Page 83 of The Bro Date
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
SHANE
“So, what did you think of our spa day? Specifically, the full-body mud masks?” Toby asks with a giggle as we lie in bed on our final morning at the cabin. We slept in and can’t seem to get going. Toby’s head is resting on my chest, his wild curls tickling my chin. I lean forward, inhaling the fresh, honeysuckle scent of his hair and releasing the breath slowly, like I just took a hit of the most addictive drug in the world.
“It was nice,” I say evenly. “Kinda reminded me of that time I pushed Adam Collins in the mud.”
“What?” Toby laughs breathily. “Random much?”
I shrug. “It just triggered that memory for me.”
There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing the school bully sitting in a puddle of mud.
Toby lifts his head, staring down at me with sleepy eyes and a small smile. “I was so paranoid that we were gonna get detention for a month, and my parents would ground me for the other eleven months of the year,” Toby chuckles, and I rub his back, my fingertips gliding over his soft, smooth skin. “Actually, though,” he says thoughtfully. “You never told me why you pushed him down.”
“You really wanna know?” I ask just to be certain after all these years of keeping Adam’s hateful words to myself.
“Yeah. Why not?” His brows crease in confusion.
“Because he’s a dick, of course.”
“Well, I think enough years have passed that I can handle it,” he says resolutely.
“Okay then.”
Toby rests his head back on my bare chest, and I squeeze him to me, slipping into the memory from sixth-grade PE class.
“I really don’t get why you like hanging out with the little dweeb so much,” Adam sneers, staring at Toby while he runs laps around the track.
I clench my fists so I don’t punch him in the face. Mom would be so mad at me if I got suspended. “Shut up, Adam.” I won’t let him run his mouth about my friend.
“Look at him trying to keep up with everyone. It’s pathetic,” Adam laughs, pointing at Toby as he lags behind on the track.
Coach Blair split up the class and sent half of us to run laps around the track, and the other half to run soccer drills, which is where I’m at with the douche squad. Toby is smaller and younger than the rest of us, and I won’t let Adam get away with bullying him.
“I said shut your mouth,” I growl, stepping into Adam’s personal space. “Say one more thing, I dare you.”
“Tobias Livingston is a wimp,” Adam says very slowly, sounding each syllable out disrespectfully with a stupid smirk on his face.
I snatch him up by the front of his Pokémon shirt, catching him off guard completely. His expression morphs comically, from cockiness to fear.
Toby finishes his lap and comes running over while I’m staring Adam down. “Shane! Stop!” he cries, but I don’t listen, instead shoving Adam’s chest and making him stumble backward. He trips over his own two feet, losing his balance and falling into a muddy spot on the side of the soccer field.
“Ahh!” he cries out as he falls, but I have no remorse for this bully.
“Oh my God! Mud butt!” His so-called friends laugh, pointing at Adam instead of helping him up.
The wet ground squelches underneath him as he attempts to stand, but he just slips and falls again. I glance over at Toby, and his hand is over his mouth, his eyes wide with shock.
“Don’t talk about people anymore,” I command, not wanting Toby to know that Adam was picking on him specifically. “In fact, don’t even think about them.”
Adam’s face heats, but he nods, agreeing to stop his weird fixation on Toby. I turn my back on him, leaving him to crawl out of the mud in front of his friends. Toby and I head over to the rest of the class, distancing ourselves from the mess.
“Hey, Collins!” Coach yells, finally noticing Adam sitting on the ground, half covered in mud. “Now isn’t the time to play in the dirt. Get your butt up and hit the locker room! Class is dismissed!”
“Why did you do that?” Toby asks suddenly, peering up at me with worried eyes that I want to protect. “You could have gotten in trouble.”
“He needed to learn a lesson on how to treat people,” I say with a shrug. “Worth the risk.”
