“Mmmhmm, we took a ride over there and decided to show the video Sebastian made to the varsity coach and talked to him about Mikey’s chances of playing next year.”
“We?” Zoe said, focusing on that one word.
“Me,” Trevor said, pausing to kiss her forehead. “Uncle Jared,” he said, kissing the tip of her nose. “Jason,” he said, leaning down to kiss her chin. “And Reese,” he finished by brushing his lips against hers.
“And?” she asked, smiling against his lips.
“And unfortunately, he doesn’t have any say over who plays on the freshmen team,” he said, sighing heavily with one last brush of his lips against hers before he stepped away.
“He can’t make Coach Dilmore give her a chance?” Zoe asked, regretting her decision not to say anything when this all started.
They probably all were after what happened, but they didn’t want to make anything worse, and now, Mikey was off the team and it didn’t look like that was going to change anytime soon. Not unless she was able to get into one of the schools she’d applied to. They’d be stupid not to accept her. Mikey was a sweet girl, who didn’t deserve this.
Sebastian didn’t either, Zoe thought only to tell herself that it was all going to work out. They just had to–
“But he does get to decide who plays on the JV team,” Trevor said offhandedly before his lips pulled up into a grin. “It’s not official, but he said as long as Mikey tried out for the team next year, he’d have a pitcher’s spot for her.”
“Are you serious?” Zoe asked, already reaching over to pull her husband into a hug when his phone rang.
“The spot’s hers if she wants it,” Trevor said as he pulled his phone out. Shooting her a wink, he answered the phone and immediately lost that smile as he listened to whoever was talking on the other line.
After a moment, he bit out, “Where is he?”
“Trevor, what’s wrong?” Zoe asked, watching as he hung up the phone and headed for the door.
“Call Reese and tell him that Mikey’s been arrested.”
*-*-*-*
“Hey, look at me, Mikey,” Sebastian said softly as she struggled to stop trembling.
She’d never been this scared before.
“It’s going to be okay. I won’t let anything happen to you,” Sebastian promised, but she could only nod her head as she struggled to stop crying.
She watched as another teardrop hit the tiled floor, joining the others. She couldn’t believe this was happening. The image of Sebastian being shoved to the ground kept playing through her head over and over again and–
This couldn’t be happening.
Not now.
This was all just a bad dream. Just a bad dream, Mikey kept telling herself as she sat there struggling to breathe because this couldn’t be happening. One minute, she was staring down at her lunch and the next…someone was telling her that she was under arrest.
After that, everything felt like a dream. She vaguely remembered being dragged into the principal’s office where they’d started asking them questions. She hadn’t been able to make sense out of what they were saying, but she knew that it was bad. The video of Sebastian sneaking into the school over and over again let her know that there was no getting out of this one.
After the last time that Sebastian snuck into the school and caught the vice-principal’s attention, they’d decided to take a closer look at the surveillance video. When they spotted Sebastian sneaking in and meeting with her in the cafeteria, they’d decided to check the old footage and what they found was enough for them to decide to involve the police. So, when Sebastian snuck into the school this time, they’d been ready for him.
They didn’t bother asking her who was sneaking into the school because they wanted to catch Sebastian in the act and they figured that she would warn him and now they were both in trouble. Sebastian was going to jail for criminal trespassing, whatever that meant, and they were waiting for her parents to make her expulsion official before escorting her off the property and…and…
She couldn’t breathe.
God, she couldn’t seem to get enough air, Mikey thought, desperately trying to get air into her lungs and–
“Help her! She can’t breathe!” Sebastian yelled.
The officer that had arrested her moved to check on her, but someone else got there first. Mikey felt the handcuffs keeping her arms locked behind her back removed before she found herself picked up and looking into her stepfather’s face, but it wasn’t her stepfather.
It was Uncle Darrin.