He drew himself up, eyes shifting to the gathering audience, and laughed. ‘Whatsa matter, freak – upset because my girlfriend didn’t wanna suck your dick?’ He shoved me back with both hands, or tried to.
I felt my mocking half smile shift into place. ‘Oh, she sucked it all right.’
His eyes blazed wide and he swung a fist that glanced off my jaw. I drew back and punched him in the mouth, his teeth scraping my knuckles. He tried to land a body blow, but I blocked it with an elbow and belted him in the gut, and he gave a satisfying oof. We separated and circled each other.
‘You’re a sore loser, freak,’ he panted. ‘You need to learn not to get between another guy and what belongs to him.’ He repeated the hit to my jaw with the same glance-off result.
I laughed, the sound caustic. ‘You think this is about Melody?’ I didn’t expect the spear of pain that shot through me from saying her name. He took advantage of my pause and landed a better blow. My nose crunched and I saw stars. He moved in for another hit but I ducked and drove into him, knocking him flat in the sand.
‘Of course it’s about Melody,’ he said. We rolled and punched each other a couple more times, each landing solid enough hits to draw blood. ‘You want what you can’t have and will never be good enough for.’
As soon as we were on our feet, I swung too wide and missed. He tackled me and I landed on the ice chest, but I took him with me and used his momentum to throw him back over my head. Before he could get up, I jumped on him and punched him twice.
‘I don’t give a shit about her, you conceited fucking dickhole.’ I hit him once more and his eyes unfocused. Before I could knock him unconscious, I felt hands hauling me up and off him and he struggled to rise with the help of his friends. Clutching my side and panting shallow breaths, every one of which generated shooting pain, I pointed a finger at him. ‘But you touch my truck again and I will end you.’
When Boyce showed up, he brought, of all people, Pearl. I had no idea they were on speaking terms. ‘I won’t be a doctor for ten years, you know,’ she said, glaring at Boyce. ‘He should go to the ER. I don’t see the big deal. It’s not like he’s got knife wounds from a gang initiation.’
Boyce sighed. ‘You’re here. Just look?’
‘Fine.’ She rolled her eyes and turned to me. ‘Lie down on the sofa.’
After pressing in several places – painful but not excruciating – and listening to my lungs with a stethoscope borrowed from her stepfather’s dresser, she said she didn’t think anything else was injured. ‘You may have fractured a rib – but there’s no treatment for that. It just has to heal. It’ll take six weeks. No fighting and no roughhousing.’ She levelled a scowl at Boyce.
‘What? I didn’t do it. And shouldn’t we like, tape him up?’
‘I’m sure you encouraged it. And no.’ She looked at me. ‘Take deep breaths as often as possible and cough several times per day, to make sure your lungs stay clear.’ Turning towards Boyce, she stored the stethoscope in her purse and said, ‘Taping him up would keep him from doing those things. He could use an ice pack for the pain – you can make one from a Ziploc and ice – crushed, if possible.’
Boyce said, ‘On it,’ saluted, and headed for the kitchen.
‘Thanks for coming over,’ I said, still confused. Pearl and Boyce never spoke at school unless required to in biology, and though he clearly lusted after her, she’d never seemed the slightest bit interested. Plus, I’d just beat the shit out of her best friend’s boyfriend.
As Boyce dug ice from the freezer, she sat next to me on the sofa, her dark eyes level with mine. ‘For the record, I was wrong about Clark. He’s a jackass, and I can’t believe she took him back.’ She sighed and stared out the front window. ‘He’s the devil she knows, I guess.’
LUCAS
When I dropped Jacqueline off at her dorm, I wasn’t paying attention to anything but her. Not until she reached the steps – at the top of which her ex stood, his gaze alternating between the two of us. She didn’t see him until she nearly walked into him.
I didn’t move except to cross my arms and watch his body language closely, and hers.
As they spoke, he continued to flick occasional glances at me over her head until finally, she turned and waved, as if to tell me she was fine. I wasn’t leaving, because her body language said she was agitated – hands on her hips as they spoke, and then arms crossed defensively. They were too far for me to decipher words, but the tone of their voices drifted just far enough to reach me. Hers was irate. His was placating.
I knew her well enough to know that placating wouldn’t be welcome.
Two words I did hear her say, clearly: ‘It’s. Jacqueline.’ With this, she uncrossed her arms, her hands curling into fists at her sides.
He stepped closer and she didn’t move, but when he raised a hand to her face and she stepped back, I propelled off the bike and up the walk. She swiped her card and slung the door open, and he followed. I grabbed the door just before it closed, as Jacqueline whirled on him, her mouth open. She stopped when she saw me.
‘You okay, Jacqueline?’ I asked, stepping next to her as I examined him for signs of aggression. He oozed condescension above everything else – increasing when he recognized me as the guy who’d repaired the AC at his frat house. ‘What would administration think about you sniffing around the students?’ he sneered, and it took every ounce of self-discipline I had to keep from reacting.
I turned to Jacqueline, dismissing him – the one thing guys like him can’t easily swallow, and the one response to which I could give free rein.
She told me she was fine, her eyes sliding to the gathering audience I was just beginning to notice. Something about this girl made everything else disappear for me. At times that was ideal, while others it could be hazardous.
Then Kennedy Moore gestured to me and said exactly the wrong thing. ‘Are you hooking up with this guy, too?’
‘Too?’ she asked, her voice so vulnerable, and I wanted to punch him in the mouth to stop the ugly words before he said them.
‘In addition to Buck,’ he said.
Her mouth fell open, whatever she’d meant to say emerging with no sound.
Moore grabbed her arm and started to steer her away, and without a second thought, I wrenched his wrist and removed his hand from her. I wanted to snap it.
‘What the fuck?’ He puffed up, and I knew in that moment that he wasn’t done with her. He thought he could win her back – or maybe he knew he could.
But Jacqueline steeled her jaw, laid her hand on his arm, and told him to leave. He argued – stressing his belief that I was a maintenance man – which I couldn’t refute without placing Joseph in danger of losing his job.