Possessive Coach

She slams her palms down on the table. “That fucking prick.”

“That’s about how David reacted,” I say with a little smile.

“He’s blackmailing you!”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“He’s blackmailing you,” she repeats. “Can you fucking believe the nerve of him?”

“Yes,” I whisper. “I really can. I was there.”

She leans back and crosses her arms over her chest. She stares at me for a long moment then shakes her head. “I can’t let you take the fall for me, Chloe. If he presses charges, I’m going to admit that I was the one who did the spray paint.”

“No.” I stare at her, eyes wide. “No, Sara. I’m serious. You can’t do that.”

“I’m not going to let you go down for my mistake. I was the one that brought the spray paint and used it. You told me it was a bad idea, but I did it anyway. This is all on me.”

“Sara,” I say, my tone firm. “I’m not joking. You’re not doing that. You can get away with this with no problems at all if you just—”

She leans forward and stares at me. “Oh, hell, no.”

I frown. “What?”

“I’m not just letting you get in trouble while I walk away. I’m not some coward. If you get in trouble, then I get in trouble. I’m not ashamed of what we did. I’ll gladly stand up in front of a judge and tell him why we did what we did, and ask for some lenience. Maybe he’ll listen, or maybe not. But either way, I’m not going to just walk off and let you get in trouble.”

“Sara, you don’t have to do this,” I say. “I’m not telling you so that you feel like you have to be brave. At least one of us should be able to get away with it, right?”

She laughs. “Maybe, but it won’t be me.”

I clench my jaw. “Sara. You’re pissing me off.”

“Good!” She throws her hands in the air. “You should be mad! After all the shit that Erik’s been doing to you, you should be livid. You should be out there trying to cut his goddamn dick off, not worrying about how you’re going to let your friend get away with some bullshit.” She shakes her head. “By the way, it’s not like we’re going to get jail time, so relax.”

“It’s still a bad thing to have that on your record,” I say.

“Whatever. I’m not going to back down from this.” She leans toward me. “Now, what’s the plan?”

“There’s no plan.”

“No plan?” She frowns. “Come on. You have to have some ideas.”

“I really don’t know,” I admit. “David wants a few days, which I’m going to try to get for him. Otherwise, I have no clue what we’re going to do.”

Sara shakes her head and strokes her chin. “There has to be some way to take away Erik’s power,” she says.

“I don’t see how. So long as he’s in good shape and winning games, he can do whatever he wants. I mean, that’s the whole thing, right? So long as he’s bringing money into the school, he’s untouchable.”

Sara snorts. “Maybe we should just break his legs then.”

I laugh a little, but the idea sounds enticing. “We could break his knees. Pull a Tonya Harding.”

“Shit, Tonya had the right idea.” Sara laughs. “Well, okay, maybe not in that case. Maybe she’s kind of a psycho. But Erik would totally deserve it.”

“Right. So I should just, what, find him and smash his knees with a pipe? Is that what you’re saying?”

“I’m saying that wouldn’t be such a bad idea.” She shrugs. “Or maybe we can just burn down his house. I bet he doesn’t have more than one copy of that video.”

“Now you’re just getting violent.”

“What can I say, he put me in a violent mood.” She picks up her sandwich and takes a big bite.

“I don’t know how you can eat.”

“I can always eat.” She shrugs. “I’m going to go surf after this and blow off some steam. Want to come?”

“No, thanks. I think we already established that surfing is not for me.”

“Fair enough.” She laughs a little. “Look, Chloe, this is going to be okay. We’ll figure it out, okay? I’m glad you brought this to me.”

“I don’t want you to do anything,” I say. “I only told you so that you’re not surprised if I go to jail or something.”

She snorts. “You’re not going to jail. And David’s not getting fired. We’re going to figure out how to stop Erik. We just need to take his power away.”

I nod a little and manage to pick at my salad as Sara changes the topic and forces herself to talk about school instead. I appreciate the attempt, but all I can think about is Erik and what we’re going to do.

I go over to the athletics building and head upstairs for my tutoring session. I keep looking over my shoulder in the heavily carpeted hallways, looking around for Erik, but I don’t spot him anywhere. I head into the study room and find it empty, which is actually a relief. I set up shop in the far corner, my back to the wall, and kick my feet up on the chair across from me.