"Well, that's great," I replied, smiling. "Y'all can both be assholes together and live happily ever after. Hey, and who knows, maybe in a few years after you guys get married, y'all can make some mini-assholes of your own."

Mercy grinned. "What about you and Daryl?"

I squirmed, uncomfortable. "What about us?"

"Got any plans for after high school?"

"Um, no." I shrugged. "Not really."

"Well, Daryl made a commitment to Alabama State, right? There's a full-ride scholarship waiting for him out there?"

"Yeah, he's going to Alabama next year."

"And what about you?"

"Me?" I shook my head and turned my attention to the field. My eyes immediately trained in on Daryl who was running drills with his teammates. A wistful sigh escaped me. "I don’t know."

"Don’t you think that you guys should talk about it?"

I shrugged again. "I'm not sure."

Mercy stopped what she was doing to stare at me. "You are a closed book when it comes to that boy."

"Huh?"

"Give me something to work with here, Molls." Smiling, she leaned over and nudged my arm with hers. "Tell me something real about you and Daryl. You never tell me anything. I had to find out you guys were dating from Rourke of all people. Give me the inside scoop for once."

"You want to know something real?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "Tell me a secret."

I stared at her for the longest before turning my attention back to the field to where practice had just ended.

Daryl had stripped off his jersey and pads, and was laughing at something Mason was saying.

"See that?" I whispered to Mercy, pointing to the large patch of scarred tissue on Daryl's shoulder, the one part of his beautiful body that was marred with imperfection, which just so happened to have shielded the one part of my body that hadn't been scorched in the fire.

Mercy squinted her eyes. "That big scar on his shoulder?"

I nodded. "A curtain rod fell on top of us when he was trying to pull me out of my bedroom window the night my house caught fire."

Mercy's eyes widened as she absorbed my secret. "Are you saying…" Shaking her head, she turned to look at me. "Are you telling me that Daryl saved your life that night?"

Shivering, I wrapped my arms around my stomach and nodded slowly. "I was already pretty badly burned up by the time he reached me." A shiver rolled through me as I recalled the pain-filled memory. "I couldn’t see a thing; the smoke was everywhere. In my nose. My eyes. I was blinded in that room. But I could hear his voice. I could hear him calling out to me as the flames lashed at my body like a whip." Another shiver racked through me. "Anyways, he found me and pulled me towards the window, but when we tried to climb out, the curtain rod fell on him. It was coming right for my face – that much I could see. And Daryl? Well, he covered my body with his – he took the full brunt of that pole right down on his shoulder. It was fire! I could tell that it was burning him. I could smell his skin cooking like mine, but he didn’t let it fall on me. He just kept on pulling at my body, hoisting me up and pushing through that window until we were both out," I finished, my words barely more than a broken whisper. "So, yeah, he saved my life."