Page 99 of Bad Teammate
“I doubt it, too,” I said.
“But you haven’t even talked to Niko yet, right? You gotta tell him what you told us. See if things can be patched up somehow.”
I took a deep breath. “I’ll try—I was going to tell him today, anyway. But I can’t promise it’ll work. I’m pretty sure he wants me dead.”
“Before you do that, you have to talk to Coach first,” Dane said. “Let’s get the trainer back in here to finish your repairs. Then the three of us will go upstairs and talk to Coach Q. See if we can’t vouch for you or something.”
“Thanks, boys,” I said. “I really appreciate that.”
Dane stuck his head outside the door and yelled for the trainer.
36
Katerina
At Derek’s building, I hurried down the hall and knocked on the door. No one answered. I tried the doorknob. It turned, so I pushed the door open and let myself in.
“Sasha? Sasha, are you here?”
Last night’s food was still where I’d left it: strewn about the floor, a sad reminder of the heartbreak that now seemed so distant.
But I gasped with surprise as I walked into the living room. It looked like a tornado had ripped through the room.
“What … the … hell!” I muttered as I carefully explored the mess.
A gentle breeze whistled through a broken window. All of Derek’s living room furniture was flipped over. The screen of the huge television was cracked like a spider’s web. All that remained of the glass coffee table was a metal frame, millions of broken shards beneath it. All Derek’s books and vinyl records had been pulled from the shelves and tossed about the floor. Beer and liquor bottles were everywhere.
The Steinway piano—by far the most expensive thing in that room—was untouched, thank God.
I found Sasha lying on the floor behind the couch. He was awake, staring at the ceiling, a plate of last night’s floor food resting on his bare chest.
“What have youdone?!You’ve destroyed Derek’s house!”
“Ah. Katya.” He took a bite out of apelmeniand chewed. “There you are.”
“For God’s sake, what’s wrong with you? Don’t eat that. It’s been on the floor for hours.” I knelt next to him and snatched the plate away—even if he damned-welldeservedto get food poisoning.
He rolled his eyes. “Always telling me what to do. Likeyou’reso perfect.”
“I never claimed I was,” I said. “What’s your excuse? First you fight Derek, now you trash his condo?”
“No. Wrong order,” he said. “I guess I trashed his place last night.”
“You guess? What, don’t you remember doing it?”
“It was like this when I woke up.”
I smacked my forehead. “So you don’t even remember doing it?”
He shook his head. “Not really, no.”
I could tell he was still a little drunk, too. I sighed heavily. I didn’t know what to do with my brother. How could I get through to him?
“This isnotgood, Sasha,” I said, gesturing at the disaster scene. “Why would you do something like this?”
“Derek didn’t come home last night,” he said. “Gee, Katya. Iwonderwhere he was?”
“You think he stayed with me. So you ransacked his house like some kind of crazed dog?”
