I shoved the locker-room door open and stalked past rows of lockers, Aiden following close behind, until I found Tanner. He was lying on his back on a bench with a couple of our teammates sprawled out around him. I came to a dead stop and watched everyone turn to look at me. They all looked away guiltily. My so-called friends.
Tanner was the only one who met my eyes. He propped himself up on one elbow and looked at me with a smirk spreading slowly across his face. “Well, hello, princess.”
Before I had a chance to think it through, I stepped forward and grabbed one end of the bench that Tanner was lying on and wrenched it high off the floor, sending him sliding hard off the other end.
He landed in a tangled pile of limbs on the floor and looked up at me in complete shock. “What the hell do you think—”
“Shut up! Why, Tanner? Why would you spy on me? And why would you send that video to everyone on the team? You knew it would get shared and posted and tagged. How could you do that to me? I thought we were friends.” I was standing over him.
Tanner looked up at me. “Hey, it was just a joke.”
“A joke? That was private!”
“Yeah,” Tanner said. “I can see why. Lighten up, McCaffrey. No one cares if you want to prance around in a dress in your free time.”
Before I could react, Tanner dove forward and grabbed me around the waist, bringing me down with him. The other boys ran out of the room, shouting for the coach as I threw a punch that caught Tanner in the right eye. Aiden ran forward and tried to pull us apart, yelling for us to stop as Tanner punched me in the mouth. I ducked to avoid being hit again as the coach ran into the locker room, followed by the rest of the boys. He grabbed Tanner while Aiden pulled me off him.
“Enough!” the coach roared. “What is going on here?”
I spit a mouthful of blood onto the floor and wiped my swollen lip, glaring at Tanner. Tanner stared back at me through his one good eye, the other already swollen completely shut and turning purple.
“You’re both done for the day. Go home. Clean up. I don’t want either of you on my field today.” The coach turned to leave, then walked back to us, the anger gone from his face. “And McCaffrey? Figure out where your loyalties lie, okay? You’re letting your teammates down. If you can’t be there for them, you need to walk away.”
I nodded, touching my swollen lip.
“Go home and put some ice on that. You too, Tanner.” The coach left the now dead-silent locker room.
“You okay?” Aiden asked me.
“Yeah. You better get to class,” I told him, walking to the door.
I had no idea how I was going to explain this to my parents.