Page 40 of Fight Or Flight

Ethan nodded and made a move to leave. He wanted to put it all behind him. He did everything he could, and now he’d have to wait and hope. As far as Natalie was concerned, the sooner she got her pretty butt on the plane and out of there, the better. He couldn’t take much more.

Adam held out a hand to stop him, then waited. Ethan gave in, finally met his friend’s eyes, and said, “Something else?”

“Just for the record, she seems great, and I really like her.”

“Consider it recorded.”

“Seriously. I never told you how much I hated Lindsay, and I regret it.”

Adam glanced past Ethan, then his face morphed from sincerity to annoyance. Ethan already knew why. He turned around to see Derek waltzing into the dugout.

“What are you two losers talking about?”

Adam smiled. “Just looking at pictures of Ethan and Natalie.”

“Together?” Derek asked.

Adam nodded happily. Ethan knew Adam well enough to tell he was trying to goad Derek. And he knew Derek well enough to know this wouldn’t end well.

They were both ticking time bombs.

Derek turned to Ethan. “I should warn you, Natalie Monroe is a huge bitch.”

A sick feeling rose in Ethan’s gut. He tried to ignore it.

Adam laughed. “Why? Because she refused to dance with you after you groped her?”

“No.” Derek’s face took on a deep-red hue. “Because she’s stuck up. She acts like she’s too good for everyone. And she has no reason to. She was just Robert Monroe’s whore’s kid that Liz took in out of pity. When he found out, he kicked her ass out of the house.”

“If that’s true,” Adam said, “then that would make Robert the bitch. What kind of person abandons their kid?”

Derek was dumb enough to ignore Adam’s tone of voice and double down. “She never should have been there. She’s nothing but trash.”

Ethan could feel his rage bubbling up. He wasn’t entirely sure whether it was because he now knew how horrible people were to Natalie or because he hated Derek so much. The why seemed irrelevant, though.

He’d heard enough.

“Are you really in a position to be calling other people trash, Derek?”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“It obviously means that I think you are trash.”

Derek’s hands fisted, and his breathing sped up. “Are you fucking kidding me, talking to me like that?”

Ethan could feel Adam move in closer. The solidarity was nice. But Ethan didn’t need any backup. After years of being bulliedas a scrawny, nerdy kid, his parents had put him in kick-boxing. The summer he turned seventeen, about a year after everyone else, he shot up a foot and earned his blue belt. He was still pretty lanky, but stood taller than most, and intimidation tactics like Derek’s weren’t concerning to him.

“The evidence speaks for itself, Derek. I saw the mess you left behind in my truck.”

It was almost funny how Derek’s entire face changed from rage to shock. Ethan had wondered whether Derek knew he knew and just didn’t care. But it was clear now that Derek was arrogant enough to believe he’d got away with it. Derek backed down, turned away without a word. He grabbed his glove and took off onto the field with their teammates.

“Finally!” Adam said, his face cracking back into the natural smile he always wore.

“Let it go.”

“I can’t. That was brilliant. I mean, it would’ve been better if you drop kicked that ass-faced motherf—”

Adam stopped short, and a shocked look came over his face. “Gayle!”

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