Page 68 of Freak Show

Then he backed up way too far and held out his hands to me.

I threw it.

Perfectly.

It went into this beautiful spiraling pass that I’d never be able to recreate again even if I’d wanted to.

He caught it with the biggest grin on his face, then threw it back to me.

I caught it, bobbling it only a few times, then twisted it around and placed my fingers exactly where he’d told me. Only to throw another really good pass.

This went on for about twenty minutes, us just throwing it back and forth, before Joe called out, “Y’all want to go out to dinner with us?”

Instead of tossing him the next pass, I looked over at Joe and Titus, who were watching with amusement on their faces.

“You know,” Titus said. “Getting him to stay after and hang out with us is like pulling teeth. He doesn’t like it at all.”

My brows rose and I stared at him with curiosity. “Why not?”

“He’s an introvert,” Joe said. “He doesn’t talk to anyone on the team, let alone stay behind after practice. Honestly, I’m kind of surprised that he even talked to you. I would be more inclined to see him stay forever single because he can’t stand making that first move. Or the second.”

Slone flipped Joe off. “Fuck off, man.”

“I’m just sayin’.” Joe shrugged. “And I can’t really even talk, because I’ve turned very introverted myself since going through my divorce.”

I patted myself on my shoulder and said, “Sometimes, when you have issues like I do, you kind of force yourself to be outgoing and personable in case someone has to save you from getting hit in the middle of traffic because you fell asleep.”

Joe blinked at me, as if he wasn’t sure if I was off my rocker or not.

“She has narcolepsy.” Titus took pity on Joe. “She falls asleep wherever and whenever she feels like it.”

“More like, I fall asleep, and it’s out of my control when I do it,” I said. “Though, I have been able to regulate myself somewhat, to where I know what my triggers are, and if I’m about to do it. Mostly.”

Okay, not mostly.

To be completely honest, I fell asleep whether I wanted to or not, and there were times when I had no clue it was about to happen. But it sounded better when I said it like I did, because people didn’t start freaking out around me.

Slone had handled it quite a bit better than I expected him to.

Most people heard I had issues and looked at me like a ticking time bomb.

Hell, I’d fallen asleep twice during sex with Slone, and he’d handled it like a champ both times.

“Do you ever fall asleep during important things?” Joe wondered, his eyes calculating.

“Important like…” I waited for him to elaborate.

I wasn’t sure where his line of questioning had gone, so I didn’t want to stick my foot in my mouth if I didn’t have to.

“Driving?” he asked.

I was already shaking my head. “I don’t drive. Haven’t even learned, to be honest. There’s no point.”

And there wasn’t.

No state would issue me a driver’s license with my kind of issues. Especially since it wasn’t controlled.

“Oh.” He frowned.

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