Page 38 of Catch Me

I lean back in my chair. “So, I take it that’s not the last you’ll be seeing of those guys?”

Oscar shakes his head. “Not by a long shot.”

I exhale a breath, looking into Oscar’s eyes. It’s hard to think of him as the enemy’s sidekick when there’s a hint of fear underneath the surface. It makes him more human, and that I don’t like. I want Reid to get better. I want him to take his spot back and leave Oscar in his wake. But I think that’s what Oscar expects to happen to a poor guy from Rawley Heights. “She didn’t save you, you know? Sasha.”

Oscar bursts out laughing. “You think I think that?” He shakes his head. “I love how fucking innocent you are.” He laughs for a few more seconds, then says, “Listen, I know she didn’t save me. I know she has her own agenda. I said it before, and I’ll keep saying it. I’m a man of opportunity. I have to be. I saw a way out, and I fucking took it.”

“Knowing the risks?”

“Knowing the risks, but also knowing I’m fucking scrappy when it comes to it. Right now, my mom’s safe in a nice little townhouse. If I can keep this position, I’ll be well on my way to college, away from the Heights, away from Spring Hill.”

“Reid’s not going to let you take his spot on the team, Oscar. You picked the wrong guy to stay down.”

Oscar lifts his shoulders, a flash of darkness skating through his eyes. My body turns cold. Oscar would probably do anything he could to get what he wants, just like he said.

“Just remember you owe us for today,” I tell him, throwing that in his face again. The last thing I want is for him to think he can really take Reid out of the picture by showing up with his own golf club.

He nods once, and I stand, throwing shit into my bookbag. I’m so caught up in what I’m doing I don’t realize Oscar has left until a hand comes to rest on my shoulder. I flinch. My eyes move upward, and I see the empty chair Oscar had just been in.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

It’s Reid. I want so badly to just let him hold me, but what he did was wrong, so I don’t say anything.

After a while, Reid sighs. “Listen, I know you’re pissed at me, but that doesn’t mean you should skip lunch.” I finally look up at him. He’s holding a bag of chips and an apple and shrugging. “It’s all I could score from the line.”

“Why did you do it?” I whisper, ignoring his sweet gesture. “Why did you hit Lex?”

“We had a disagreement.”

“About?”

“You know what about, Briar.”

“I won’t come between you guys. I won’t,” I say again, my voice rising.

Reid looks around, then takes my bag and pulls me into the back of the library between the same two stacks Oscar and I had our lovely chat in. He places his hands on my upper shoulders. “You’re right. You won’t.”

“You hit him.”

“It’s not the first time, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. I only feel bad that he won’t hit me back.”

“Of course he won’t,” I say through clenched teeth. “You have a brain injury, Reid. Why would he risk that?”

Reid presses his lips together. “Just let Lex and I work it out.”

I cross my arms over my chest. “If your way of working things out is punching each other, I don’t agree.”

He lowers his gaze to the floor but squeezes my shoulders. After a while, he looks up again. His green eyes swirl with emotion. “Can I help it that I want to fight when it feels like someone wants to take the best thing I’ve ever had away from me? And the sooner Lex gets it, the better. The only thing that will make me stop fighting for you is if you tell me to stop. And I hope you don’t ever do that.” He sighs, pulling me to him. “That’s what Lex and I talked about. I told him to lay off unless you asked him not to, and I told him I’d do the same. I told him that if you ever ask me to lay off, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

I hold on to him tighter at his words. I don’t want to let him go, and I certainly don’t want him to lay off. “Why does Lex have a black eye?”

“It took us a while to get to that point.”

My shoulders sag, but Reid holds me tighter. The steady thump of his heartbeat calms me down, eventually. “So, everything’s good now? Are you still fighting? I just want everything to go back to the way it was.”

Reid moves me away at arm’s length. He lifts his big hand to my cheek. “We’re past that point, Briar. Don’t get me wrong, I know how Lex is feeling. If you ever told me to stop, I’d…” His throat works. “I’d act the same as him. I told him I got it. But I also asked him for the sake of our friendship if he’d try to get past it. If he’d try to move on. That’s one thing I can say for him. He might just love you as much as I do.” His gaze hardens. “I hate to fucking admit that, but…” He shrugs, leaving the sentence unsaid. Leaving his thoughts unexplained.

I don’t know what to do with that admission, so I just keep it inside me, locking it away in case I ever want to revisit this moment. Right now, though, I hope what Reid is saying is true. Hopefully the rest of us can go back to some place where it’s okay for me to be in love with Reid and not with Lex, and no one cares.

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