Page 25 of S.O.S. Perk

“What do you say?” Perk taunted the duo. “You ready to give up?” He’d almost said, “concede”, but he wasn’t sure the two had braincells enough to know what that meant.

“Hell, no,” Thorpe glowered, bouncing the ball twice before whipping it at Perk, not knowing that the dribbling was his tell. Every time Thorpe got the ball, it was two bounces, then a throw. Higgins also unwittingly showed his hand; stamping his left foot down in each instance beforehelet fly.

Perk easily avoided the twin projectiles and snagged both balls instead, one in each hand. He stalked forward. He knew the pair wouldn’t give up because they’d lose face with their buddies. But Perk also wanted to become…gag…friends with them, so he needed to pull his punches, so to speak. At least with Higgins, who was the top dog.

Perk hurled one ball toward Thorpe, hitting him in the hip. The guy went spinning backward, grunting and out of the game. Facing Higgins, Perk cocked his arm, took a few steps forward, and pretended to trip, so his throw glanced off Higgins’ sneaker, not hurting the guy, but also sending him to the loser side. Higgins stared at him an extra second or two before taking himself off to whisper secretly among his cohorts.

Perk’s teammates celebrated with high-fives, punching his arms, and gleefully cavorting about before the coach congratulated them all and told everyone to head to the showers.

Perk caught Higgins eye, and the teen gave him a slit-lidded look. But it was accompanied by a better-late-than-never chin lift.

Good.

That’s all Perk needed.

He was in.

CHAPTER EIGHT

“Why?” Melissa sounded suspicious.

Sloane had put off this call to her friend, knowing Mel would have a fit when Sloane rescinded their Monday meet-up with Perk.

“Do I have to have a reason?” Sloane returned, chewing on her lip.

“Of course you do,” Melissa reprimanded, using her “school voice”. It was times like these that Sloane wished Mel was a pushover, which she definitely was not.

Sloane quickly figured it would be best to keep things close to the truth. “Fine. Perk has a new job working undercover, and he’s not supposed to make any public appearances until his case is solved.”

There. That ought to satisfy her curious friend.

“Well, that sucks,” Melissa grunted, accepting the offered facts. “So now I’m supposed to wait patiently for an indefinite amount of time to see who’s got my bestie all jazzed up?”

“I’m not jazzed,” Sloane answered with a giggle.A giggle. But…that definitely wasn’t true.

Hadn’t she been staring at her phone all day, anxiously waiting for a call from Perk since the school curriculum ended four hours ago?

She knew, pragmatically, he’d have to debrief with his “parents”, Smalley and Tertia, before contacting her, but seriously? A lot of time had passed since she’d begun looking at the clock, and that’s why she’d ended up calling Mel. She needed a voice of sanity right now to make her stop perseverating over one intriguing, dark-haired male who might be taking up too much room in her brain.

“Try again, Sloane,” Melissa countered. “I know you, and waiting extra-long for this date is probably killing you.”

“You’ve got that right,” Sloane acquiesced with a groan. “I was looking forward to seeing Perk on Monday, followed by, hopefully, a whole bunch of get-togethers after that to determine whether or not I’m crazy, or if I really do feel an intense attraction to him.”

“That’s a no-brainer,” Melissa responded. “But wait. You mean you can’t even see the man in private?” she asked.

“Well, I probably can,” Sloane responded hesitantly. “But if I see him without my wing-woman, a table, and food running interference between us, I might do something stupid like jump his bones. And then…” She had to spew her doubts. “…what if he’s just messing around? What if I let down my guard and do…thingswith him, contemplating an actual relationship, but he’s only in it for the fun? What if after he gets what he wants, he walks away?”

She could almost see Melissa waving her hand around in dismissal. “Then he walks away. But you can’t let that stop you from exploring things, hon, because none of us know the future. If we didn’t take chances, we’d all be trapped in our living rooms, huddled under blankets reading books.”

“Which doesn’t sound bad right about now,” Sloane grumbled.

Melissa ignored her and went on. “He’d be an idiot to toss you aside for any number of reasons.”

This ought to be good. “Okay. Shoot.”

“One, you’re the best thing that will ever happen to him, hands down. And two, if he disses you like that, you’ll kick his sorry ass and he’ll wish he never messed with you.”

“Yeah. Those things are comforting. Not,” Sloane huffed. She’d been hoping for something more in the lines of “words of wisdom”. But WTF?

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