We’d gotten through the worst of things.

It’s what I thought then.

Chapter 24

SOUND CARRIED IN THE BOYS’ locker room, so Qwan spoke low, filling me in on his Angie situation while we dressed for Monday’s gym class. He tugged his extra-tight gym shirt over his head, talking through the thin fabric.

“A brother’s been straight-up begging,” he said. “I never thought I’d do it, but it’s killing me that she’s staying so distant.”

I tugged on my faded sweats. “It’s working?”

“I think she enjoys watching me grovel. She’s grinning a lot as I do her various chores while her dad works his evening shifts. I’ve done the dishes, raked the leaves, cleaned the gutters.”

“Her dad makes her clean gutters?”

“I don’t think so. She be adding stuff to the list to see if I’ll do it. But I get to be near her and she seems less mad at me every day. It’s worth it.”

Loud belly laughs erupted on the other side of the locker wall. Mason and his JROTC not caring about the amplified acoustics. I hadn’t been paying attention to their conversation before. That changed quickly. One of Mason’s extra-loud soldiers said, “So what they say about them church girls is true!”

Thunderclaps from high fives. More laughs. My jaw clenched, and Qwan must’ve sensed the wrongness here. He said, “D?”

I was already moving. Slow, listening. I peeked around the corner, saw four guys leaning into Mason.

“Bro!” Mason said, volume lowering in a conspiratorial kind of way. “They. Ain’t. Never. Lied.”

More whoops and encouragement.

“In your car, though?”

“What you want me to say?” Mason wolf-grinned. “She’s flexible.”

Qwan grabbed my shoulder. Whispered, “Come on, let’s get out on the floor.”

I shook his hand off. “In a second.”

Another of the JROTC guys said, “Don’t let Colossus find out.”

“Her and that dude are crazy done. She won’t even mention his name. After last night,” he paused, dramatic, “she probably don’t even remember it. Feel me?”

“Bull. Shit.” A new voice in the conversation. Mine. I rounded the corner fully.

“D, stop,” Qwan said, tagging behind me like he was connected by an invisible tow chain.

All the bragging joy swirled from the room like dirty water down a drain.

Mason stood, smirking. “Huh?”

Volcanic rage unlike anything I’d ever felt bubbled in my chest, over my tongue, into the world. “Everybody know you be lying on your dick. I’m not going to sit here and let you throw dirt on Kiera’s name like that.”

Mason looked perplexed, the way people in street magic videos do when they can’t figure how the trick works. “Del, my dude, you need to stay in your lane. This don’t have nothing to do with you.”

“The hell it don’t.”

Mean laughs from the spectators, as crisp as cracking bones. Mason closed the gap between us. Meaner than I’d ever seen him. “I don’t know what your problem is, but I ain’t the one.”