Page 113 of The Sidekick

“You can’t treat it like that! What is wrong with you? This is your baby, and you should treat it that way!”

“Tera?” Ira’s voice comes from the doorway, and I wave angrily to dismiss him. He’s breaking my focus. I’m not taking my glare away from my nemesis.

“If you’re going to be mean to an innocent computer, I’m not going to help you. I’m claiming this as my own and spoiling it as it deserves.”

He isn’t paying attention to my tirade as he watches the doorway with a judgy expression. Maybe Ira didn’t wear his assigned gym clothes. Who knows with this guy?

I roll my eyes and pick up the laptop, crossing my legs so I have a steady place to set it. I’m already completely absorbed in the excitement of beating Shade and trying to hide it.

There are a lot of grunting and smacking sounds that I ignore as I focus on the code. It takes me twenty minutes to crack it. Then I pull up a lot of gross porn sites set to play at max volume as soon as he opens it again. When I’m done, I yell out, “In your face, Shade! Thirty minutes!”

I do a tiny victory dance from my seat as I look up, belatedly noting that I just interrupted whatever they were doing.

It isn’t just the bodyguards here. Asher is holding up some kind of cushion that Felix is kicking as they all look over at my embarrassing celebration. I completely forgot that he teaches this class! I thought they were just going to beat each other up for an hour.

“S-sorry,” I wave to him with a wince. I can feel the heat rushing into my face as my attention drops to the computer. I have to slam it closed in self-defense at what’s on the screen.

Of course, the insanely hot guy with lickable tattoos has borne witness to my cringey behavior.

“What did you beat him at?” Asher asks as he braces against Felix. My brain flat lines as I watch without speaking. He’s completely unconcerned with the speed and strength of the kicks, rocking back only slightly with each one. The light sheen of sweat over his arms brings attention to his bunched biceps. He’s wearing shorts, just like the guys in the room with the bags. His tattoos continue up beyond the hem in a riot of colors. It has to be a full-body piece. Oh gosh. A whole bouquet of flowers that I want to touch. Why, man?!

“Um…” What were we talking about?

Blaze starts laughing at Shade in a rude way that makes me frown at him. “Did little Tera beat the mighty Shade at something?”

It’s a poor decision because Shade loves fighting back. It’s his love language, after all. He kicks Blaze’s cushion hard enough to knock him over.

“Oh!” I wince as he falls onto the mat, breathless but still laughing. I don’t mind that Shade retaliated. I don’t mind that the jerk hit the mats hard enough to make his laugh wheezy. The noise just popped out of me.

“He’s fine,” several voices ring out, and I nod helplessly.

“Would you like some water?” I offer feebly out of secondhand guilt as he starts to stand.

“I would love some water from you, Tera.” He seems way too malicious about it as he hops off the mat to join me.

I reach into the purse I brought to pull out a bottle for him, handing it over with a sympathetic smile. It’s my Shade needs to keep his mouth occupied so he’ll stop yelling stash. I don’t think Blaze deserves one of the candy bars, though.

“Are you going to kiss his boo-boos too?” Felix grunts as he keeps kicking. I’m pleased to see that Asher hasn’t moved back at all as he watches Blaze and me with narrowed eyes.

Everything is something to mock to these jerks. I’ve had just about enough of it.

I don’t take my eyes off Felix as I reach back into my bag and feel around for a pen. Once I have one, I snap my arm back and let the projectile fly. It smacks Felix on the cheek. I guess it was open because it leaves a splotch of ink. I can’t help the satisfied smirk that overcomes me.

“What the fuck?” He snaps and stops kicking to glare at me.

“I have a whole purse full of them, Felix. Mess around and find out,” I feel my jaw slide to the side as I glare back, reaching into my purse threateningly.

“No more debris on my mats,” Asher says calmly as his lips kick up in a smile.

“Oh, s-sorry,” my bravery does an about-face at his amusement.

I cringe and hurry to pick up the pen where it landed. Everyone pauses what they’re doing as I stand, staring at the ink splotch it left behind. I think I have something I can wipe it off with in my purse, but if I take it out now, Felix will want one, and I want the stain of shame to stick with him all day.

When I look up, they’re all staring at me. I hurry off the mats, wincing as I notice I didn’t take off my shoes. “Um, game on?”

“It isn’t street hockey,” Blaze taunts. I shake the pen at him threateningly.

Ira has other concerns as he eyes Shade. “What did you give her?”

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