Page 36 of Off the Stick
And that honor usually goes to Wolf.
I’m so lost in my thoughts that I don’t hear my phone ring from my jeans pocket.Wolf nudges me in my side.
“Bruh, isn’t that your phone?”
I snap my head at him, and he lifts his eyebrows.
“Uh, yeah.Thanks.”I pull out the phone and stare down at the name that lights up on the display.
Cherry
Holy shit.Is this happening now?
I stand up with so much force that I knock the chair off its legs and then step back from the table.
“I gotta take this.”I waggle my phone in the air, as if my teammates don’t understand what a person does with a ringing phone.Then I lift my chin toward Lyons, who is on the couch with a game controller in his hands and playing some war game with Canners, who surprised us all by showing up tonight.
“Yo, Canners.You want to take my spot next round?I’m out.”
Cannfield flicks his gaze away from the giant-screen TV and gives me a look, gesturing with his chin toward the screen.“Fuck off.I’m beating the rookie right now.”
I shrug my shoulder and head toward the sliding glass door that leads to the rookies’ deck.Which is eight floors up from the ground.I’m not big on heights, so I stay close to the wall as I step outside and answer the call.
“Hello?Halle?”
The line is silent for a moment and then I hear a sickly moan.
“Dane…” she croaks out, thick and hoarse, but not in any sensual way.More like she’s rasping for air.I can hear her lungs rattle.
I’m immediately on high alert.Her voice is usually chipper and bubbly, often with a bit of sarcasm.Had it not been her contact’s name on my display, I wouldn’t have recognized her.She does not sound good at all.
“Cherry?What’s going on?”I say, panic and dread icing through my limbs.
I hear something on the other end of the line that sounds vaguely like Lenni singing a song in the background.
“I… really… sick,” she groans out, the words stumbling out of her like they cost her dearly to say each one.“Need sleep.Need you.”
Hearing those words is enough to fill me with superhuman strength.I will take a flying leap off this eighth-floor balcony just to be there because she asked.I will be there to do whatever she needs from me.
“Send me your address, I’ll be right there.”
* * *
The guysbarely bat an eye when I tell them I have to leave unexpectedly.Rossco provides his own commentary on my departure, stating I was probably heading out to meet up with two hot chicks who would console me over my horrible loss tonight.
Well, he got part of that right.
I plug in the address Halle sent me and consider what I might find when I get to her house.
She sounded terrible and out of it, like maybe she was even delirious from fever.
I don’t know anything about how to take care of someone else when they’re sick.The only experience I’ve ever had was when one of my former juniors teammates, Beau Withers, got wasted on Rumple Minze shots and puked all over the shared bathroom of our hotel.I had to clean that shit up, and to this day, if I get one whiff of that noxious mint flavor, I end up gagging.
My map app tells me I’m less than two blocks away from her neighborhood, and as I near the street I’m slated to turn onto, I notice a small convenience store on the corner.
I flip on my signal and turn into the parking lot.I park haphazardly in front of the store and run in to search for some kind of cold and flu remedies, maybe a carton of orange juice and some premade soup.
While I wait for the seemingly bored-out-of-his-mind checkout clerk to scan through my haul, I see some kids’ toys on the display rack over the conveyor belt and add one to my purchases.
