Page 45 of Free Fall

I force a smile out. “Thank you. Listen—”

Someone stomps up the bleachers behind me. “What are you doing?”

I ignore Sasha’s screech. “Your daughter was mistaken when she sat you here. Reid blocked this area off for us.” I point behind them to Jules. “My brother’s girlfriend and I, so that we could watch this important game from these seats. I’m sure you understand.”

Sasha nudges me out of the way. “Mom, Dad, you don’t have to move.”

I tilt my chin in the air. “Yeah, they do.”

Jules’s mother looks positively embarrassed, and yeah, I know this whole thing is petty and that I can just sit next to Jules in the seats above these ones, but you know what? Sasha could’ve just put her parents there too. I’m not going to let her bitch ass win anymore.

“We weren’t aware,” Mr. Pontine says stiffly. His throat is all red. People are staring now. A few people are whispering, which I can tell he hates. He looks around, his skin growing ashier.

Someone yells from behind them, “Let the sister sit there!”

I smile up at them and give a short wave before turning back around.

“It’s just a seat, my dear,” Mrs. Pontine says, and I can tell already where Sasha gets her fucking bitchiness from. “But if it means that much to you.”

“It does,” I say sweetly.

Her parents look at each other while Sasha scoffs behind me. “Don’t move,” she tells her parents.

They’re not about to turn this into a big thing though. It’s something Sasha should learn. Right behind them, I see Jules whispering something to her parents, hopefully telling them that there’s a reason I’m doing this.

In front of me, Sasha’s parents stand at the same time and move into the aisle. I plop my butt down just as content as can be, but Sasha grabs my shirt and yanks me toward her, whispering harshly in my ear. “You need to learn that Reid doesn’t own this school. I do. Fucking with my parents is the wrong move.”

When she lets me go, I brush my shoulder off. Loudly, I say, “I’m so sorry you think you’re more important than everyone else.”

People are still looking, and what I’ve said causes even more whispering and dirty looks their way. Sasha’s father turns her around on the stairs and gives her a slight shove, telling her to get her ass moving and stop making a scene. She gives a withering look over her shoulder at me.

Jules climbs down to sit next to me, her eyebrows raised. “Dude. That was spectacular.”

I smile at her and then look over my shoulder, prepared to apologize to Jules’s parents, but her mother is already shaking her head. “No need, Briar. Jules told us how that cheerleader is bullying you at school.”

People gasp around us, and I swear I see the muscles of Mr. and Mrs. Pontine lock up as they walk down the bleachers. There are no more available seats in the crowd. Too bad. I see them stand near the gate for a little while, but eventually, they leave. I happen to be looking at Sasha when she realizes they’re gone, and if she didn’t turn a look of death toward me right afterward, I might have felt sorry for her. Might have. It’s just so difficult to feel badly for someone who’s such a terrible person.

After the drama at the beginning of the game recedes, the drama is left on the field where it should be. Spring Hill High is playing their hearts out. Since the last game I watched, everything seems more intense. The plays Reid calls out are short and curt with the ferocity of a tiger growl behind them. I have no idea what they mean individually, but I do know RHH is doing a great job because when the buzzer sounds for half time, we’re winning by two touchdowns. The game would be perfect if I could just drown the cheerleaders out.

Jules’s dad goes to the concession stand during halftime and brings back a bunch of food for us to enjoy. While he’s gone, Jules knocks my knee with her own. “That ceremony was really nice. I was thinking that if they let us, maybe we could plant flowers next to the flag staff, kind of like a memorial garden.”

“Yeah, we should definitely do that,” I tell her.

Her eyes are a little glassy as she nods. “Jeez, Brady really loved game days, didn’t he?” She smiles, but it’s like a camera flash, one second it’s there, the next, it’s disappeared.

“Yeah, he really did.”

Jules’s mom starts to rub her back, so I pull her head onto my shoulder, and then place mine on top of hers while I squeeze her hand. Lex happens to look up from the sidelines. He’s pouring sweat, his hair soaked against his head like he just got out of the shower. He gives us a small smile and then turns to Cade and Reid as they all suck water down from green bottles. I don’t know what he says to them, but the guys look up after that, nodding to themselves.

“Such good boys,” Jules’s mom says. “They always have been.”

I snicker at that, but I hide it. They are good guys; however, they can be bad too. They have faults like everyone else. They also have a whole lot of love between them too. A brotherhood that somehow, I think I just managed to squeak into from a young age. They can’t get rid of me now. “I think we’re going to win this one,” I say.

“Think?” Jules asks. “We got this one in the bag.”

The next half, we devour the food Jules’s father brings us and cheer our team on like our lives depend on it. This second half is a little back and forth from the beginning. The other team is trying to fight back, but they don’t have what we have. At the end, SHH pulls away again, putting an exclamation point on their seventeen-point win.

Because so much of the crowd are students, they rush the field. Jules and I hang back. We’ve never been “rush the field” type of people. I notice Sasha takes off though, trying to get to Reid no doubt. I tell myself not to look even though I find myself looking to see what happens. The guys deserve this moment. They played tremendously.

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