Page 13 of Boys of Fall

CHAPTER TEN

Jerry

“Hey, Jerry!”

Autumn raced toward me. Arms waving and black hair flying out behind her.

“Hey!” I met her halfway once she’d burst through the throng of people. “You made it!”

She skidded to a halt in front of me, out of breath, and gripped my wrist hard. “Do not drink this!”

I blinked at her. “Huh?”

She took the cup from my hands and swirled her middle finger in the liquid.

“It’s okay if you want mine, but there’s plenty over in the truck,” I said, confused. “Come on, I’ll get you one.”

“Where’s that girl you were talking to?” Autumn asked still holding on tight to my wrist as we moved back toward the bale where Jana and I had been sitting.

“Jana?”

“Yes, I need to talk to her,” she said now dragging me forward.

I put on the brakes. “Autumn, wait. What’s going on?”

She jerked to a halt in front of me, still holding my wrist. A strange expression had caused a frown between her eyebrows. “You’ll find out why soon as we find her.” She tugged on my arm, a hard smile on her lips. “Come on.”

The firelight glittered purple and silver off Autumn’s hair as we moved in and out of the crowd. Her fingers flexed on my wrist with each twist and turn. My body thrummed with a single-minded desire to have more of her holding on to me. Once we reached the other side of the bonfire, Autumn tugged hard, and we swung wide toward a cluster of guys.

Jana stood with her back to us in the middle of the group. I recognized at least one of them as freshmen from her boyfriend’s team as we got closer. A very bad sign, especially one day before a major rivalry game, and that sent a cold stone of dread tumbling into my stomach.

Autumn tapped Jana on the shoulder. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

Jana turned to look down her nose at Autumn and then up to me. There was that shitty smile again from before, and it made much more sense now.

“Hey, Jer-Bear,” she purred and moved closer. “Is this your new piece of ass?”

“Why, yes, I am,” Autumn answered before I could tell Jana to go straight to hell and take her friends along for the ride. “And since you’ve indicated you’ve also seen his glorious cock,” Autumn added, “You know why he’s all mine.”

There was a collective intake of breath as everyone around us turned to zero in on the conversation. But I didn’t care. I only had eyes for Autumn. She blazed beside me, raven hair blowing and glossy pink lips curled into a pleasant smile that belied the iron grip she still had on my wrist.

Jana blinked, and her nostrils flared.

“So, seeing as how this is mine,” Autumn said and stroked my arm from shoulder to elbow. “You should be able to understand why I’m so upset by observing you drop something in his drink.” Autumn’s tone remained as cool as the breeze blowing around us. “I mean, how will he ever bang me blind later if he’s passed out cold?”

“How dare you!” Jana screeched as the crowd at her back took two steps away. She was left facing us in the open. “I’d never do such a thing!”

“Oh yes you would,” Autumn said as she flipped her right bird finger into Jana’s face. “See that color change in my polish?” The other fingers sported white paint, but the middle one was black. “This polish is designed to react to things like Rohypnol.”

Autumn swirled her pointer finger in my drink too and held it up for me to see. Slowly, the white faded to gray then turned as black as her hair.

“What in the hell?” I said and glared at Jana along with everyone who had gathered around us. My teammates pushed in closer, their deep murmurings of outrage starting to buzz in the air. After they leaned down to inspect Autumn’s hand, they then turned toward Jana, every face a mask of anger.

“Jer-Bear, someone else must’ve done this, you know I’d never hurt you,” Jana pleaded as the group of younger guys she’d been talking to nervously took in the increasing number of orange shirts surrounding the conversation. They silently started to fade back into the crowd.

“Bullshit.” Autumn took the drink from my hand. “Take your NW flunkies and your skanky ass out of here,” she said and tossed my drink onto Jana’s chest.

Laughter exploded around us as Jana screamed and batted at the cold liquid running down between her tits. The outline of her wet bra started to shine through her shirt. She turned and raced for the gate and a whole group of orange shirts fell in step behind her. I could hear shouting at the gate from her accomplices as they yelled for the monitor to hurry and let them out. Several of them hopped the fence, and an engine roared to life. Their tires tore up grass and rocks as they took off.

---