Page 102 of Bad Teammate
“Then give him a call. Put him on speakerphone and I’ll translate.”
Sasha pulled out his phone and called, but Derek’s phone was off. “Nothing,” he said somberly.
“Keep trying,” I said. “While we wait, you have to clean up this mess. Get up and I’ll help you.”
He clambered to his feet and we went to work. I started putting the books back on their bookshelves while Sasha got a trash bag from the kitchen and collected all the garbage.
“Katya?”
“Yes?”
“I lied,” he said. “I lied when I said I don’t remember making this mess.”
Uh oh,I thought.
“What happened?” I asked hesitantly.
“Well, I remember starting it, anyway. I don’t remember all of it,” he said. “Anyway. Julia was with me last night.”
My jaw clenched. “Please, Sasha,pleasetell me you didn’t do anything to hurt her.”
“No. I’d never.” He shook his head. “She hurt me.”
“What happened?”
“We were hanging out after the game. Derek said he was going out for a bit, but he never came back. I started freaking out. I called him like crazy, and I called you, too. But neither of you answered.”
“I wasn’t ignoring you. My phone was off.”
“Well, either way, I lost my cool. Julia tried to calm me down but I wouldn’t listen. She tried to get me to stop drinking, too, but I wouldn’t listen to that, either. She couldn’t take it anymore. She told me to delete her number, because she was deleting mine.” His bottom lip jutted out. “Then she said she wished she’d never met me, because now she knows what therealAleksander Nikolaev is like: an alcoholic, asshole loser. Then …” He slouched, his shoulders drooping as he stared at the floor. A bag of garbage hung from his hand, touching the ground. “Then I got so mad, I did all this.”
Please, God, let this be his rock bottom,I prayed.
I neared and gave him a hug. “I’m sorry to hear that. And I know you must be hurting, but I want you to see that you’re pushing people away with your drinking. Do you see it, Sasha? It’s a problem for you. You can’t drink alcohol. You’ve got to stop entirely.”
“I know,” he said. “You’re right. I want to stop. I just don’t know how.”
I knew it wouldn’t be an easy road, but I was so relieved to hear him say that.
“That’s the first step,” I said. “I’ll do whatever I can to help you.”
“Thank you,” he said. “Man. I really liked Julia.”
“I could tell. She was a sweet girl.”
“And yet, I only knew her for a couple days,” he said. “Just like you and Derek.”
I smiled. “So maybe it’s not as outrageous as it sounds?”
“I guess not,” he admitted.
“Why don’t you try calling Derek again?”
He pulled his phone from his pocket. “Yeah, okay.”
37
Derek
