More Than Everything (Family 3)

“Seriously?” I sighed tiredly.

“Yeah, seriously,” he said as he stepped forward, looking two parts menacing and one part ridiculous.

I hadn’t intended to say that out loud. Damn.

“Come on, you guys,” Selina whispered. “Just leave us alone, okay?”

“You don’t need to worry about that, porky,” he said disdainfully. Then he dragged his gaze from her feet to her face and sneered. “Unless you stop stuffing your face and lose a ton of weight, you can count on a lot of alone time.”

His buddies giggled. Selina blinked away tears. And I got pissed.

“Look”—what the fuck was his name?—“uh, whatever your name is, we’re suitably scared or impressed or intimidated or whatever. But we need to get to class now, so move.”

On the plus side, my comment got him to move. Unfortunately, rather than moving away from me, he moved toward me. Or, more precisely, he moved his hand toward my shoulder, connected hard, and shoved even harder. My books crashed to the floor, I went tumbling back against the locker, Selina grasped my arm to steady me, and Asshole clenched his fist, seemingly readying himself for the next round.

“Hey, Charlie. How’s it going?” I tilted my head to the side and saw Scott Boone walk up behind and slightly to the left of Asshole. “Nicolas, right?” Scott said to Asshole, clueing me in on his name. “And you guys are”—he squinted and looked at the other two guys—“Troy and Steve?” he said as he patted their backs. Two bobbleheads nodded, and Scott somehow managed to smoothly move his huge frame between them and over to me. His gaze moved to the books at my feet. “Oh, your books fell,” he said. Then he squatted down and stacked my books up. Once he had them neatly arranged with the largest on the bottom and the smallest on top, he straightened up. “We need to make sure this never happens again, Charlie.” He said my name, but he was looking straight at Asshole Nicolas, who was standing there, slack-jawed.

“You know this guy, Scott?” Nicolas asked.

Scott shifted my books into one arm and wrapped the other around my shoulders. “Sure, I do,” Scott said. “He’s my next-door neighbor and a good friend. Hey, remember how Coach said the team is like a family?” He paused. “No, maybe you guys weren’t there. I think he said it during varsity practice. Well, anyway, the team is like a family, so we need to have each other’s backs on the field and off. Since Charlie’s sort of like my family, I guess that means the team will have his back too.” He took a step forward, keeping his arm around me. The three guys stepped aside to give us room. “Coach feels pretty strongly about that kind of thing. If you move up from JV, I’m sure you’ll hear the speech.”

The three big menaces nodded some more, mumbled, and then scattered. I stared up at Scott in awe.

“Aren’t you going to introduce me to the guy who just saved your life?” Selina asked.

Scott blushed. “I’m sure you guys were fine. I didn’t do anything,” he said.

But he had to know that wasn’t true. Scott had been in our school for less than two months, but already he was Mr. Popular. Making the varsity football team had helped with that, but mostly I chalked it up to his always present smile, upbeat personality, and dick-hardening good looks. He was the kind of guy everybody naturally gravitated toward, and frankly, I was constantly surprised he still gave me the time of day.

It had been one thing when he was new to the neighborhood and didn’t know anybody. But once Scott got settled and made friends, I was certain he’d stop spending time with a scrawny sophomore who hung out with the theater geeks and the art dorks. But counter to my predictions, he never tried to put any space between us. If anything, we’d become even closer as we’d spent more time together.

“Scott, you remember my friend Selina, right?” I said. “Selina, I know you remember Scott, the guy who might not have saved my life, but who definitely saved me from another black eye or fat lip.”

Scott’s distressed gasp took me off guard. “Do you really think they would have hurt you, Charlie?” he asked. “I thought they were just screwing around and being jerks.” He cupped my cheek and gently ran his fingers along the edge of my eye while he traced my bottom lip with his thumb. “If they give you any more trouble, you let me know right away, okay?”

A dip of my head was the best I could give him. My tongue suddenly felt thick in my mouth, and I was busy swallowing. The warning bell rang—I’m talking actual school bell here, not anything in my head—and Scott dropped his hand. “Gotta go,” he said as he handed me my books. “My next class is on the other side of the building.” I took my books and watched him jog away. “See you tonight,” he shouted over his shoulder. Then he turned the corner.