Page 72 of The Baller

Holiday hadn’t been talking quietly, but it was like only she and Radley were in the room. They sat there until the silence between them was only broken by Tanner, who’d stopped wrestling with Parker and was sitting on the floor trying to catch his breath and figure out what he’d just heard.

“Hang on, back the fuck up a minute. What did you just say?” He was staring at Holiday with equal combinations of confusion and… no, just confusion. “Holiday?”

She pulled away from Radley, twisting on the couch until her feet were flat on the floor and faced Tanner. “I didn’t tell you because I knew how you’d react, and you were still playing in the minors.”

“Wh… what? Excuse me, what? You didn’t tell me about some guy sleazing on you because I playbaseball?!”

She leaned forward, and it dawned on me that Holiday wasn’t just the brains of the operation, she was his protector. “I’m sorry, Tanny. I couldn’t have you beating the shit out of a guy when you were about to hit the major leagues.”

Before Holiday could take her next breath, Tanner was on his knees in front of her. “What the fuck?! I’m your brother. I’m supposed to be able to protect you.”

“And what would you have done?” she asked, pointedly.

He sat back on his heels. “I’d have fucking killed him.”

Holiday laughed, reaching out to cup his cheek. “Exactly.”

“Where’s the guy now?”

She took a deep breath, a wide smile crossed her face as she shrugged. “He’s dead.”

We all went from shock toshock.From the way we were all staring at Holiday with our mouths open, it was clear the four of us were all thinking the same thing.

“Holiday…” Tanner whispered, “did youkill him?”

I could almost see Tanner plotting out how to help her bury the body.

“What? No!” Her wide, crystal blue eyes, the exact same ones as Tanner, trailed across the four of us, and she fell back onto the couch with a loud laugh. “No! He was fat and gross, and the burgers caught up with him. He had a heart attack.”

She was laughing so hard that we could only make out one or two of the garbled words leaving her lips. It became infectious. Radley was next to go, and once she started, I went. Then Parker, and finally Tanner, though he was still understandably pissed.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me. Do mom and dad know?”

Holiday nodded. “Yeah, and I know I should have told you too. I just wanted to protect you as well. I didn’t want to ruin your career, and then I kind of forgot because I’ve been busting my ass to make something of myself. You’ve been busting your ass playing baseball, and it’s not the sort of thing you discuss over text message. I’m sorry, I truly am.” She pulled him in for another hug, then turned to Radley. “What happened to your guy?”

“Nothing.”

Now it was our turn to stare at Radley.

“What?” snapped Tanner harder than he meant to. “Nothing?”

Radley shook her head. “No. He videoed us having sex, and leaked the pictures. And nothing happened.”

I hadn’t realized I’d been holding onto Radley so tightly until she yelped. I looked down to find my fist wrapped around her wrist.

“Shit, I’m sorry.” I lifted it to my lips for a kiss, a poor attempt at making it better. Nothing would make it better.

“So he’s just walking around all day being a dick? He hasn’t been arrested or beaten up, or anything?”

Radley pulled on the drawstrings around the hoodie. “No. It could never be proven they came from him. The last I heard he graduated and went to a law firm in D.C. Even if people did know what he’d done, my mom has enough political enemies that he’d never have trouble finding a job.”

“What was his name?”

“Christopher Ellington.”

Parker and Tanner’s eyes shot to mine. It was the guy she’d mentioned in the elevator, the one who’d set off the panic attack this morning. I’d known of his existence for less than a day, for a girl I’d known less than two months, and I was mentally plotting his murder.

Now I knew why Holiday had waited to tell Tanner.

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