Page 35 of Catch Me

I shake my head and laugh. “You just can’t stand to have things be serious for a minute, can you?”

His lips turn up even higher. “Nah. Not my style. You know I loved your brother, though, right?”

I grasp his hand in mine and squeeze once. “I know, Farmer.”

He sighs and our hands slip out of one another’s naturally. I envy Cade a little. I wish I could find something to smile about every day. Maybe it would ease my soul. To him, at least on the outside, it seems like he thinks everything’s always going to work out.

“Hmm,” Cade says thoughtfully.

He pulls me into the present as he swings into the school parking lot. There are a few cars lined up in front of the main glass doors. The cars are old, busted up. Some of them have several parts from different cars. One has a car door that’s a different color than the rest of the vehicle. The other has a blue hood with a white body. Big, tough looking guys are standing out in front of the cars, their arms crossed over their chests. They look pretty pissed. “What’s this about?”

When Cade pulls into a parking space, we have a front-row seat of Oscar walking toward them. All the newcomers stiffen and stand to their full heights. “Well, shit,” Cade says.

“What is it?”

“If I’m not mistaken, that’s the O line at Rawley Heights.”

“The O line? Oscar’s O line.”

“Not anymore,” Cade says, sighing. He pushes the car door open and gets out. It slams behind him, and I immediately fumble out of the car, hot on his heels. “Stay back,” he barks over his shoulder at me, but my feet don’t stop.

Up ahead, I hear Oscar say, “Hey, guys,” in his normal, shit-eating grin tone. “Didn’t think I’d catch you guys way the hell out here. What’s up?”

The guy in the middle shakes out his hands and approaches Oscar. He’s got a much wider girth than his old teammate, taller too. It looks like the guy could flick out his pinkie and send him flying. “Drego, nice digs,” the guy says, looking appreciatively back over his shoulder at the school. “Got yourself set up pretty nice here, huh? I hear your mom’s nice and comfortable, too.”

Oscar shrugs. “You know, living the dream.”

Cade and I approach Oscar. From my peripheral, I see a few other of our football players lurking near the sides. I’d feel a lot safer if Lex were around. I’d usually say Reid, but he can’t be involved in any sort of fight right now with his head injury, so he’s not an option.

As cool as can be, Cade greets the visitors and then slings his arm around Oscar. “Dude, you didn’t tell me your old pals were swinging by the school.”

“I wasn’t aware,” Oscar says. His body is tight, bunched up. He looks like he could spring at any moment.

The lead guy shifts, and a glint of reflecting light shines into my eyes from his midsection before he pulls his coat back together. My heart stops for a second. I’ve seen enough movies to know that was a gun. Holy fuck. These dudes from Rawley Heights are no joke.

Behind them, a car door swings open, and a guy gets out. Using a golf club as a cane, he saddles up to the head guy who’s staring at Oscar like he wants to kick his ass and drag his face over rough pavement.

To our right, I see a flash of blonde move past. I look up when Oscar does and see Sasha moving around the cars. Sparing a glance back, she sees Oscar, but keeps moving around the cars to head into school. “Dirty bitch,” I mumble. This is all her fault. She brought Oscar here, and now his old teammates look pretty put out by that fact.

Oscar turns toward me after my words reach his ears. He sees me there, and his eyes widen.

I smile at him, then take that opportunity to talk. “Hey, aren’t we supposed to work on our project this morning? If we get a bad grade because of you, I’m going to be pissed.”

“And you are?” the guy with the golf club asks.

“Briar Page,” I tell him. I don’t know why I use my last name, maybe hoping these guys will recognize it and leave me out of it. But for some reason, I’m trying to help Oscar. Or maybe it’s just because Cade came this way, and I’m helping Cade. That must be what it is. I wouldn’t let him come over here by myself.

The guy looks me up and down and dismisses me, returning his stare to Oscar. “Stuck up school bitches, preppy football player friends. It’s like we don’t even know you, Drego.”

Oscar scoffs. “Please. You guys know me.”

He’s trying to act hard, and I don’t know, maybe it’s coming across like that. But to me, I see the fear behind it, and I can’t believe Sasha just left him to his own devices. She clearly noticed something was going down. Who the hell knows what she thinks? The two deserve each other, I guess.

I grab Cade’s arm as the one guy starts to tap his golf club against the pavement. Suddenly, a big body moves in front of me. I recognize Lex’s back, looking every bit as dangerous as the guys in front of us. His voice comes out smooth with a hint of anger. “What’s going on Oscar?”

Oscar gestures towards the guys across from us. With Lex making an appearance, other Spring Hill football players move in, making my shoulders relax some. “These are my old teammates. I think they wanted to come see what I was up to here.”

“Heard you won your last game,” the big guy in the middle says.

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