Page 4 of Break

“DANNY!What in the world…” The four of us jerk our heads to look over at Danny’s mom standing in the doorway that leads inside to their kitchen. “What the heck are you boys doing?”

“Sorry ma. Mina got angry when we were just playing around and threw that jar over there. It busted everywhere.” He points to the broken pieces of glass lying at the bottom of the fence.

“N-No ma’am. I didn’t bust-” she starts to argue. I don’t blame the kid really, but Max interrupts her before she can tell on Danny.

“She did, Mrs. Reed. We were just playing around and she chucked it right over there. Darnedest thing, really. Throwin’ a fit when we were just messin’ around.” He gives Danny’s mom one of those smiles to charm the pants off her.

I kinda feel bad for blaming it on her, but if Danny gets in trouble, then we’ll have to go home, and I just got here. We all watch as Mrs. Reed narrows her eyes at Mina. “Mina, that kind of behavior isn’t acceptable over here. I need you to go pick up all the pieces from the jar and bring them inside to toss away. You can wait with me until I call your mother.”

I study her and watch her shoulders drop as she walks over to the fence and picks up the biggest pieces of glass. Ethan comes up next to me and whispers, “You think she’s gonna tell Mrs. Reed it was Danny?”

Shrugging, I whisper back, “Not sure. Kinda hope she doesn’t ‘cuz then we’ll have to go home.”

“ALLof the pieces, Miss Bardot. It wouldn’t do for the boys to be running around outside and cut their feet.”

Mina winces when she picks up one of the shards and I see a little bit of blood on her fingertip, but she doesn’t say a word about it. Walking toward the back door of Danny’s house, where Mrs. Reed is still standing with her hands on her hips, Mina cups all the glass pieces in her hands.

“Inside,” she orders, holding the door open so Mina can slip into the house next to her. Once she’s through, the screen door slams shut behind them and they disappear inside.

The four of us don’t say anything, just stand there and stare at the door. Honestly, I’m pretty shocked that it worked out like that for us. After a minute, Danny’s shoulders start shaking before he turns to face us and busts out laughing.

“Well, that couldn’t have gone any better. Okay, you guys wanna do something different or keep throwing the ball?”

“Throwing. I almost got the spin down and I wanna keep practicing,” Max says, voicing his opinion first. I guess he’s done making fun of Danny now, which is good because I really don’t feel like breaking up any fights today.

I shove my elbow into Ethan’s side to get his attention away from the door. “Come on, man, you have to go back over to your spot. This is where I was standing.” He’s not smiling when he looks at me, but he moves over anyway.

We don’t even go five minutes before Mina’s scary church mom comes storming around the fence from her house. She doesn’t look at any of us as she marches to the door and raps her knuckles hard on the back door.

Max drops his arm from his next pass to watch as she yanks on Mina’s arm to pull her through the door onto the back stoop. Leaning down, she gives her a shake before scolding her. “You, ma’am, are in big trouble. You owe Mrs. Reed an apology for not only throwing a fit over here but embarrassing all of us in the process. This isnothow young ladies act.”

Mina’s lips are trembling as she looks up at Mrs. Reed and mouths,I’m sorryto her. I’m not sure if she actually said it, but if she did, it was so soft that her voice didn’t make it over to us.

Nodding her head, Danny’s mom crosses her arms. “Let’s just not see that again, shall we?”

This time, I hear her when she softly answers, “Yes, ma’am.”

“I’m sorry, Diane. I’m so mortified. I swear she won’t act out like this again. Her father is home; we’ll both have words with her,” Mrs. Bardot says with a forced smile.

“Don’t worry about it. Dinner next weekend?”

“We had planned on it. I’ll call you later.” With that, Mrs. Bardot drags Mina through the yard by her upper arm and back around the corner of the fence as Danny’s mom goes back inside.

I flinch when I hear the door slam shut from the other house, but not before we all heard a high-pitched cry. My heartbeat pounds a little harder in my chest, and when I look over at Ethan, his face is pale. Danny is grinning in the direction of her house like a crazy maniac.

“Let’s go ride bikes,” Max snaps out. He storms over to his where it’s laid sideways on the grass next to where I dropped mine. He hops on and takes off down the sidewalk.

We all follow him, grabbing ours and pedaling to catch up.

I ignore Ethan and Danny behind me when I hear Ethan. “You’re a jerk, Danny.”

He snorts back at him. “Whatever. She’ll be fine.”

Chapter 3

14 years ago

Max

---