Somethin' About That Boy

I knew it was going to happen, too.

Blue and I stood up in slow motion, my arm protesting the movement, and looked over the water table to see Banner chest to chest with Vance.

“Stay. Away. From her,” Banner growled, bumping Vance with his chest.

Vance laughed, pulling his arms up as if in a placating gesture.

But Banner wouldn’t be placated.

“I don’t know who she is, man.” Vance tried to laugh it off as if he didn’t do anything. “It was an accident.”

“Accident my ass.”

That was Titus.

He’d been too close to Banner to see what happened, but he could guess just like I assumed the rest of them were doing.

“Boys!” the coach called. “Out on the field!”

Banner’s jaw locked tight, and he looked like he’d rather throat punch Vance than do anything that the coach asked of him.

Vance backed away, grinning at Banner as he did, until he was too far away to get a punch in.

Then he said, “She’s feisty.”

Banner took a step in his direction, but I was there to stop him from taking another step.

My hand on his wrist felt like I was gripping a steel bar.

The veins that were protruding from his skin had me curious, and God, but he had a big wrist. I couldn’t even get my fingers all the way around it.

“Banner,” I said softly, tugging him before he could take a step toward Vance.

Vance saw the way Banner held back for me, and his eyes narrowed.

“Vance, if you’re trying out today, let’s get it done,” Coach called out, making Vance’s eyes narrow.

He finally came to a decision, though, because seconds later he was turning and running to where he was told to be.

“I fucking hate him,” Banner snarled under his breath.

He turned to me, his eyes intense.

“Are you okay?” he asked, voice low and pissed.

I opened my mouth to immediately reply that I was, but before I could answer he moved to my side—the side with the quickly forming bruise along my arm—and hissed.

“Fuck,” he said. “This is bad.”

I looked down at my arm, trying to see it from his angle, but couldn’t.

“It’ll be okay,” I promised.

And it would.

“It’ll hurt like a motherfucker when you try to play volleyball tomorrow,” he murmured, running a thumb down the length of my arm in tender sweeps.

It would.

What would hurt even worse was when I had to go to the weight room tomorrow.

But I wouldn’t be mentioning that.

“I promise, I’m okay,” I repeated.

He sighed and dropped my arm, his eyes going unfocused as he looked at the bruise. “You need ice.”

I did.

“I’m going to right now,” I told him.

He grumbled something under his breath, and I took that to mean ‘good.’

“You’ll see tomorrow at school, Banner,” I said, pulling my arm away from him.

“Hey, Banner!” Vance called. “How about you let your girl go and come play some football.”

Banner stiffened even more. “I don’t fucking like this.”

Blue, sensing that Banner was about to lose his shit—again—broke in then.

“Hey, Slone,” Blue called. “Can I hold your baby?”

Slone, who’d stayed behind along with five others to make sure things didn’t get out of hand, looked at Blue with a grin. “Yeah.”

“I’ll hang with the baby,” I said softly. “I won’t go anywhere until we can talk.”

Banner looked somewhat appeased.

“I’ll give you a ride home,” he growled.

He was still pissed.

Really, really pissed, actually.

I nodded once. “I can do that.”

My dad may very well kill me for it afterward, but I could do it.

He touched me on the cheek with a single finger, then jogged out onto the field.

Blue came up to me with Slone’s baby. A baby that looked so much like our friend that it hurt.

“Jesus, I don’t know how she ever gave this up,” I said, curling my finger around the baby’s fist.

The girl latched onto it with surprising force.

“Me neither,” Blue whispered. “And the way Slone looks at her like she’s his world? I seriously don’t know what happened to her. I wish I was a ghost whisper that could sneak into the afterlife and ask her what the hell had happened.”

For the next hour, we played with Slone’s baby.

And it was only toward the end that I realized that I didn’t actually know her name.

“Did they ever name her?” I asked curiously. “I mean, obviously she has a name. But did Abilene have a part in it?”

“No.”

I blinked, startled, and stared up at Slone who was just all of a sudden standing in front of us.Chapter 8

I’m so broke I can’t even pay attention.

-Banner to Ford

Banner

“Is that kid really Slone’s?” I asked curiously.

The baby under question was currently sitting at the water station with the trainer now, as well as Blue and Perry. But, earlier, I’d seen the baby sitting on a parent’s lap.

I was honestly confused on whose baby it was at this point.

“Slone’s,” Titus confirmed. “He and a friend of ours who died had a baby. Her name was Abilene.”