Somethin' About That Boy

“Vance,” Trance said quietly. “Move along.”

Vance sneered at Trance, and I realized how awkward it was to have the two of them close.

Trance had shot Vance’s father. Vance was upset. I would be, too.

But… Trance was a police officer. It wasn’t like he could control who he had obey the law and who didn’t.

“I’m moving.” Vance grinned, his eyes coming to me as he stopped in the middle of the pathway. All traffic stopped with him. “Good game.”

I moved until Trance’s large shoulder blocked my view of Vance completely.

Viddy’s hand took mine, and I clutched it.

I was sweaty as hell, stuck in the middle of Banner’s family, and I knew that Vance knew exactly what he was doing.

He was taunting not only Trance but Banner as well.

There was no way that Banner wasn’t going to hear about this.

It’d be all over school in an hour.

“Move along, Vance,” Trance ordered again, this time trying to do it in a way that meant he wasn’t kidding.

Earlier, he’d said it in hopes of getting Vance to move without causing a scene.

Now it was obvious that Trance didn’t give a single fuck about causing a scene.

“Sorry, but you’ll just have to go around me.” He held out his arms wide.

So that was exactly what I did.

I took the bleachers down, moved two sets of stairs over, only to have him back up quickly and block my way.

Son of a bitch.

Just as I was about to walk around the long way—which required me to go all the way down the bleachers and across the entire gym floor to climb the other sets of bleachers—Banner was there.

He was wearing his game pants, his cleats, and a gray t-shirt that said ‘Bulldogs’ on it.

He pushed Vance hard to the side and gestured for me to come up.

I did, just as Vance started to charge toward Banner.

Before he could make contact with Banner, Titus was there, blocking his way. Protecting his quarterback.

“Go home,” Titus ordered.

Vance spit out a string of curses that ended with, “Fuck you!”

Trance, Viddy, and Oakley were there seconds later.

Trance blocked a path so that Oakley and Viddy could get through, then pointed his finger in Vance’s direction.

“It’s time to clean up the act, kid,” he said. “One day, you’re not going to have being a kid as an excuse. You have, what, three more weeks until you’re eighteen? The law doesn’t play once you hit that age anymore.”

With that, he put his arm around Oakley and led her away, holding his hand out for Viddy.

Banner wrapped his arm around me and pulled me into his big body as he led me away.

Titus waited until we were well out the door before he let Vance go.

When Titus finally caught up to us, I was shaking my head.

“Something needs to give,” Titus said as he came up. “He needs to fucking go.”

“Someone needs to kick him out of school,” Trance muttered darkly. “Kid, you need to get back to the locker room.”

I knew he was talking to Banner when I felt him stiffen.

I patted Banner’s shoulder. “He’s right. Your game starts in what, half an hour? You really should go.”

Banner sighed and pulled me in close, stopping when he was close to the boys’ locker room entrance.

“I got about a dozen texts all saying a fight was about to break out. I don’t even know any of the numbers,” he grumbled, his eyes coming to rest on mine. “Stay with my dad. Ford will be here soon, too. And don’t go to the bathroom by yourself. I don’t like the way he cornered you today, and there’s no doubt in my mind that he’ll be at the game.”

With that, he kissed me on the cheek and sprinted away as if he hadn’t been there in the first place.

Or as if he was going to get in trouble with the football coach for leaving.

“Y’all are just too cute,” Oakley teased.

I rolled my eyes and looked at her baby.

Would Banner’s kids look like that? Would they be a mix of me and him?

Whoa there, Perry.

You’re seventeen, chick. You’re so not ready for kids.

Except, I knew that I wanted some.

A lot of them.

Maybe five.

But… just not right now.

“Ready when you are, girl,” Trance said, breaking me out of my daydream.

I nodded and started forward, being sure to walk slow so that they could keep up.

Not that they were slow by any means, but I was used to sprint-walking my way everywhere. Mostly because I didn’t want to chance seeing the cheerleaders or other people that might want to talk to me.

When we finally arrived at the game, I had my wallet out to pay for my ticket when Trance’s big hand came over my shoulder with two twenty-dollar bills.

I hid my grin and shoved my backpack back into place.

“Where do y’all normally sit?” I asked curiously. “We don’t have any assigned seating, and since we’re here so early, we should have our pick of seats.”