Page 26 of Hello Forever
The whistle blew and we were both panting. Axel wiped sweat off his brow, his chest expanding visibly. When his eyes met mine, they sparkled with a love of the game, and a silent acknowledgment that we’d done thisbefore.
I put my feet behind the free-throw line and sank myfirstshot.
“Not bad for a geek,” Axel said under hisbreath.
Biting my lip to avoid smiling at him, I sank thesecondone.
The next twenty-odd minutes flew by. When the ref blew the whistle after the first half, I could hardly believe it. Walking over to my stuff, I grabbed my water bottle and took alongpull.
“You’re on fire tonight,” Jason said. “Seriously. Somebody ate his Wheatiestoday.”
“It was that extra cup of coffee.” But that wasn’t even close to the truth. It was just so much fun to go up against Axel. I’d missed him so fucking much. My phone chirped and I pickeditup.
Hey Caxtastrophe—nice hustle but you’re stilllosing.
My reply was brief.Hey Axeldental—biteme.
His response:I thought you weren’t into that anymore.But you know where tofindme…
I snorted. Putting the phone down, I toweled off my forehead and went back to play. On the court was the only safe place for us to be near each other. I’d just have to enjoy everyminute.
* * *
We lostthe game by a handful of points, but I hadn’t had that much fun in alongtime.
“I have to grab a shower before we go to Bruisers,”Jasonsaid.
Unbidden, my eyes flicked toward the door to the locker room. I wondered if Axel was on his way in there. The locker room was going to have to be off limits for me. “I have to stop home for a minute. Meet you atthebar?”
“Sure! I’ll see if anyone from the winning team wants tojoinus.”
“Sounds good. Give me thirty minutes.” I walked outside practically humming. The world was a brighter place with Axel in it. Even if I couldn’t have what I wanted, just seeing him across a room made me happy. And maybe he’d come out tothebar…
At home, I was toweling off after a quick shower when my phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number. “Hello?” I answered, hoping it was a wrongnumber.
Itwasn’t.
“Hey,” my brotherJaredsaid.
“Where are you?” I asked, knowing immediately that something was wrong. Jared didn’t make socialcalls.
“At Rob’s house.” The words were thick and indistinct. “Can you pickmeup?”
“Of course,” I said first. “Are youdrunk?”
“Don’t tell,” hepleaded.
I was standing beside my room’s door, and it made a perfect target to bang my head against.Thunk. Thunk. “Tell me how to find Rob’shouse.”
Just like that, my nightblewup.
After dressing hastily, I drove over to a split-level house in a residential neighborhood on the other side of town. Luckily, I didn’t have to go inside to find my errant brother. He came stumbling out the door as soon as I pulled up, then poured himself into my passenger seat. “Thanks,” hemumbled.
Taking a moment to study his angular, pimple-spotted features, I tried to figure out what to say. “You want to tell me whathappened?”
He groaned. “I told Dad we were studying for a test, but Rob’s parents are out of town. He’s like—‘Let’s drink the vodka, because they never touchthatone.’”
“So youdidit.”
