Possessive Coach

“So, uh,” Sara says, leaning up against a counter. “Look, this probably isn’t the best time, but…” She trails off.

“What’s up?” I ask her.

She pulls a folded piece of paper from her pocket. She opens it up and holds it out. “Found another one.”

My face stares back at me.

“Oh,” I say, feeling dumb.

I thought we’d gotten all of them. I spent so much time with David combing through campus that day, grabbing every single copy, but some must’ve blown away. I want to scream and run away, but Sara’s frowning at me, and I can tell she’s concerned. Besides, she already saw it, so it’s not like I’m going to hide anything from her.

“I found this in a bush outside of the dining hall,” she says. “This stupid bitch was showing another one to her stupid asshole boyfriend. I took it from them and ripped it up.”

I smile a little. “Thanks.”

“Chloe, I know you don’t want to talk about it. But you can tell me what it is.” She shakes the paper at me.

I flinch away. “Do you really want to know?”

“Come on,” she says.

“Erik Pacific. That football asshole.”

She goes quiet for a long moment. “This is serious, Chloe,” she says.

“I know.” I can’t meet her eye. I feel so embarrassed, so ashamed. It’s not like this is my fault, it’s not like I asked Erik to do it. But for some reason, I feel like I’m to blame.

“This is, like, criminal-level harassment,” she says. “Didn’t you go to the police or something?”

I shake my head. “David and I tried to pick them all up. I thought we got them all, but…” I trail off.

“Guess not.” She shakes her head. “Sweetie, I’m serious. We have to do something about this. If Erik’s harassing you, doing shit like this, we can’t let him get away with it.”

“I know. David’s trying to help.”

“Can’t he, like, kick the kid off the football team?”

I feel my hand start to shake. I have to put the glass down on the counter and steady myself against it. “He went to the head coach, but they… didn’t do anything. I guess they pretty much told him that they’re not going to punish Erik at all because he’s too valuable or something.”

“Fuck that,” Sara says. “Are you kidding me?”

“That’s what David said. He’s pretty upset about it too.”

“Then he should quit,” she says.

“If he does that, then he can’t be close to Erik anymore. This isn’t about David.”

She takes a deep breath and nods. “You’re right, I know, but still. Goddamn, Chloe. That’s so fucked up. So basically the coach is, like, oh, yeah, that player can harass a random girl, who cares?”

“I’m not sure it’s so callous, but…” I shrug a little. “More or less.”

“I’m livid.” She rips the paper up into pieces. “I want to kill that stupid piece of shit.”

“Sara. This is why I didn’t tell you.”

“What?” She glares at me.

“You get all… angry. And I’m afraid you’ll make things worse.”

“I wouldn’t,” she says. “I want to help.”

“I know you do. Help by not helping.” I bite my lip. “I’m sorry. I know that’s harsh.”

She takes a deep breath and lets it out. “Okay, yes, I can be a little intense sometimes. It’s just because I care about you, Chloe.”

“I know you do.”

We lapse into silence for a long moment. I don’t want to look up, because I’m afraid she’s looking at me with pity. I don’t need pity, I don’t need anything right now. I just want to lock myself in my room and forget all about this. I want to pretend like it never happened, like it’s not real.

But it’s very real, it’s really happening, and I can’t turn it off just because I don’t want to face it.

“Let’s do something about it,” Chloe says suddenly.

I give her a look. “You know we can’t.”

“Seriously. I have an idea.” She grins at me. “I know where he lives.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Uh, yeah, I do too.”

She pouts a little. “Oh, right. You tutored him. I thought this would be a big reveal.”

“How do you know anyway?”

“I dated that guy on the football team, remember?”

“Zack,” I say. “Oh, yeah.”

“Dumb as rocks but so pretty.” She sighs. “Anyway, he took me to a party at Erik’s place one time.”

“So what?” I ask. “I mean, we’re not going to, like… break in there and kill him. And anyway, I already know where he lives. I was tutoring him, remember?”

She frowns at me. Then her frown turns into an evil grin.

“Wait,” I say quickly. “Sara. We’re not going to kill him.”

“No,” she says. “But what if we got some old-fashioned revenge?”

“Be a little more specific because I’m pretty sure you want to burn down his house right now.”

“Tempting. But I was thinking more toilet paper in his trees.”

I smile a little. “That’s… juvenile.”