Page 223 of The Locker Room

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going to be a fucking mess, man. My son—” Jed swallowed. “My son

will live, but they might have to take his legs. And if they don"t, then

walking again… it"s going to be… it"s going to be a long, hard haul, you

know?”

Xander nodded. He knew. “Well,” he said with a swallow, “we"re

just going to have to help him, right? Chris? He"ll bounce back. As long

as we"re there to catch him, he"ll bounce back.” Xander nodded

positively, and Andi broke into sobs and wrapped her arms around his

neck and wept until her body gave out. Jed pulled her back against his

chest and gave Xander a watery smile.

“See,” he said, as though Xander had said something profound.

“You two kids… it was like he found you, and it was the whole of his

heart, you know? Even before we figured out you were in love, we just

knew. You"d be there for each other. You couldn"t let him down,

Xander. It"s not in you.”

Xander swallowed hard, thinking of third home game of the month,

thinking about all the times he threatened to quit but didn"t, thinking

about what would have happened if he"d simply screamed, “We"re gay,

The Locker Room 193

asshole! Do something about it!” to their coach, in front of the team, and

then let the team do something about it.

“I don"t want it to be,” Xander said roughly, and then, in the corner

of his eye, he caught sight of Leo, followed by two state troopers, and his

stomach flipped over.

He hadn"t even asked if there had been someone else involved. He

hadn"t even thought of blood alcohol levels. Oh God… what if there

was… what if Chris had killed someone? What if he"d been drunk?

Visions of Chris recovering, just to go to prison and be taken from him

for a helluva a lot longer than six weeks were enough to make Xander"s

stomach just scream in protest, but he"d just told Chris"s father that he

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