Page 8 of The Perfect Play

I pushed Dax out of the booth and ran after him, pulling his shoulder back. What I wasn’t expecting was a fist to come flying at my face. The impact sent waves of pain through my nose and face, causing tears to well up as it grew more intense. As an instinctive reaction, I balled my fist and gave him his own punch to the jaw, sending his head twisting to the side with a crack.

With a mischievous smile, Nate threw another punch, this time allowing me to dodge to the side and push him behind me. But instead of staying in the aisle, he plowed over the side of the booth we were sitting in, knocking over the glasses of water. The water on the table seemed to propel him even farther, and in a matter of a few quick seconds, Nate’s head and shoulder crashed through the window looking out onto the street.

The restaurant paused, every pair of eyes staring our direction, every mouth agape.

I swore under my breath and ran over to Nate, hoping he was okay. It had just been a joke like we’d done so many times before. But as I got closer and pulled two of my friends out of the way, my heart thrummed in my ears.

“I’m calling 9-1-1,” Ben said, his voice reaching an octave higher than normal as I saw the thin line of blood seeping onto the back of the booth.

Please let him be okay.I couldn’t live with myself if I’d gotten another one of my friends killed because of my foolish antics.

Nate moved slowly back into the booth, and I looked at the large gash that sliced from one side of his forehead and down across the bridge of his nose to the ear on the other side. Dark red blood already coated his face, and it kept dripping.

I grabbed several napkins, dabbing them around the wound and then finally holding them against it.

“Are you an idiot?” Penny’s terse words caused me to turn, and she pushed me back, trying to get to Nate. She took over holding the napkins and whispered things to him, her voice more soothing than I’d ever heard it.

I stood away from the booth, looking at the aftermath of our friendly fight and knowing I was in deep. Not only had we broken a window, but would one of our key starters be okay to even play this season?

“I-I’m sorry,” I stuttered, trying to process the quick succession of thoughts that sent me right back to that night nine months, two weeks, and one day ago. I ran a hand through my hair and sat down at a booth across from where Nate and Penny were. Dax and Colt moved closer to me, their expressions stunned. I glanced back at Ben as he explained the situation to the emergency people on the phone, taking deep breaths between speaking.

Flashing lights and sirens sounded, and a few seconds later, they were outside the diner. I glanced over to Nate again. The color had drained from his face, making him look ashen and sickly.

Paramedics urged Penny out of the way, and they put Nate onto a gurney, wheeling him out the front door and into the back of the ambulance.

I hadn’t even seen the police come through, but they stood in front of the four of us, their expressions just as stern as they’d been the night of the accident. “What happened here?”

I felt Dax, Ben, and Colt turn their eyes to me, boring into my skull.

“We were having a friendly scuffle, and I didn’t realize I pushed him as hard as I did. He ended up sliding over the booth and into the window right there.” I pointed to the spot, even though I was sure they didn’t need help finding where the injury had occurred. The cracks in the glass ran all the way up, and a thick trail of blood stretched across the table.

Feeling lightheaded, I turned to study a scratch on the table in front of me. Blood still got me, even after all this time.

“Your name?” the officer asked.

I swallowed. “Jake White.”

“We’ll have to talk to the owner and the parents of the other boy and see if they want to press charges, Mr. White. Why don’t you take a ride with us?”

I nodded, knowing that submitting would be the best option for my future. I didn’t need a felony or misdemeanor on my record, or I’d never get into college. One of the officers walked in front of me to the door as the other one breathed down my neck behind me.

Remembering I’d driven, I turned and tossed the keys to Dax. “You need these more than I do right now.”

Dax caught them with ease and nodded, his grim expression the same as the other two behind him.

As I walked past the long table of older women, each of them seemed to be trying to take in as much as they could so they could spread the news around town. Just what I didn’t need. An audience who couldn’t keep quiet.

Chapter 7

Penny

There had been a lot of clean-up after Jake’s fight, and I was grateful the book club broke up sooner than usual, no doubt ready to go tell everyone in town what had happened at Lou’s diner.

Jake hadn’t changed a bit. He’d always had a bit of a temper on him, but throwing his friend through a window? That wasn’t something I’d expected of him.

The other three baseball players had paid their tab, and when I walked over with a large bucket and a rag, hoping to clean up as much of the small shards of glass as I could, Dax stopped me.

“Sorry about all the mess, Nickel.” His use of Jake’s nickname for me caused bile to rise up my throat. I didn’t even like it when Jake used it, but his best friend should have known better.

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