Page 202 of Cross the Line
All over my pristine white shirt. Before it has a chance to settle, I go clean myself up. Jayden and I are taking Finley to the movie theater. I’d rather not have Matheo’s angry tomato juice all over me.
The practice facility is starkly quiet outside the cafeteria. As I turn the corner to the nearest bathroom, my heart drops to my feet.
“Get it through your head. I don’t have to listen to anything you have to say,” Finley barks, shoving Ryker’s chest.
“There are always two sides to every story,” Ryker coos back, hands in the air.
“Only one that matters in this one. I know what you did. I know the kind of person you are and?—”
“You don’t know me for shit,” he scoffs back. The instant he takes a step toward her, I launch forward. “Elijah’s no innocent lamb. Whatever he’s told you… Whatever lie he’s telling himself now doesn’t change the fact he’s not straight. He’s not now, and he wasn’t then. You don’t become queer overnight, Sweetie.”
It happens in slow motion. His hands close around her biceps and, before he can do anything, I push between them, slamming him against the wall.
“Keep your hands off my girl,” I bark, hands gripping the collar of his jacket.
“Is she your girl or your boyfriend’s girl?” Ryker chuffs with a leering laugh. “Do you even want her or is she just there to make you feel less gay?”
“You don’t know anything about us.” Fin’s growl cuts through the spittle of my curse as she grabs the hand I rear back. Her whole body weight is pulling it down forcibly, but it only means I tighten my grip on his collar with the other, twisting it so tight that it’s pinching his air supply.
“Don’t I?” Ryker’s stare flits between the two of us.
“Look at me,” I demand, squeezing my hand around his jaw. “Whatever game you’re playing ends now. You’re going to stay away from us?—”
“Maybe tellyour girlthat,” he chokes, hands closing around my wrists, attempting to pry my hold off him. “She cornered me. Isn’t that right, Finley?”
“Why are you even doing any of this?” Finley grasps the top of my jeans, trying to tug me back when I slam him against the wall and drop him like the sack of shit he is. “What do you want?”
“I’m just here on community rink business… minding my own…”
Lies!“Liar,” I grunt.
“What the fuck?” I glance back at JJ’s cold snarl.
Dylan and Lily are marching hurriedly behind him. When Dylan notices us, he pauses, assessing the situation.
“Go back to the cafeteria, Sweetheart,” he tells Lily, taking a few steps back to watch her follow his instruction before he asks us, “Is there a problem here?”
“I don’t know, Thompson,” Ryker smirks, fixing his clothes. “Why don’t you ask your boys and their girl?”
“The fuck are you doing here?” Jayden growls, stepping around Finley. “Always hanging around like a fucking stench.”
Ryker doesn’t get the chance to breathe a word—at the whisper of his grin, Jayden fists his shirt and drags him to the top of the stairsleading to the main atrium. He’s got Ryker over the banister, back bowed over the thick glass as Dylan stands ready to intervene.
I give Fin a check over. I don’t like that she was out here on her own with him.
“Did he hurt you? You okay?” Fin looks at me, my questions bouncing around her head while big, panicked eyes dart between me and Jayden as she nods, “Fine.”
“Morrow…” Dylan attempts to grab JJ’s attention.
“Don’t,” I stop him from interfering at the same time as Finley rushes to JJ’s side.
“He’s not worth it,” she tells him frantically. “Let him go, Honey. Just let him go.”
“No.” Jayden shoves Ryker farther over the edge, so that Dylan pushes past me to grab Ryker’s flailing arm. “Not until we get a few things straight. Until I know he’s got it through his thick fucking head that we’re done with his bullshit.”
“Fuck,” Matheo mutters, bounding around the corner with a few of the other guys hot on his heels. “Jay…”
“Here’s the deal, asshole: I let you walk away now, and this is the last time we see you. Hear of you. You don’t exist anymore.” Jayden’s tall, looming frame swallows up Ryker when he yanks him back onto his feet.
