Chapter 25

Darryl Nelson

What the fuck was that?! I can’t believe I just flashed Stevie. I stare at her closed curtains for another beat before I grab my shorts and pull them on, throwing myself onto my bed and covering my eyes with my arm.

Fuck, fuck, fuck! What was she thinking now? I’ve gone from admitting that I was a virgin, to kinda telling her I wanted to have my first time with her, to giving her a peep show all of her own.

My body heats up as I think about her standing in just her lingerie, the navy-blue lace popping against her pale skin and her fiery hair. I’m sure I could see the darker skin of her nipples through the pattern, and I feel my dick start to harden in my basketball shorts.

Carrie’s words bounce around my head. Whatever has happened can always be undone. Now I just needed to figure out how to undo the years of animosity between us.

And hope that she wanted to undo it too.

***

I was in the middle of taking out my frustrations on my drumkit—my body covered in a sheen of sweat, and my arms and calf muscles aching—when I notice Stevie’s weird-ass friend, Rhea, pull up in her car looking agitated.

I push my headphones down off my ears and shout over to her. “Stevie’s not home.”

“Fuck!” Rhea lets out a pissed-off sounding huff of air, her shoulder slumping a little. Her dark brown eyes narrow at me. “I need some back up, are you free for like, ten minutes?”

“Back up for what?” I ask as I set my drumsticks down and wipe my face with a towel.

“My idiot little brother has got himself in some kinda trouble, and I need to go threaten some seventh graders. You in?” She narrows her eyes at me as she waits for my answer.

“Yeah, sure,” I press the button to lower the garage door as I make my way to her car, pulling my wife beater on as I go. As I settle into her passenger seat, I am blasted with early years Prince. I look over at her with a raised eyebrow, and she shrugs.

“I don’t feel I need to defend my musical tastes to you.”

“Fair enough,” I can’t help but chuckle. “You know, my little brother is in seventh grade too.”

“Oh yeah? Good for you,” she replies, dismissively. God! Stevie’s little friend was spikey as fuck! We drive the rest of the way in silence, Rhea glancing down at her brother’s location on her phone every few seconds.

We pull up to the park by school, and even from this distance I can see a group of kids huddled in the corner of the basketball court. Rhea sighs. “Angelo is a little shit most of the time, he’s always speaking before he thinks. His big stupid mouth is always getting him in trouble.”

We get out, slamming the doors behind us, and start to make our way over to the small group of kids. Something catches my eye as we get closer. “What the fuck…that’s my little brother’s bag.”

“C’mon,” Rhea grabs my arm, and we jog over. “Hey, you little group of pissants! Get the fuck away from them!”

The group of four boys look round at us. The leader of the gang looked exactly like the kind of kid you’d find bullying littler kids; slightly overweight, taller than kids their age, buzz cut hair.

Cowering on the ground was Vinnie and another boy who looked like Rhea except he had blonde hair. Both of them had a few scrapes and bruises, and I could see tear tracks on Vinnie’s cheeks. Rage floods my veins, pure and unadulterated.

“What the hell are you gonna do about it, huh?” The kid who was leering over mine and Rhea’s brothers straightens and sneers at us.

I grab his arm without thinking, my grip tightening until he lets out a whimper, and I pull him closer to me, hissing in his ear. “Do you wanna see what I can do about it?”

The kid shakes his head, and I can feel him tremble in my grasp.

“Then I suggest you and your gang of goonies fuck off, and if I ever hear of any of you even so much as looking at these two, I’ll show up in the middle of the fucking night and slit your fucking throats while you are asleep in your beds, cuddled up to your cuddly toys. Got it?”

I tilt my head, pinning him in place with a hard stare.

“Y-yeah…okay, man…just l-let me go!” I release him suddenly, making him stumble, and him and his scared looking friends take off.

Rhea lets out a low whistle, and I look round to see her standing with her arms wrapped round her brother, Vinnie sniffling next to them, wiping his face with sleeve covered hands. “Jeez, remind me never to piss you off!”

I roll my eyes, feeling a little ashamed of going off at a twelve-year-old kid like that, stepping closer to Vinnie and holding his chin while I inspect his face. “Yeah, well, the little fucking douche-bag deserved it,” I pull Vinnie in for a tight hug. “You okay, bud?”

“Y-yeah,” he answers quietly against my chest.

“That was fucking awesome, dude!” Rhea’s little brother, Angelo, bounces in front of me. “I tried to threaten them, but they just turned on me too.”

“What do you mean?” I frown.

“Those guys were picking on him for no reason, so I came over to tell them to back off, he wasn’t hurtin’ no one.” His deep brown eyes shine with ferocity his little body wasn’t able to back up, and I feel my lips twitch into a small smile.

Anyone who tried to stand up for a weird little kid like Vinnie was okay in my books.

“Come on, you little maniac, let’s get you home.” She slings her arm around Angelo’s shoulders, and glances back at me. “You guys want dropping home?”

***

“Wh-what are you guys doing here?”

I spin my head round, and find Stevie standing in at the open gate looking confused and a little…hurt? After rescuing our brothers, I’d invited Rhea and Angelo to my granddad’s house to use his pool.

Smit had rung as we arrived, so I’d asked him and Evan to come over too. Vinnie and Angelo had hit it off, sitting together with their heads close as they excitedly discussed dungeons and dragons, while the rest of us just chilled out on the loungers.

“Hey girly!” Rhea leaps off her seat and bounds over to envelope Stevie in a big hug. The two of them disappear into the house, Stevie shooting me a questioning look over her shoulder.

“So, how are things between you two?” Smit pulls his sunglasses down his nose a little, peering at me over the top as he takes a sip through the twirly straw Helen had put in the mocktails she’d made us all.

“Confusing,” I reply.

“Things are only as confusing as you choose to make them.” Evan’s quiet voice makes me look round at him in surprise. Smit smirks at his friends’ words.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” I slump down in my chair, keeping my eyes trained on the back door, waiting for the girls to reappear.