The Big Fish

caught the door from slamming in his face. Gabrielle rubbed her eyes as she stumbled to the kitchen and sleepily pulled out her favorite coffee mug as well as the Starbucks bag of coffee. She could feel Brycen’s gaze right behind her as she poured her coffee into the pot. She turned around only to have his phone shoved in her face. Gabrielle swatted it out of his hand and turned to the refrigerator to find the crème. She was weary and exhausted and the last thing she needed this morning was an entire sermon from Brycen on how she did something yet again to the world’s displeasure. Brycen paced the kitchen floor, always the theatrical character. He was angry, he was livid and had to do everything in his power to remain civil. He kept muttering something that had to do with horses and other animals as he continued to pace and Gabrielle continued to roll her eyes as his theatrics while she put the finishing touches to her coffee. She stirred her coffee mug and inhaled deeply as she prepared for battle. She turned around with a thin smile and clenched jaws only to face a picture of herself on Brycen’s screen.

“Baby Horse turns bull.”

Brycen read. Gabrielle squinted to see the tiny caption on the phone and picture of her and Selena Finelli below.

“Get that out of my face.”

“They are comparing you to a bull and it’s not because you’ve gotten faster. You are attacking people like a wild animal.”

“You’re overreacting. And I think you should contain yourself before we go any further with this conversation.”

Gabrielle stated in an insouciant tone as she stirred her spoon of coffee.

“Contain myself?”

Brycen laughed.

"Contain myself? I’m not the one going around savagely assaulting people while playing soccer.”

“I didn't assault her.”

“So what would you call this,”

Brycen held up his phone again.

“demonstrating good sportsmanship?”

Gabrielle rolled her eyes and walked to her couch, grabbing her phone hoping to end the one sided conversation.

“I did not assault her.”

Gabrielle repeated. She unlocked her phone and went on her twitter. She winced when she saw that she was the number one trend and had been for the last four hours. Hashtags were being used like tissues during flu season. Gabrielle saw she had a notification where someone mentioned her. Finelli had tweeted: I think someone interpreted the quote “if you can’t be them, beat them” the wrong way. @gabybright

Gabrielle locked her phone and threw it on the couch. She had noticed that there had been a sudden change in her behavior. She had been a lot more enraged on the field and found herself getting caught up in any type of quarrel with her opponents. There was a lot of anger pent up inside of Gabrielle and she had found the wrong way to release all of it. If Gabrielle knew than most likely everyone else already knew as well.

“You tackled Selena like she was a piece of meat.”

“She fell.”

Gabrielle sneered.

“After you tackled her.”

Gabrielle scoffed and took a drawn out sip of her morning breakfast. Brycen pulled his phone out of his pocket and shoved it back in Gabrielle’s face. Gabrielle tilted her head and scrunched up her face as she looked at the picture of her doing a front flip on top of Finelli’s head.

“That’s a bad angle.”

“It is a bad angle from every angle, Gabrielle!”

“Okay, fine. So Finelli’s gonna be blue and purple around the ribs for a while. I’ll have my apology letter ready by tomorrow. Fine?”

“No, it's not. I want you to realize the enormous shit storm you are creating for yourself. I cannot go around apologizing for your juvenile actions-”

“Then don’t,"

Gabrielle knitted her eyebrows together.

"No one is putting a gun to your head.”

Brycen clenched his jaw before releasing the tension and scoffing.

“See, this- -this- -whatever attitude you are having where you’re acting like a rebellious teenage bitch, it’s got to stop. Like right now. Gaby, where the hell is your mind at?”

Gabrielle settled her mug in between her legs and stirred its contents with her spoon. The silence filled the room long enough to create an awkward tension that Gabrielle wished she could break by speaking what lay on her mind but Brycen was her manager, not her therapist. So the silence continued and it wasn’t until Brycen urged her again to confess what the problem was that broke the silence. Gabrielle fiddled with her fingernails, going over in her head how to put what she was thinking in words that wouldn’t lead to another argument. She finally softly stated,

“It’s just Meredith has- -”

“Oh dear god if I hear that bible thumping girl's name one more time...Gabrielle, you are a grown woman it is time to focus on grown woman things. Like the game coming up, not your high school crush. Get over her- ”

“You don't think I want to? You don't think that every morning I want to wake up and my first thought not be how she slept, what did she dream about, does she think of me. I can't. There is not a second that goes by where I don't think about her. Meredith was not some high school crush where I was infatuated by her aspirations in life and her good moral values. Meredith was not some summer fling who I could fuck and move on. Meredith is the love of my life I can't get over her!”

Tears brimmed at the corner of Gabrielle’s eyes and her throat tightened. Her voice was rough and