Page 42 of Catch Me

I start off down the paved walkway and end up on the other side of the locker room door. I’ve only come in here before with Reid ushering me in. Now, I’m by myself, so I pause, stare at it, and wonder what the hell I should do.

A metallic bang, like something hard hitting a locker, makes my decision for me. I pull on the door handle and step inside. Lex has Oscar pushed up against a row of lockers as the team watches. Sasha’s at Oscar’s side, tearing at Lex, her fingernails digging into his skin and leaving scratches. I stalk forward, catching Oscar’s eyes first. His glint, like he knew something like this was going to happen. Like he was counting on it and wants to see how it all plays out, just like he told me before.

I yank on Sasha’s arm, pulling her away from Lex. She stumbles back, falling into another player. “You bitch!” she calls out as soon as she sees it’s me. Her lip curls as her gaze settles somewhere behind me.

“Lex, come on,” I say, gently pulling on his arm across Oscar’s throat. “He’s not worth it.”

It takes some more cajoling, but eventually, Cade steps in, and he and I move Lex away. Oscar stands up straight, running a hand down his bare chest. His hand finds his jeans, and he zips and buttons them. I look away, wondering what the hell sparked Lex to lose his shit in the middle of Oscar getting dressed. Honestly, it doesn’t matter. The sight of those two makes every one of our hackles rise, so it’s not surprising something ended up happening.

I turn, finding Reid sitting on a bench dressed in his track pants and school sweatshirt. Tension thickens the air, but at least the players who are still in the locker room go back to changing. I head toward him, his jaw hard. “Hey,” I say, touching his arm. “You okay?”

He doesn’t move. He doesn’t even look up at me. He’s so taut, he’s close to snapping. The vibration of his anger scares me.

Cade comes over. “Just Sasha talking shit,” he says, lowering his voice, so the only two people who can hear him are Reid and me. “Lex tried to shut her up, which got Oscar involved. Which prompted Oscar to say some shit about you. I think both these guys are ready to fucking lose it. Maybe we should just go to my house, see what my parents have in the liquor cabinet, and watch some horror movies.”

I shrug. “Whatever everyone else wants.” I honestly don’t care about going to the party. My number one focus for the last couple of weeks has been Reid since it seems like he’s slowly starting to lose it. I get it. To him, the life he always imagined is going up in flames around him.

“Hey, Baby, you hurt?” I hear a false sweet voice say behind us.

“Nothing you can’t take care of.”

I roll my eyes at the sound of Oscar’s voice. We’ve come to a sort of truce in English in order to get our project done. We turn it in on Monday, so that’s the end of that. Thankfully.

Her answering giggle is like nails on a chalkboard. “I’ll do that thing you like.” He growls playfully at her, and I make a sound of disgust, which only draws her attention. “What are you going to be for Halloween, Briar? A nun.”

I shrug. “Not a bad idea.”

Her gaze focuses behind me. I can see the switch to dark in her eyes, and I just know some seriously fucked up shit is about to come out of her mouth. “I bet Reid’s getting a hand workout because of you. No wonder he can’t play yet. You should try using the left, that way you don’t work your hand out too much.”

Oscar grabs his new Spring Hill hoodie out of his locker and pulls it on. When he turns his head, he glares at Sasha, but she doesn’t notice. She’s too busy trying to make it seem like Reid still should’ve chosen her. Yet, Oscar was right that one day in the library. Sasha will never get it.

Oscar glances at me, his expression unreadable, then interlaces their fingers. “I think I have better things for your mouth to be doing, Sasha.”

She sneers at us when we don’t react. Oscar has to practically drag her out of the locker room. While he holds the door open for her, he looks over his shoulder at me, his lips turned down.

“Fuck that guy,” Cade says as soon as he leaves. A few of the other players still in the locker room grunt in response. When I look around, I realize the place has almost emptied out. “He ain’t shit.”

“He’s keeping up our winning season,” Reid says, breaking his stoic trance to stand.

He seems taller than he usually is. Maybe it’s the stiffness in his shoulders. I have to cock my head to look at him, hating that things aren’t going the way they should be.

“And when you come back,you’llbe keeping up our winning season,” Cade shrugs. The faith he has in Reid makes a warm feeling spread through my limbs.

I wrap my arms around Reid, burying my head in his chest. Little by little, he softens, moving his arms around me. It’s like he needs my presence to ground him, to show him that everything’s not all bad because he still has me.

“So, my house?” Cade asks.

Reid shakes his head. “As much as I’d rather do that, we can’t. Well, I can’t. I can’t afford to. I need to be with the team. I can’t let him take them away one-by-one so that it’s awkward as shit when I come back. I have to show them I’m still their quarterback.”

Cade looks away, moving discreetly out of the line of sight between Lex and Reid. Lex is sitting on the small bench in front of the row of lockers. I gasp when I see the small droplets of blood Sasha’s fucking fingernail scratches gave him. I run to the bathroom, wet a paper towel, and come back out to wipe at his injuries. They’re not serious, of course. Lex has seen a lot worse, but it looks like an annoying cat tried to get his attention for a few hours.

“I got it,” he says, taking the wet paper towel from me.

“Which is why…” Reid says, his voice rising. “…when I go to handle my business, I don’t need you stepping in for me.”

Cade rubs the back of his neck, and I get the feeling that I definitely missed something.

Lex sighs. “I didn’t know how it was going to go, and I didn’t want your head to get hit, man.”

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