Page 68 of Love Takes Home

She doesn’t respond, turning the lights off in her room and closing the door. She follows me to the office where I take care of the camera footage, and we walk out the front door hand in hand.

“Come home with me tonight?” I ask her when we get to her car.

“I really should go—”

“Please? I’ve missed you. And I bet you’re hungry.”

Right on cue, her stomach rumbles and she laughs. “A little. No dinner.”

“I’ll order pizza on the way home. Come with me?”

“Yeah, I’ll text Dad and let him know. He can break the news to Mom.”

I pull her in for a quick kiss before I open her door and help her inside. I’m calling the pizza place before I’m in my truck. She waits for me to pull out first and follows me home. Pizza, talking on the couch, and going to bed together sounds like a perfect evening to me.

Chapter 22

Lucas

“JT, wait up,” Icall after my friend as we’re heading to the locker room after school for baseball conditioning.

“What is it? We’re going to be late.” He doesn’t stop walking, just keeps going.

I don’t know what’s going on with him, but he’s changed since Jimmy fell on the football field. There’s a few of the guys on the team who have been real assholes this season who were fine last year. I mean, we had the ‘your hormones are changing’ shit in biology class, but this is extreme.

When I walk into the locker room, there’s a group of guys in the corner, all talking in hushed tones. Jimmy, who just returned to school a few weeks ago, Conner, Mark, and Troy are passing something around, but I can’t see what it is from here.

“Hey, what are you guys—” I cut myself off when I break through their huddle. “What is that?”

“Nothing, loser. Go away.” Mark pushes me back, but I know what I saw. A baggie with pills in it.

Jimmy glares at me before shaking his head, like he’s disappointed in me. What the heck? He’s in here passing around pills andI’mthe disappointment.

“You just fucked up,” Conner tells me as they break apart. “Wait until Coach hears you have pills in the locker room.”

“But, I don’t—”

“You do now,” Jimmy says, putting a baggie down my pants.

“Hey! What the fuck, man?”

“Yo! Coach! Got something you need to see here!” Mark yells into the attached office.

Coach Brown, our stand in coach and vice principal, comes out of the office. “What’s up?”

“You should check Mills’s pants. He’s got something he shouldn’t have.”

“Is that so?”

“What? No!” I tell him.

“Drop them. Now.”

I slowly back up with my hands in front of me. “You can’t search me.”

“Want me to call the cops and you can tell them what you have that’s so important I come out of my office for?”

“No! But I should have an adult with me.”

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