Page 21 of The Handoff

She nodded and I opened the car door for her. She put her foot down and screamed out in pain. I’d seen Dane go through one too many injuries to see that it was more than a sprain, but I was no doctor, and I didn’t want her to panic.

Naturally, I curved my arms around her and helped her sit. She smiled at me, and we were so close, too close. If I moved my head just an inch, my lips would press against her. I could smell the vanilla in her hair and the strawberry scent wafting off her body mixing with the Florence fragrance she was wearing, and it completely captivated me. I wanted to take her so damn badly, but I pulled away. I could hear her sigh as if she was disappointed.

***

We were waiting for the doc to tell her the results of her X-ray.

“What would I have done without you?” She smiled as we awkwardly waited in the room. The curtains were drawn and the animal instinct inside of me wanted to take her, but I wasn’t Dane. I didn’t get drawn to a girl so easily, especially a cheerleader—they did nothing for me, most of them were all beauty and no brains. I was surprised she’d awoken something inside of me, something no cheerleader had ever done before.

“Run here?”

Instead of smiling or even laughing at my failed attempt of a joke, her eyes flooded with tears.

“Did I say something wrong?”

She shook her head. “No. I know Penny tripped me up on purpose. I know because before she did it, she said, ‘Go jump, Piggy!’”

I was no longer feeling like comforting her, but the need to see Penny and give her a piece of my mind was overwhelming. Her antics should have surprised me, but they didn’t. There was always jealousy and some rivalry in the squad, but most of the time Fiona instigated it. She would tell members that other members weren’t good enough to be on the squad. I never understood how they could act as a team if their leader didn’t treat them as one.

“Damn! Really, I don’t get it. When I saw you guys together, you all seemed to be getting on so well—something I’d never seen in the past. I was watching in amazement as the transformation of Othello took place and David Copperfield appeared.”

She smiled. “I never knew you liked classics. You’ve never mentioned it before.”

That’s because my brothers think I’m a freak.

I was saying too much and not thinking like Dane. Whenever I thought like me, that was when I gave the game away. This was the thing, it wasn’t just pretending to be Dane on the outside that was upsetting, but the inside too, to make everyone believe we were him. Sometimes it was exhausting, especially with his football buddies.

I swiftly changed the subject. “I never thought Penny was the jealous type.”

She shrugged. “Must be from Fiona. After all, they’re friends. Best friends I think.”

I stood, waving my hand up in the air. “Friends? They don’t even know the meaning of the word. They’re just rich and used to getting everything they want all the time. They don’t have a thought about anything and anyone but themselves.”

“Penny was nice at first…”

I shook my head. “Don’t be confused. She probably acted like she was nice just to get back at you like she did today. You don’t fit the bracket, there’s no way someone like Penny would ever be nice to you.”

“Bracket?”

I sat next to her, thinking that she may have confidence, but she was from a different world, and a freshman. The two things showed how naïve she was, and I had to give her a wake-up call.

“Yeah, these girls have designer purses on their arms as if it’s nothing. Thousands of dollars on their arms and they don’t even appreciate that they have such riches, because all they have to do is cry to daddy and they get a new credit card or a gift worth thousands of dollars. There’s a big social divide in UCLA. Sad, but hey, that’s life. The rich don’t mix, and the poor don’t either, because they know one day they’ll have a rude awakening. Sooner or later, they’ll be made to feel the one thing they avoid trying to feel every day of their lives, poor.”

“You make out that all rich people are snobs.”

I could tell I’d annoyed her, and I realized at this point that I’d made the wrong assumption. “Shit, sorry, I just thought…”

I stood, trying to think of a way to worm out of it as the doctor walked in. I was great at making academic conversations, but I seemed to antagonize people in the real world who were not on my wavelength, and there weren’t many who could live with the ugly truth.

“Hey, Lisa, I have some good news. It seems you’ve just sprained your ankle. But it still means that you need rest, and it looks as if you’ll be having your boyfriend doing the run around for you.”

She went bright red as her eyes shifted from the doctor to me as he moved the curtain. He didn’t waste time telling her the news, which probably meant he was in a hurry and had loads of other patients to see.

She wanted me to say that I wasn’t her boyfriend or something like that. The doctor was young and appeared to be a couple of years older than me. I’m sure he wasn’t, but he had that young, bubbly feeling about him, like the type of guy who never aged. He gave me a gentle pat on the back and then winked at me. “Make sure you look after her.”

She shrugged. “You don’t have to do this. I mean, it’s all embarrassing.”

“For whom?”

“Me. I mean, I’m not used to being helpless. I’m used to being independent.”

“Not for the next two weeks, my dear. I’ll wait on you hand and foot.”

She giggled as the doctor said his goodbyes, and we were left alone with the nurse.

It wasn’t even an attempt at a joke, but it made me feel better knowing that I’d changed the mood. It was getting tense before the doctor walked in, but it was lighter now and she had paperwork to fill in. I had to drop her at the dorm and fill my brothers in on what happened today. I really messed it up, and part of me wondered if being at practice had caused it in the first place? Maybe if I hadn’t shown up, then Penny wouldn’t have felt the need to do what she did? Who fucking knew?

Dane would be happy, but as for Daxon, he was only happy when someone was waiting on him. Maybe he was the rich one in my family in another life. Maybe Lisa was right; I’d stereotyped and somehow touched a nerve. I was sure she wasn’t rich; I’d done some homework once Dane told me about her. I heard no gossip about Lisa, other than the fact that she was here on scholarship. Maybe like Daxon, she was rich but in another life. And not in real life. I didn’t want to burst her bubble.

After she filled out her paperwork, we left the hospital, and I realized that maybe she had rich relatives or something. There had to be a reason why she was so touchy when I mentioned rich people. I wasn’t sure what triggered it, but I was going to find out the truth, even if it meant I would personally have to take care of her during the next two weeks.

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