Page 24 of Pucker Up
When it didn’t come, I cracked open an eye. Mikey was pulling Gideon off of me.
“What is going on?” Mikey shouted.
Gideon’s eyes flashed and his nostrils flared. I knew my brother’s fight faces, and this was one of his scariest. “Stay out of it, Holmes. It’s just brother stuff.”
Holmes stepped between me and Gideon. I tucked my glove under my arm and touched my lip, not surprised to see blood on my fingertips. “It’s not just brother stuff when it affects everyone else out here. We know the truth, Ace. Tell him what you told us.”
“You told them?” Gideon scoffed. “What fictional version did you feed these guys?”
I squared my shoulders and tried to remember whether fiction meant fake or real. “The true kind, Giddy.” His childhood nickname slipped out. “I told them the truth.”
Gideon stretched his hand a couple of times. He had hit me so hard I was surprised that he could still move it. “The truth?” He balled his hand into a fist and I instinctively took a step back. “The only truth here is that Ace Bailey is a liar.” He shook his hand and disappeared into the darkness of the dressing room hallway.
“You all right, Acer?” Mikey handed me one of the team towels that was sitting on the bench. “You’re going to need to get some ice on that shiner.” I pressed the towel to my face and pain shot from my eye socket. Gideon’s punch had landed on my jaw, but had been so powerful I was definitely going to have the worst black eye of my life, well the second worst. I was pretty sure that he hit me harder the first time.
“I’ll be fine.”
“I’ve never seen him so… I was going to say angry, but that’s the first time I’ve seen him so…anything.” Mikey stared at the tunnel where Gideon had disappeared. “Are you coming to the dressing room?”
I sat on the bench and shook my aching head. “I’m going to wait out here a minute. “Coach cut him from the game on Saturday.”
“Oh fuck. Yeah, wait out here a few minutes. I’ll tell you when the coast is clear.” Mikey rested his hand on my shoulder, patted it, and then left.
The ice was torn up, but if I squinted, I could see the exact grooves left from our blades. If we could get it together, the two of us would be unstoppable. Coach was right—Gideon was sinking, and I was attached. I needed to cut myself free, or he would drag me down to the bottom with him.
EIGHT
GOLDIE
The clockon the wall seemed to tick slower and slower as the day went on, to the point where I found myself teetering on the corner of my desk to replace the battery. I sighed and compared the time on the wall to the time on my phone, and my computer. It was three o’clock on every device. My advisor Roger said that he was going to get back to me by the end of the day.
I picked up the phone and dialed Mel. She answered on the second ring. I could hear the traffic and her heels clicking on the sidewalk.
“Have you got a minute?” I asked.
“Sure. What’s up?” She sounded out of breath. A horn honked in the background and she let out a yelp.
“I’ll call you later. I don’t want to be the reason you’re squished into the streetcar rails.”
Mel’s laugh rang through the phone. “It’s all right. I can walk and talk.”
“Yeah, but do your eyes work at the same time?”
“Ha. Ha.” Another horn sounded. “Ouch. Watch where you’re going!” Mel shouted.
“What is going on?” I asked.
“I hit that guy’s hood with my hand. It hurt.”
I shook my head, but realized that she couldn’t see me. “What does ‘end of the day’ mean to you?” I asked.
“Like end-of-days, apocalypse style?” An espresso machine whirred in the background and I breathed easier as a chair scraping on the floor told me my friend had left the dangers of the city streets and was getting her afternoon fix in the safety of a coffee shop.
“No. Like, if someone says they’re going to get back to you by the end of the day, what does that mean to you?”
Her laugh told me that I wasn’t going to get a straight answer. “Well, that depends. As someone who works in real estate, I’d say midnight. I think for normal people it’s around five o’clock.”
She must have heard my sigh as I watched the clock tick to 3:02. “Okay.”
