Somethin' About That Boy

But I couldn’t say no to Perry.

Not with that pouty lip of hers pulling my heart in her direction.

“Perry,” I whispered. “Your dad is giving me death ray eyes every single time he sees me. I think he wants to spend time with you by yourself for a while.”

She shook her head, her hands scrunching in my shirt as she looked at me with so much alarm on her face that I couldn’t help but cave.

“Okay,” I said. “But I’m gonna have to sneak in again.”

She breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Thank you,” she breathed.

“I am going to go home, though. Shower, change my clothes, and tuck a few extra changes into my car before I park it. I’ll walk from the church. It should take me about an hour,” I told her.

Her eyes went wide and she immediately started to shake her head. “Banner, no…”

“I can’t sneak back in if I don’t leave first,” I teased. “And if you keep your parents occupied while I do the sneaking, it’ll be much better for me.”

She pressed her face against my chest, and I tried not to move as she rubbed her bruised face against my pectorals.

My breathing was ragged, though, by the time she pulled away.

Her tears were breaking my heart.

And I decided, right then and there, that I would be making a pitstop to find Vance before I came back here.

“Be fast,” she pleaded.

I smoothed her hair back from her face, then dropped a kiss onto her scratched nose.

“I’ll hurry,” I promised.

Except, it may take me a bit longer than the hour I’d originally told her.

So, when I got on my bike and left a few minutes later, I texted Perry’s mom and told her that she may need some distracting.

Then I went home, changed my clothes, did a load of laundry, packed some shit into a backpack, grabbed my things, and then made my way to my door.

From there, I drove to where I knew Vance to be staying and shut the car off.

I stared at the front door of the house—a big mansion monstrosity that Vance surely didn’t need—and got out.

I walked up to the door and knew this was going to go one of two ways.

I was either going to get in a fight, or I was going to accomplish my goal of getting him to leave.

Either way, the next few minutes were not going to be pretty.

Knocking on the door, I took a deep breath and waited.

The door opened in about thirty seconds, and Vance looked fucked up on the other side.

“What are you doing here?” he snapped, looking pissed.

“I’m sorry, Vance.”

Vance blinked.

“Fuck you,” he growled.

“I’m sorry that your dad is gone,” I told him. “I’m sorry that our friendship has come to this. And, although I’ll never be able to look at you the same way after what you did to Perry, I do wish that you find happiness one day. I just want you to do it away from me.”

Vance crossed his arms and looked at me skeptically.

“What about if we make a deal?” he asked.

My brows rose.

“Okay,” I said. “What’s the deal?”

“You don’t play college ball,” he said quickly. “You do anything but that. I don’t care.”

College ball had never been my dream. But he’d refused to understand that.

He’d always wanted to go into college together. Find a place to share and become Sooners. Then, when that stage of our life was done, he wanted us to go pro.

Only, despite telling him repeatedly that I didn’t want to do that, he just couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t.

“Deal,” I said. “I’ll not do it, and you leave.”

He rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

Then, without another word, he closed the door.

And I was left wondering if what he said would actually happen.Chapter 23

SHI T

R

-t-shirt

Perry

“Just like that?” I asked. My eyes widened and I was too afraid to hope.

“Yes, just like that,” Dad said, his eyes darting to my mother and back, as if he wasn’t giving me all of the information. “I’m not sure what happened, why he left, or where he’s going, but the house is empty, and I got a call from Trance saying that he was back in Benton.”

My mouth fell open.

“That’s… that’s amazing,” I found myself saying. “Did you check with the school?”

“Yep,” Dad confirmed. “He unenrolled and had his school transcripts sent back to Benton.”

“Wow,” I found myself saying. “That’s just… wow.”

But, the thing was, as I was relaying this to Banner later that evening, he didn’t look the least bit surprised.

“What did you do?” I asked worriedly.

Banner’s lips twitched. “I just… I couldn’t live like this anymore. I went over and apologized. Told him I was sorry. And he just… offered to leave.”

“That’s it?”

That was too easy.

“That’s it.” He shrugged, his eyes trailing away. “I don’t know what it was. But, he just looked at me, said that he was sorry for how he acted, and that was the end of the conversation.”