Page 114 of Losing the Rhythm

“I’ll come too,” Toby said.

“No you won’t,” Laura said, practically grabbing Toby’s shirt at the collar and yanking him back to his butt. “Two is enough of a crowd.”

George didn’t say anything, but his expression said his son was going to be in a lot of trouble after the game.

We jumped from bleacher to bleacher and pushed toward the fence line. Justin cleared a spot for us.

“Paxon!”

It took me calling out a couple times to get his attention. He sat on the bench, head bent over. Benji was on the opposite side.

Finally Paxon looked over at us. Frowning, he got to his feet.

“Is everything okay?” was the first thing he asked when he came over. There was light bruising along his jawline, but that was about it thankfully.

“Shouldn’t we be asking you that?” Justin asked. “What happened?”

Paxon’s eyes hardened as they cut over to his teammate, hatred clouding his expression. “Something I’ll need to deal with once this is over.”

“Paxon,” I said softly. My hunch screamed that it had something to do with me. Since that boy had approached me, those two had been butting heads.

The boy looked over and smirked once he saw us. “That’s right, go to your little bitch.” He made a hand motion like he was using a whip.

The coach looked over, finally realizing Paxon was no longer on the bench.

“Paxon, sit your ass down before I bench you for the rest of the season.”

Paxon sighed, gave us a shaky smile, and went back to his seat.

Justin was glaring at the boy who was teasing Paxon, looking like he was about to vault over the fence and tackle the boy.

“Don’t,” I said, grabbing his wrist to get his attention. I managed to drag Justin back to our seats.

“Is everything okay?” Laura asked before the others could beat her to it.

“Yeah,” Justin said. “He didn’t tell us why though.”

“He better have a really good excuse,” George said. “And I’ll say this now, there is none.”

Justin and I shared a look. Paxon was in so much trouble with his dad once this game was over.

We watched more of the game, and Paxon still didn’t get back in the game. The team was holding their own at least, though there seemed to be tension among them.

“I need to go to the bathroom,” I said, climbing to my feet.

“Thank God. I didn’t want to go on my own and I’ve had to for a while.”

Justin frowned at Laura. “Why didn’t you ask? We could have taken you.”

Laura snorted. “I don’t need men to escort me to the bathroom.”

I smiled at her and helped her down the bleachers before heading toward the school to use the bathroom.

“Do you like soccer?” she asked me.

“I have no idea what’s going on half the time,” I admitted. “I do like supporting Paxon though.”

Laura laughed. “Same. I never understood the excitement in running the ball back and forth down a field. Same with football.”

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