“I hope you get suspended,” Cade snarls. There’s blood streaming from his nose and a red mark on his cheek and jaw; his eye is starting to swell on the same side. Cade turns to appeal to the crowd. “You all saw how he jumped me for nothing.”

Two junior girls exchange a glance, and then one of them gives a cool shrug and the other says, “I thought you hit him.”

“Yeah,” says her friend. Then, she points at the tailgate. “And you put that on his truck, you asshole. That’s hate speech.”

There’s a general murmur of consensus amongst the teenagers.

Something dark and horribly nervous in Lance’s chest solidified the second he saw the word on the tailgate, but hearing the majority of the kids in the parking lot taking Johnny’s side makes it loosen, just a little. His next breath comes easier.

Cade backs away from Johnny and Danny altogether. Lance advances into the space he left and wordlessly hands Danny his bag.

Cade is looking around as though bewildered by the lack of support. “So, what, none of you care that—?”

“Kids, what the heck is going on out here?” Mr. Bellows, one of the Math teachers, has reached the knot of students now. He sweeps them with a look, then does a double-take when he sees the Chevy’s tailgate. His lips press into a thin line.

“Okay, I’m going to need all of you to stay right where you are while we sort this out.”

After the teachers have gotten the basics of the story down, they send everyone home with promises that parents will be called. It’s silent in the cab of the truck as Lance and the Chases leave town, but as soon as they hit gravel, Danny can’t contain himself any more.

“Johnny, what…?”

“No.”

“But—”

“I said no, Danny. Goddamn it, can’t you just leave me alone?” But before he’s finished telling Danny to shut up, Johnny’s mind seems to pivot, and he takes the gaze he’s had fixed out the windshield and pins it to Danny as they slow to a stop at an intersection. “What were you thinking, running into the middle of that? You could’ve gotten punched in the face. You want a broken nose?”

Danny shrugs, totally unbothered. “You’re my brother.”

Johnny sighs frustratedly. But after he puts the truck back in second gear to accelerate away from the stop sign, he knocks off Danny’s ballcap with a flick of his hand and musses his hair.

“You’re an idiot,” he says quietly.

Danny, batting away Johnny’s hand, rescues the cap from his lap and puts it firmly back on his head. “So, what—”

“Not right now, okay? Later.”

Silence falls. Lance is thinking about Cade and can’t stop looking at Johnny, staring at the blood on his lip. He feels hardness around his heart, like roots of stone are spreading, making it hard to breathe.

Robbie must have seen them pull up. Maybe he was watching for them; he gets worried whenever they run even a few minutes late. He comes out of the house at a jog. Johnny, barely out of the pickup, closes the truck door and shoves his hands in the pockets of his jeans, hanging his head.