Page 163 of The Locker Room

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Coach Wallick whirled on him, his small eyes narrow in his

oatmeal face. “That"s blasphemy, son.”

“Well, according to you, so am I.” Xander didn"t shout. He was a

big, gawky man, and he was aware that his body had plenty of presence

and he didn"t need to add any to it with his voice. So he was hissing,

140 Amy Lane

snarling, growling the words, and Wallick took an involuntary step back

from him, his mouth opened to respond.

Doc Malloy walked in at that moment with a pair of crutches with

an easy, almost oblivious smile on his face. “Had to get the extra-long,

Xander—fortunately, we"ve got a lot of those around here.”

Xander managed a small smile for him, and Malloy turned

guilelessly to Wallick. “Hey, Coach, give us some room here. He"s got to

try these out, okay?”

Xander took the crutches and thrust them under his arms,

experimentally testing his weight and shifting it back and forth. For a

moment, he just hung there and played, enjoying the balance and swing,

like a little kid, using his good foot to catch his weight when he swung

down. Of course, he knew from experience that the novelty would wear

off, but for the moment? Swing forward, swing backward, swing

forward, swing back….

“What in the hell were you two talking about?”

Xander almost missed the swing forward and crashed to the

ground, and wouldn"tthathave been embarrassing.

“Stuff,” he muttered, not looking at Malloy. He had no idea how

Doc Malloy felt about gay rights, and he didn"t really want to know,

either. Honestly, was it too much to ask that the whole world not give a

flying monkey shit who he slept with? Did it really make him a better

basketball player? A worse one? Whatever.

“Yeah, well, whatever stuff it was, I hope you gave him a piece of

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