Page 43 of Catch Me

“I don’t fucking care about that.”

“Oh, you don’t fucking care about that?” Lex challenges. “I think that’s all you fucking care about.”

Cade steps between them. “Alright, alright. It was a sucky night, okay? Can we just agree on that? Sasha’s a bitch. Oscar’s a dick. We don’t need to let them interfere with what we’ve got going on.”

“They’re already interfering with whatI’vegot going on,” Reid says. “Me.He fucking tookmyspot. She fucking made sure it happened. Me. No one else. So, yes, I’ll tell you what I want to happen because of it.”

Cade’s face changes. A shadow hovers over him, making it seem like he just stepped into a dark place. “You don’t think that when she did that shit to you, she didn’t also do that shit to us? Dude, we’re a team. Always have been. Always will be. What happens to one of us happens to all of us.”

Reid growls, the sound reverberating through the whole locker room. Turning, he slams his fist into the locker, making a dent. “It’s not the fucking same.”

Cade moves forward. He grabs Reid by the collar and pushes him against the locker he just made a dent in. “It is the fucking same. You’re not going through it alone.”

“Well, it fucking feels like it,” Reid seethes. “I’m the one not playing on the field. I’m the one not helping the team. I’m the fucking one that might not get the scholarship. Oscar didn’t come to take your fucking spots.”

Cade shakes his head. “Get a fucking grip, Reid. And I mean that in the nicest of ways, but get a fucking handle on your shit. Stop ignoring Lex. Stop fighting with him. Stop this woe is me bullshit. I’m getting sick of it. None of us can say a goddamn thing anymore without wondering how you’re going to react.” He gives him another small shove into the locker and then backs away. “I’m going to my house. I don’t feel like fucking partying tonight.”

Cade grabs his jacket and slaps the locker room door, sending it crashing against the brick on the other side. I take my phone out and send Jules a text, asking her to make sure he’s okay.

Lex stands when I put my phone away. His fist forms around the paper towel until water mixed with blood squeezes out and lands on the floor. “I need us to be okay, man. I don’t want to tiptoe around you anymore.” He gives me a quick glance. “I told you I’d back off, and I have. I don’t know what more you want from me.” When Reid doesn’t answer him, he throws the towel away and leaves, leaving Reid and I alone.

Reid sinks to the floor, his hands coming up to run through his hair. I sit on the bench, facing him and the lockers, my legs straddling his knees. “You okay?” I ask.

“Depends,” he says. “Are you going to yell at me too?”

I shake my head. “I wasn’t planning on it.”

His mouth quirks. “But you just might anyway?”

I shake my head. “No, Reid. I’m not going to yell at you. I don’t think they were yelling at you either. I think they were just trying to tell you that they’re there for you. In a way that you might finally hear it.”

“That bad, huh?”

“I mean, you pissed Cade off. That’s got to be saying something.” I sigh when he doesn’t laugh. “Come on. You know those three—two,” I counter, quickly correcting myself. “You know those two would do anything for you.”

Reid reaches up to put his hand in mine. “You can say three. I bet Brady’s yelling at me right now, too.”

I smirk. “He wasn’t one to hold back, that’s for sure.”

After a moment, Reid says, “I just can’t believe this is happening. Sometimes when I can’t sleep, I stare at the ceiling and ask myself if this is fucking real life. I wonder if Sasha is actually one hundred percent certifiably crazy. Should she be in a legit fucking mental institution?”

“Yes, and yes.”

Reid tugs on my hand, shaking his head at my answer. He keeps tugging until I land on top of him, his legs straightening out under the bench, so I can straddle him.

I hold his gaze. “The question is, what are we going to do about it?”

“What can we do? I just have to get better. That’s what’s going to stop all this.”

“But won’t she keep trying? Won’t she not stop?”

“We can’t control her crazy, Briar. We shouldn’t even attempt to.”

I blink at him, knowing he’s making a hell of a lot of sense, but also thinking I don’t quite agree with him. Someone has to teach her she doesn’t fuck with us. There are consequences.

When Coach comes out of the back, he shoos us out of the room and instead of going to the party, we head to Reid’s house to help his parents hand out candy.

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