As River Bends

I woke to my phone going off over and over, I’d let it go to voicemail twice and silenced it once before I snatched it up cutting off the strains of ‘Sweet home Alabama’ as it started up for the fourth time.

“What do you want Rowen?” I growled into the handset while burrowing back under my covers.

“So, I know you’re going to want to kill me because it's your dream or whatever, but me and Marcus just landed in Morocco and he’s taking me on a world tour. So can you tell mom for me Riv?”

I sat up glaring at the poster of my favorite Vis-Kei singer pinned over my window.

“I’m sorry Ro, but I swear I misheard you. I thought you said that with four weeks until the beginning of term, one week until training starts, that you’ve decided you’re going to throw away your full ride scholarship to one of the most prestigious schools in the UK that turns out the most MSL members.”

I knelt on the bed pushing my long blonde hair out of my face seething.

“I thought I heard you say that you and Marcus ditched me and left me to tell mom that you’re making dumbass decisions and throwing away a chance that I would literally kill for!”

I stood on my bed, gripping the phone in a shaking hand.

“Please tell me I heard wrong Ro!” I begged voice cracking.

“God if you want it so bad why don’t you just go your damn self, River! Fuck I’ve been trying to tell all of you I only started playing to get close to Marcus I never planned to go further than high school with it. I’m not like you I’m not obsessed with it. Look what’s done is done just let mom know so she can reach out to the school.” His voice was raw and I paused guilt twisting my gut.

Mom had been putting a lot of hopes and dreams on Rowan ever since dad left us.

I think, no I know, a part of her thought if Rowan became some big shot soccer player and managed to get on a big team that Dad would see him and go ‘oh man I messed up let me go back.’

Me and Ro had stopped waiting for him years ago but mom hadn’t, and when Ro came out as unapologetically gay she’s lost her shit and put his Soccer future firmly in the must happen category.

“I’ll let her know Ro, I’m sorry. You and Marcus go have fun and send me lots of pictures okay.” We talked a while longer about where all they planned to go and then he disconnected.

I dropped onto my bed and flopped back with a groan, rolling onto my side and digging out the pamphlet that I’d been staring at since Rowan tossed it in the trash at the end of our senior year.

I’d passed with a 4.0 GPA, technically higher if we could count the classes I passed for Rowan while pretending to just scrape by so that the teachers didn’t suspect anything when my basically illiterate brother started passing his classes to stay on the team.

I froze a slow, foolish, plan forming in the back of my head.

For our entire school career I’d pretended to be my brother to help him pass exams and classes that he struggled with in exchange for him teaching me to play soccer, I’d even played in a few games successfully in high school when he broke his foot and didn’t want anyone to know.

If I played it just right I could do it again, why couldn’t I?

~

Two days later I stood in the middle of my room shifting back and forth as the silence pressed in on me.

“Um babe there are SO many reasons this won’t work. One it’s a shared dorm; you’d have no one but three dudes sleeping in the same space with you. Two physicals, you’d have to have at least two physicals during the year and what if you get injured on the field and have to go to the hospital?” Ethan sighed while flipping through my magazine.

“trust me while I’d Love to butch you up and make you look like your brother; I don’t want you thinking this is gonna be a walk in the park! Hell, what about your tits? Sure, they aren’t big but…we’re talking sex deprived boys in an all men’s college, they’ll sniff your tatas out in seconds.”

I frowned looking down at my chest; he wasn’t wrong but still.

“Okay E but hear me out…I’m gonna do it anyways at least this way you get to test your beauticians skills. I’ll even let you record the whole thing for class as long as you promise to delete it the moment, she scores you!” he hummed and then shrugged.

“Fine bitch, you foot the bill I’ll do it for you. I know your brothers boo took him to Thomassen’s for that cut and color and if I can recreate it off of a bunch of social media pictures, I deserve a medal, and a passing grade.” I grinned and pulled out the bucket I’d tucked under my bed.

Black dye, bleach, neon green, pink, and electric blue dyes all in the bucket with a box of gloves and developer and everything else Ethan had told me he’d need to do a wash, bleach and color on my Blonde locks.

I grinned up at him and pulled out the piece de resistance, a pair of rainbow steel left-handed scissors that I knew he’d been admiring for months.

He groaned and rolled off the bed. “Fine I love you again, and I’ll make you look fabulous.” He smiled and I laughed and held up a hand.

“Oh, but first let me run downstairs real quick, moms getting ready to go on her trip with Joleen and I gotta drop my story first.” I motioned him to wait and turned bolting down the stairs.

I skipped down the last two stairs and peeked in on my mom in the kitchen. “hey momma can I talk to you real quick?”

“shoot it.” She muttered with her compact held up not even sparing me a glance, she was putting on lipstick and checking her watch which meant Joleen was on her way, I needed to spin fast.

“So, you know Rowan already headed out early to get settled at the dorms.” She looked at me now pride settling in her eyes.

“I knew he wasn’t gonna flake on me, he’ll make your daddy proud.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and smiled. “uh-huh, well he said its only been two days but he’s awful lonesome, and he said no one can cook right over there and its gonna throw off his game.” I laughed inwardly, these were all arguments he’d used before on why not to go, if she thought that they were panning out now that he was there she’d fold faster.

“he said he wants to come home, but I told him to try and hold off and that if you could I’d have you fly me out and I can take the cooking and cleaning off his hands. I already have a passport cause I wanted to catch some games at some point. But I hadn’t planned on needing a ticket so soon.”

My mom worried the inside of her cheek weighing her gambling money with my brothers needs. Finally, she nodded and pulled out her phone tapping away on it before she glanced up at me. “make sure you have your passport and pack your things, I managed to get you a one-way ticket for tomorrow morning at nine am don’t miss it, we can’t have him running back tail tucked just because he’s homesick.”

I smiled my best dazzler at her and laughed “perfect, I’ll call him and let him know he doesn’t need to come home and have him meet me at the airport!” I spun and started to jog off. “oh momma, do you think you could set me up an account and send him money that way? You know how he is when he gets wild with the team. He’ll end up spending all his living expenses on beer and cleats.”

My gut twisted just a bit, I hated lying to her this way but it was the only way we all got what we wanted.

She nodded and started tapping away. “I’ll have them mail your card to your brothers dorm and he can give it to you. Let me know where to forward it after you find an apartment, or what do they call them over there?”

“A flat momma, I’ll probably get me a little studio not far from campus, I’ll let you know how much it is. Which hotel did you book me into?” I hesitated hand on the railing looking at her.

“I’ll text you the details Joleen is outside.” She waved and headed out and I jogged up the stairs triumphantly.

“time to get to work babes, momma bought it hook line and sinker!” Ethan looked up at me surprised and then shook his head laughing.

“fine, and guess what, I even roped in Miguel he’s coming over with some… uh... prosthetics. you know so you can blend in a bit more. Oh and a binding vest because I’m not gonna have you trying to Ace bandage yourself into an early grave!” his bossy tone barely hid the worry he had for me.

“Don’t worry I’m gonna get momma to pay for me a flat near the campus so that I can keep all my girly shit there and have an escape if things get too intense.” I shrugged. “They can leave campus Friday through Sunday nights as long as they’re back on campus for training on Monday.”

He nodded and got to work turning me into my brother.