Somethin' About That Boy

“She can wait in my office,” Coach said, walking up.

My brows rose in surprise as I looked at him.

“Thanks, Coach Eric,” Perry said. “My dad said that y’all were going fishing tomorrow.”

Coach coughed. “Sorry. I’m going to be out sick tomorrow.”

That was hilarious, because our assistant coach had just said before he released us from practice that he wouldn’t be here tomorrow for practice. That he had something he had to take care of that was very important.

The guys with me started to laugh, and Coach Eric looked directly ahead as if he didn’t know what we were all laughing at.

When we walked inside the gym’s door, Perry took a left to the coaches’ offices, and I took a right to head toward the shower.

I wasn’t surprised in the least to find Vance in the locker room waiting.

I tried to ignore him but it was obvious in about two seconds that Vance wasn’t going to let this lie.

“Tell me about Perry,” Vance said snidely.

I looked at him as if what he was saying wasn’t affecting me in the least, when in reality I wanted to throw him so hard into the lockers that his head caved in.

God, I was just so fuckin’ tired of dealing with Vance.

“Go away, Vance,” I said as I stripped out of my shirt.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he said. “I might not have gotten onto the football team, but I’ll be in every one of your fuckin’ classes. You won’t be able to ignore me for long.” He paused. “Oh, and I found this sweet little pad in this swanky duplex subdivision. I go after school to sign some papers.”

I looked at him then, hoping that the ‘sweet little pad’ wasn’t anywhere near my sweet little pad.

But I had a sinking sensation that it was.

When I still didn’t respond, he gathered his backpack up and walked out, whistling.

I wanted to punch him in the neck.

Asshole.

The moment that he was out of the locker room, I reached for my phone that was in my bag and growled when I saw that it’d been moved.

Thankfully I’d changed my passcode when this all began and still changed it once a week thanks to my paranoia.

Likely, Vance had tried to get into it.

Also likely, when he found that he couldn’t, he got even more pissed.

Yeah, needless to say, the guy was a jackass, and I was likely lucky that I saw his true colors now instead of ten years from now.

Pulling my phone toward me and scanning my retina, I immediately pulled up my brother’s name and called.

“What’s up?” he asked. “Done with practice? Want to meet at Whataburger?”

“You don’t happen to know if there’s some sort of opening at the duplexes we’re in, do you?” I asked, interrupting him. “Because Vance is here. And he just made it sound like he found out where I was living and got a place there.”

Ford cursed.

“No, but I’ll figure it out pretty fuckin’ quick. Don’t worry too much, okay?” He paused. “The occupants are pretty thoroughly vetted before they get the green light to move in. This is a cop subdivision.”

I felt instant relief.

“Thank God,” I said. “And no, I don’t want Whataburger. I’m taking Perry home.”

Ford chuckled. “Moving pretty fast, aren’t you?”

It didn’t feel fast to me.

But who the hell knew?

“I don’t think so,” I admitted. “Gotta go. She’s waiting on me.”

Titus waited until I was off the phone before saying, “I don’t like this guy.”

I looked over at him with amusement. “Welcome to the club.”Chapter 9

Cory. Shawn. Topanga. Eric. Feeny.

-Coffee Cup

Perry

I was laughing so hard that my sides were hurting when Banner made his way into Coach Eric’s office.

He looked at me with amusement on his face when he said, “You ready?”

I stood up and patted Coach on his back. “I’ll see you later. Good luck on your non-fishing trip.”

After I said my goodbyes, I walked with a clearly broody Banner out to the parking lot.

When we got there, nearly everyone was gone but Coach’s truck and Banner’s bike.

There was one lone truck at the back of the lot that had Banner growling under his breath.

“How did you know that I don’t drive?” I asked curiously.

His eyes flicked down at me, then up toward where the truck across the parking lot started up.

I assumed it was Vance, and I also guessed that the reason he waited was because he wanted Banner to know he was there.

Once he knew, Vance left, rolling out of the parking lot at a leisurely pace.

“I saw you walking,” he said. “I almost stopped and picked you up, but when I went to pull over, I think Blue did and you got into her car.”

I grinned. “My parents can’t afford another car. So when they’re both using them, and I can’t catch a ride with my mom, I walk.”