Page 105 of Saving the Halfback

36

Bailey

Thursday

The rest of the week went by far more quickly than I had expected. Nolan joined practice again on Tuesday, but his father never came to another practice. Which was good, because on more than one occasion, I had caught Lachlan searching for him. I had to remind him violence wasn’t the answer and was always relieved when he would show up to art class, relaxed and back to normal. Lachlan made it his mission every art class to draw on my arm.Beautiful, Brave, Captivating.Today’s wasInspiring.He never just wrote the word, though; he used his markers and drew them in an elegant scrawl, with little designs around them. Words on skin that sank into my soul. It was hard not to feel special by the gesture.

Chase wasn’t completely avoiding us, but he kept himself to the outskirts. He sat with me in English class and would chat on occasion. At first, asking how Nolan was and then making small talk about the team we were going against this Friday. It was an away game, so we were leaving school early to get on a bus to drive out there.

At lunch, Chase chose to sit with other players, which was fine. But whenever the team started talking about something, hedidn’t openly reject speaking to us. I couldn’t figure out what line he was drawing and why. Was it really because I hadn’t told him what Hadley had done?

On Thursday, we sat down at the football table, as usual. Most of the team was already eating and arguing over what team would be making it to the playoffs this year in the NFL. For the most part, everyone was laughing, jostling one another, shouting over invalid disagreements.

Sam came in, walking to the table and straight to Chase. I wasn’t sure what it was that caught my attention, maybe the urgency in which he went to him. Chase leaned in as Sam whispered in his ear, and then his stormy grey eyes flipped up to me. His face got more furious by the second.

Sam held out his phone, showing something on it, and that was the final straw. Chase jumped up from the bench. “Where is he?” he nearly bellowed, still keeping his voice low. That got Ethan’s and Lachlan’s attention.

“Parking lot,” Sam said.

Chase leaned on the table, taking a few steadying breaths before grabbing his empty tray and smashing it against the corner of the table, splitting it in half. The whole cafeteria fell silent, their attention drawn to Chase’s outburst. With one final glance at me, Chase stalked out of the room.

I met Ethan’s and Nolan’s gazes briefly, but Lachlan was already up and following Chase and Sam out of the cafeteria.

By the time the three of us made it outside, we saw the first punch.

Across the parking lot, Chase now held the guy he’d just punched by the collar of his shirt. I didn’t know the guy’s name, but he was one of Chase’s friends. I had seen them hang out together often over the years. Lachlan grabbed a fuming Chase and pulled him off the guy.

“You’re fucking nuts!” the guy said, holding his now bleeding nose.

“Will someone tell me what the hell is going on?” Ethan asked. “Sam?”

“Derrick said he was with Bailey on Friday.” Sam pulled out his phone. “I said, prove it, and then he sent me this.” He flipped the phone around to show Ethan. I was close enough I could see it as well.

It was me, with the burlap sack over my head and words over my nearly naked body. And Derrick behind me, one hand cupping my breast while the other held me over my thong. He was grinning from ear to ear, like he’d won a prize.

“Oh, come on, like all of you haven’t been all up in that!”

Lachlan launched himself on Derrick before I could even come to terms with what was happening. The assault was fast, Lachlan landing three or four punches that put Derrick on the ground before he started kicking. Ethan hauled Lachlan off a groaning Derrick, cursing as he did so.

I was frozen. Why? Why were they doing this?

“B, take Lachlan inside,” Ethan ordered, but my ears were ringing. “Bailey! Take Lachlan inside.”

Nolan appeared, his hands cupping my face. “Bailey.”

My eyes fluttered up to him. “Why?” I whispered.

“You need to take Lachlan inside. If he gets caught, he will be in bigger trouble than us,” he said calmly. “Okay?”

I nodded. Lachlan. I had to help Lachlan. I reached out to Lachlan, who was still struggling in Ethan’s arms. “Lach, we need to go.”

His pupils were pinpoint as he snarled, trying to fight his way back to Derrick.

“Lachlan!” I tried to shout, but it came out strangled. It got his attention, all the same. “Please. Help me. I need to get out of here.”

He was breathing heavily through his teeth, blood on his cheek, but I knew it wasn’t his. Derrick hadn’t even had a chance to move before Lachlan had him on the ground. I reached out to him slowly, softly touching his hand before pulling him to me. He came willingly, keeping his eyes only on me. Ethan let him go.

I knew we couldn’t go back to the school, not when he was like this, so I pulled him to the sticks. Not once did he remove his eyes from me. I jumped when I noticed others in the sticks, but Lachlan slipped his arm around my shoulders and guided me to the tree where I had sat with him before.

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