Kendall looks at him, standing there with his innocent smile. She slumps her shoulders and drops her backpack to the porch. “Seriously, Hector?” Her voice is strained.
“You should call your mother first to let her know you are here, of course.” He steps into the kitchen and returns a moment later with the phone.
Kendall sighs. “Maybe she should just come and pick me up.”
“Oh, please, no! Marlena has been looking forward to your visit all day. She thought you might be coming later, after soccer practice.”
“Yeah, well, there is no soccer practice anymore.”
Hector’s face falls. “Ah, I’m sorry to hear that. It is a shame for you and for Jacián. Marlena feels responsible.”
“It’s not her fault,” Kendall says automatically. She dials her house and leaves a message saying she’s at Hector’s. Indefinitely. “You can pick me up anytime if you need me,” she says. “See you soon.” Trying not to sound desperate.
Hector takes the phone from her and shoos her in the direction of the yard, where Jacián is warming up all over again. “I am going into town to sit with my friend for a bit,” he calls out. “Just let yourself in later.”
Kendall sighs and goes down the porch steps. “Okay,” she says, not wanting to be here. Wishing she could just go hang out with Nico and have everything be okay again.
She walks toward Jacián, waiting for him to reject her. Just what she needs today. Some pompous jerk to tell her to go away. Stupid Hector. He needs to back off.
Jacián sees her coming and doesn’t stop stretching. Kendall walks up to him and stands there, awkwardly.
“Yes?” he asks finally.
“Marlena’s taking a nap. Hector’s going to town.”
Jacián squints up at her. “What are you, the butler?”
Kendall rolls her eyes. “Mind if I play? While I wait for Marlena, I mean?”
He lifts himself up to his feet and messes with the net bag, opening the cinch and letting the balls loose.
“It’s a big yard.” He passes one to her and then dribbles another one up and down the stretch of grass, warming up.
Kendall pulls a ponytail holder from her pocket and whips her hair back into it. She moves out of
Jacián’s way and warms up too, as if they are at soccer practice. They work individually.
It’s not long before Kendall’s in the zone. The constant whirring of her thoughts quiets, softens. She counts her steps to one hundred, and then she can stop and really concentrate on the ball. She loves the way it moves over the grass, like a hand on bare skin, seeking out all the nuances. She feels her muscles praise her for the stretch, feels the sweat break out on her forehead. Feels her breath paint a path in front of her.
There is nothing else like it in her world. Nothing else like the bliss of her brain shutting down after seven days of constant whirring. Incredible relief.
She ignores Jacián completely, keeping her distance, and then slowly she begins running some of the plays she used to do with Nico, passing instead to herself, running like hell to catch up and slamming the ball into the net. Retrieving it again and taking it all the way down the side yard, then back and forth, like she’s running suicides with the ball. Then back again for another play with invisible Nico.
It’s funny how the presence of a memory is a comfort here on the field.
By the time Kendall has worked out all her stress, an hour has passed. She and Jacián successfully avoid each other, though once when his ball gets away from him, Kendall plants it back at his feet, and he acknowledges her with a wave.
Hector would be so proud.
When Kendall is dying of thirst, she calls it quits, hoping Marlena is awake. Jacián’s shirt is stuck to his body. Sweat drips off his hair, curled in dark spikes. He’s breathing hard as she walks past. She drops her ball by the mesh ball bag. “Thanks,” she says.
“All right.” He almost smiles.
Impulsively she adds, “You need any water? I’m headed in.”
“No, I’ve got a bottle in my gym bag.”
So civil.
Marlena is awake. Kendall grabs a paper towel, wets it, and wipes her face and the back of her neck with it. She pours a glass of water and walks over to the family room, where Marlena rests in her same spot on the sofa. “Sorry I smell like a skank. How are you today?”
“Pretty sore.”
“Are you able to move around yet?”
“Not without embarrassing or killing myself. I’m working on it.”
“So, home for a few more days, probably?”
“Yeah. Total suck. I’m bored as hell.” Marlena turns gingerly. “So. . I saw you outside. You’re here early. What did Coach say?”
Kendall takes a long drink of water and then wipes at a drip from her lips. “We’re done. It’s over,” she says. Shrugs. “He called around but couldn’t get anybody to help us. Said we actually did pretty well, with a third of our high school on the team. I guess if you look at it that way, it does seem pretty crazy to think we’d find anybody else.”
Marlena drops her head back onto her pillow. “Ugh. Crap. Jacián’s going to murder me.”
Kendall is quiet.
“Coach was trying to get a scout to show up to one of our games, trying to get him into one of the big soccer schools. He was deciding between UCLA and Stanford. Now I’ve messed up his chances at a scholarship.” Her voice quivers. “Did he seem mad?”
Kendall remembers the scene in the truck and presses her lips together. “Not more than usual,” she says lightly.
“Oh, God. I feel so bad.” Marlena starts crying.
“Aw, shit,” Kendall says, going over to her, sitting on the floor. “Come on, Marlena, it’s not your fault.
Nico’s gone too. We’ve never lost two players at a time, and we were already down one from last year.
It’s not just you.”
Jacián comes into the house and heads straight down a hallway, still wearing his cleats. Kendall hears a door shut and then the sound of water rushing through pipes on the other side of the wall as he turns on the shower. Her mind wanders for a minute and she shakes her head, embarrassed.
Marlena stares off out the window, a forlorn look on her face. Kendall laces and unlaces her fingers, holding each position to the count of six. When the phone rings, she stretches to reach it from the coffee table and hands it to Marlena.
“Hello?”
Marlena listens for a second and then says, “He just came in; he’s in the shower. Have him call you back?” She pauses again and says, “Okay. Bye.”