Banner wrapped his arm around me and pulled me into his big body as he led me away.
Titus waited until we were well out the door before he let Vance go.
When Titus finally caught up to us, I was shaking my head.
“Something needs to give,” Titus said as he came up. “He needs to fucking go.”
“Someone needs to kick him out of school,” Trance muttered darkly. “Kid, you need to get back to the locker room.”
I knew he was talking to Banner when I felt him stiffen.
I patted Banner’s shoulder. “He’s right. Your game starts in what, half an hour? You really should go.”
Banner sighed and pulled me in close, stopping when he was close to the boys’ locker room entrance.
“I got about a dozen texts all saying a fight was about to break out. I don’t even know any of the numbers,” he grumbled, his eyes coming to rest on mine. “Stay with my dad. Ford will be here soon, too. And don’t go to the bathroom by yourself. I don’t like the way he cornered you today, and there’s no doubt in my mind that he’ll be at the game.”
With that, he kissed me on the cheek and sprinted away as if he hadn’t been there in the first place.
Or as if he was going to get in trouble with the football coach for leaving.
“Y’all are just too cute,” Oakley teased.
I rolled my eyes and looked at her baby.
Would Banner’s kids look like that? Would they be a mix of me and him?
Whoa there, Perry.
You’re seventeen, chick. You’re so not ready for kids.
Except, I knew that I wanted some.
A lot of them.
Maybe five.
But… just not right now.
“Ready when you are, girl,” Trance said, breaking me out of my daydream.
I nodded and started forward, being sure to walk slow so that they could keep up.
Not that they were slow by any means, but I was used to sprint-walking my way everywhere. Mostly because I didn’t want to chance seeing the cheerleaders or other people that might want to talk to me.
When we finally arrived at the game, I had my wallet out to pay for my ticket when Trance’s big hand came over my shoulder with two twenty-dollar bills.
I hid my grin and shoved my backpack back into place.
“Where do y’all normally sit?” I asked curiously. “We don’t have any assigned seating, and since we’re here so early, we should have our pick of seats.”
Trance shrugged. “I’ll probably stand at the fence. Where do the ladies want to sit?”
Viddy and Oakley only shrugged, so I took them to the fifty-yard line and parked them about halfway up the bleachers.
“I’m going to leave this here and run to the bathroom,” I said as I dropped my bag. “Y’all can watch it? I don’t want it stolen. It has my last clean pair of underwear in it.”
Viddy snorted. “Yes, we can watch it.”
I grinned and took off down the bleachers, only remembering Banner’s order not to go to the bathroom by myself once I was already in there.
Thinking that it wouldn’t matter at this point, I went ahead and did my business, coming out five minutes later to it significantly darker, as well as more people milling about.
I was about halfway to the bleacher’s stairs when I felt something tug me from behind.
I turned to tell them to back off when I saw Vance’s face.
Then I saw nothing at all because his elbow met my face.
Chapter 18
You’re panicking at the wrong disco.
-Coffee Cup
Banner
I tossed a beautiful pass that sailed right into Graham’s open hands and grinned before holding a thumb up.
Coach then called us in to get the pep talk going before the game started.
Automatically, I looked to the bleachers for my family, just like I did every single time before the game started.
I found them in the middle where I’d seen them the moment I’d walked out onto the field earlier.
My eyes narrowed when I didn’t spot Perry.
Then again, now that I was looking, I saw my mom, Oakley, and Ashe, but I didn’t see my dad or Ford.
I automatically started looking along the fence where my dad and brother tended to hang, but didn’t see them there, either.
My eyes once again went over the bleachers, and my heart started to pound.
Perry wasn’t there.
Where was she?
“What’s wrong?” Titus asked.
I swallowed the worry that started to fill my gut and gestured to the bleachers. “I don’t see Perry. Or my brother and dad.”
Titus was silent for a long second as he scanned the area for them, but shook his head when he didn’t see anything either. “Not in the concession stand line, either.”
I was almost to the coach when I saw my dad standing next to the bathroom.
I instantly felt better.
Until I realized that he was standing next to the bathroom talking to a police officer.
Gut churning, I studied my dad, seeing that he was worried.
He always stood with his hands on his hips when he had something bothering him, and he was doing that now.
“I’ll be right back,” I said, breaking away from Titus to head in the direction of my father.
“Hey, Spurlock. Get back here!” Coach called.
I ignored him and kept walking, stopping at the edge of the fence where I could yell at my dad.
“Dad!” I called out.
His head snapped my way, and I saw instantly that it wasn’t frustration on his face. It was worry.
He came over to the edge of the fence and looked at me.
“Perry’s gone,” he said. “We can’t find her.”
I felt something, a sick knot of dread, fill my stomach.
“Did you try calling her?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Looked through her bag. Her phone and wallet are in it. Didn’t know her number.”
I looked along the row of kids milling about and spotted Rebel.
“Hey, Rebel!” I called.
Rebel turned and smiled, jogging toward us. “Yeah, Banner?”
“You seen Perry?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No, actually. We were all looking for her. She’s not answering her phone.”
My dad then went on to explain that he hadn’t seen her in a while since she’d gone to the bathroom by herself. Like I’d told her not to do.
I swallowed hard, then jumped the fence in the next second.
