. It wasn’t like she’d enjoyed it the way some stupid girls did who actually tried making their boyfriends jealous and fight for them. She’d never enjoy seeing Vincent as upset as he’d been today.
The coach finished, and for the life of her she could not figure out how to delete the post from her wall. At home it was easy enough, but there were so many things on her phone she couldn’t do like she could on her laptop.
Vincent had a Facebook page, and though he didn’t use it nearly as often as she used hers, Lorenzo did. They were friends on Facebook, too, and he often liked and even commented on her posts. Thankfully, neither of them had phones with Internet. She just prayed she’d get home in time to delete it before anyone who might get the word back to Vincent would see it.