Page 70 of Saving the Halfback

I took a deep breath in and out. “Yeah, just feeling back to normal, kind of sucks.”

He lifted my hand and kissed the palm briefly. My eyes flickered over to Nolan, who was watching us, watching me, but he didn’t look jealous or upset. He had a smirk on his face. Lachlan leaned close, whispering in my ear. “You’re just coming down. Weed doesn’t cause the lows other drugs might, but if you feel lower than usual, let me know, okay? Everyone reacts differently.”

I nodded.

“I’m keeping an eye on you in gym.” He winked.

Nolan took my other hand, placing it palm up on his lap and starting the same circles Lachlan was doing. “I’ve got her in history.”

Now, my heart was skipping beats for entirely different reasons. My breathing hitched, and I squeezed my legs together.I knew what I was feeling. I knew what was going on; I just wasn’t sure if I was allowed to feel this…without being punished for it.

As they traced lines along my palms, I felt the tingles spreading from my hand and up my arms. My nipples became tight. The bell rang, and I jumped, pulling my hands back. “Welp, time for gym class.”

If by “watching”me, Lachlan meant he would be distracting me, he succeeded. We were out on the track today, running and timing ourselves to compare to our run we’d done the previous week. I wasn’t sure how Lachlan did this high, because I knew he smoked a lot more than I did. He was practically running backward most of the time, telling me to keep up.

I was waiting for him to trip any moment with the amount of dancing he put into his running, but Nolan told me to give up. Apparently, Lachlan held back during most of our practices; he said the guy would dance circles around us and have perfect footwork while doing so.

That’s when another realization came to me. Coach was so baffled by how fast of a runner I was with zero training, but I did have training, didn’t I? Not able to bring myself to horseback ride anymore, I had often found myself going for runs. Anytime I felt the need to talk to my parents about what was going on, I ran. I channeled all that energy into it, and when I would return, completely emotionally and physically spent, I didn’t have the energy to talk to them any longer. Since Ed had left, I no longer ran.

At first,the rain started as sprinkles. Coach told us to ignore it and continue our timed runs. But it didn’t take long for the sky todarken and turn into a full-on monsoon, and the thunder started not long after. Coach instructed us to head back into the gym.

Nolan looked toward the parking lot as we all ran for cover. “Shit.”

I looked in the direction and saw his bike sitting next to my truck. “I can give you a ride home,” I told him once we reached the cover of the building.

“I can’t leave my motorcycle here,” Nolan said. “Especially on the week of our first game. Rival schools love to vandalize.”

“I can put it in the back of my truck.” I shrugged. It would definitely fit.

“It’s heavy.”

I smiled. “And? You realize it’s a farm truck, right? It can easily handle a motorcycle.” I’d loaded up feed heavier than his bike.

“Yeah, but you can’t exactly lift it in.”

“Lucky for you, I have the ramps in the back.” I winked at him and walked away, following Coach’s instructions to get ready for our next class. There wasn’t much left of third period.

Lachlan walked us to history class with his fingers threaded through mine and the promise that he was still on watching-me duty. I rolled my eyes at him but allowed the comfort he brought to me. I told him Nolan would be riding home with us, and he agreed that no way would we let him ride home in this weather.

“The rain is letting up,” Nolan said. We were working on a report, and he was, as usual, daydreaming and looking out the window. History bored him, yet he always did so well.

“No.” I kept my eyes on my paper, still writing my key points for the report. I would type up the final copy later.

“It’ll be fine.”

“The roads are slick, and what if it starts raining again while you’re riding?” From the corner of my eye, I could see Nolanopen his mouth with another argument, but I cut him off. “I’ll worry about you,” I said honestly. “For me, just do this for me.”

He shut his mouth, and the corner of his lips tipped ever so slightly in a soft smile. He moved back to his paper. “Okay.”

“What’s going on?” Ethan asked from beside me.

I almost jumped. He had been silent all class, effectively ignoring me now that he deemed me a bad influence. “Nothing. Just giving Nolan a ride back to town.”

Ethan frowned but returned to his work.

After school, we waited until most of the parking lot was empty. “How do we do this?” Nolan asked.

“You bring your bike over to the top of the wheelchair slope, and I’ll meet you there.” I was glad the rain had let up; it would suck to have a slippery ramp. Nolan and Lachlan walked together to the slope while I brought the truck around and backed up. The moment I felt the edge of the slope, I rocked forward slightly and put the truck in park. I didn’t say anything as I got to work putting down the tailgate and getting the support bars in place. It was just by chance I’d had the ATV in the back of the truck yesterday, so I had everything in here still. Yay for procrastinating and not putting shit away.Take that, Dad.

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