Page 255 of Out of Bounds

“He…beat up a guy who was creepy to me.” I pressed my lips together. “He beat up a guy who was justcreepyto me?” I dropped my voice to a hiss. “Jesus Christ, what was hethinking?He could’ve gotten shot—this is the stupidest shit I’ve ever heard in my life and—”

“Kass.”

I glanced up. “Hm?”

“Are you getting warm and gooey over this?”

“I—” I stopped myself and shook my head. “Well—” I paused once more and put my hands on the table. “See…"

"Kass."

"Objectively speaking…."

She leaned backwards and rested her head on the booth. “I figured there were two options ahead of us. Either you started yelling and get pissed off—”

“Iampissed off,” I insisted. “He could’ve gottenhurt.”

“Okay, you’re totally into this.” Zariah sighed and brought up her backpack to the table, pulling out a clear plastic bag. “I figured either I give this to you or I don’t. It’s a going-away present, Kass. And trust me, you’re going to love it.”

I grimaced at the plastic bag and she passed it over.

"You'll like this one," Zariah insisted.

I shook my head. "You better not have bought anything you can't return."

"No problem, it's second-hand."

Zariah pulled open the straps and let me take a look.

I sucked in a breath.

"We were having the meeting upstairs." Zariah said as I hovered close to the bag, unable to touch it. "One of the Roman Forest RAs got a call from a concerned desk assistant after his shift. He said there was a mental health crisis, a crying girl by the donation box, tossing in football gear."

"It—it wasn’t a crisis." Tears threatened to brim over, and before I could stop myself, I scooped up the bag and pulled it close. That stuff had been in the bottom barrel of a donation box, but I didn’t care.

Shit. Maybe it was a crisis.

"The desk assistant said you wanted it back."

"But—but he didn’t have a—"

"RAs are the only ones with access to them. He’s required to say that."

Down at the bottom of the bag, there was the dark blue jersey.

Nothing else mattered more to me. I yanked it up. It didn’t smell like him though; it didn’t have that same cologne and fresh-shower scent I’d come to associate with him. It didn’t even smell like the bottom of a donation bin. I crumpled the shirt in my hands. "You washed it."

"Uh, yeah, I washed it at Elijah’s building." Her eyebrows furrowed. "You didn’t want me to wash it?"

I hesitated.

Zariah stared at me, dumbfounded. "Oh, girl.Girl."

“Look, it’s been a lot. And…I didn’t realize how much this was going tohurt,” I admitted, my voice thick. My phone buzzed onthe table and I reached over to it, still talking to Zariah. “I’ve never, ever gone through something like this before.”

“If it makes you feel better, it’s rough to watch too.”

“Thanks, Z.” I rolled my eyes and checked the notification. Or…notifications. They scrolled across my screen, too fast for me to focus on, and I glanced up at Zariah to see her glued to her phone too. I frowned. “What is it?”

---