“Let’s look for her. She’s missing,” I ordered.
“Spurlock!” Coach called.
I stopped and turned to find him staring at me with annoyance.
“Perry’s missing,” I said. “No one can find her. She went to the bathroom and never came back. Her phone and wallet were with my parents. It’s been twenty minutes.”
Coach’s face immediately went worried.
“She got into a tussle with Vance before we got here,” I said. “That was why I left during your talk.”
Coach’s face went murderous. “Let’s look. I’ll get the announcer’s box to make an announcement.”
I heard the announcement being made, but I was already shoving my way into the women’s bathroom.
After a quick check in there and finding nothing, I went into the men’s. Then the concession stand.
It was only as I was coming out of the back that I looked under the dark bleachers and got a really bad feeling.
Reaching out to some freshman that was waving his phone around, I yanked it out of his hand and said, “I’ll be back.”
Then I flipped his phone’s flashlight on and walked farther into the darkness cast by the bleachers.
I heard people following me, likely Rebel and my dad, but didn’t bother to slow down or look behind me to make sure.
A cup fell from above me, and I sidestepped it and kept walking, farther and farther.
I swept the phone back and forth, heart in my throat.
“Son of a bitch!”
I turned just in time to see my brother haul ass in the opposite direction of where we were standing.
He must’ve entered from the other end of the bleachers because I hadn’t seen him or heard him until he’d called out.
My eyes training on where he was going, I found him standing over an unconscious Perry.
She was on the ground, in a fetal position, and naked from the waist down.
I cursed and went to rip off my shirt, but couldn’t get the damn thing off.
My father came to the rescue and handed me his light jacket.
I yanked it out of his hands and covered her up with it just as I bent down and pressed my fingers to her neck.
“Baby,” I said as I cradled her head into my hands. “Perry, wake up.”
She moaned and rolled her head in my hand. Which was when I realized that my hand was now wet.
With her blood.
“Son of a bitch,” I said as I shined my light.
Yes, my hand was covered in it.
“There’s an ambulance at the front gate,” Dad said.
“She has a head wound,” Ford said. “They’re gonna need to come to her. I don’t think it’s a good idea to move her until we know what’s going on with that head and neck.”
My stomach was rolling as I got down low and pressed my mouth to her forehead. “Perry, wake up.”
She didn’t wake up.
Not when the paramedics got there.
Not when I got in the back of the ambulance with her and rode to the hospital.
And not when I got to the hospital and met her father as I hurried along at Perry’s side as they wheeled her into the emergency room.
I wasn’t sure who called him, but I was glad that he was there.
Perry would want to see him.
“What’s going on?” a doctor asked as he came up to Perry’s side once they rolled her into a room in the ER.
“Seventeen-year-old female found unconscious under the bleachers at school,” the paramedic said. “Obvious head trauma. Pupils equal and reactive. Started an IV in the back of the box. Blood pressure is good. Everything is good. Possible rape.”
My stomach sank.
I mean, the thought had crossed my mind when I’d seen her there naked.
I’d just been doing my absolute best at blocking it out.
But the paramedic explaining that to the doctor? Yeah, that made it all the more real.
Her father heard, too, because I heard the animalistic growl start up behind me.
“Please, back away.”
I did, backing toward the back of the room until I was standing directly next to her dad.
Who was pissed.
And by pissed, I meant he was seething with anger.
Perry’s mother, who I hadn’t seen until now, was silently crying right behind him, her hand over her face as she stared at her daughter on the gurney in front of her.
“Anybody know exactly what happened?” the doctor asked.
“No,” I found myself saying. “We found her like that underneath the bleachers. She was sitting with my parents when she went to the bathroom. My dad said she was missing for about ten minutes before he went to look for her. It was about twenty before we found her underneath the bleachers.”
A lot could happen in twenty minutes.
I knew that the doctor knew that, too.
I saw his eyes take in Perry, then he nodded.
“I think that it would be best to perform a rape kit on her,” he said. “I’m going to recommend a female registered nurse and a female doctor to perform this.”
Things happened fast after that.
Just after I was kicked out of the room, I schooled my features and did what I knew I had to do.
I looked at her father, heart in my throat.
“We were intimate last night,” I said as I turned back to the doctor. “I don’t know if you need to know that to do the exam. But yeah, last night.”
The doctor nodded as if that information was actually helpful.
Her dad, on the other hand?
Yeah, he didn’t look happy. Not. At. All.
Chapter 19
I’d get a lot more sleep if I didn’t insist on reading the entire internet before bed.
-Perry to Banner
Perry
“…think that you must’ve interrupted him in the process,” an unfamiliar woman’s voice said. “There is no outward sign of trauma. She does have a few cuts and scrapes. Bruises forming on her hips. But overall, she’s going to be just fine.”
“The bruises on her hip could be from her falling at her game today,” I heard my father say. “She plays volleyball. She gets bruising on her hips all the time from diving for the ball.”
“Then that’ll likely explain those. As I said, I don’t think that anything was done to her. In my professional opinion anyway,” the woman said.
She must’ve been a doctor.
A doctor?
What the hell?
“Thank fuck,” I heard said.
That was Banner.
Banner?
Why was he here with me and not playing…
I peeled open my eyes and immediately groaned, the harsh light over my head piercing my eyes.
“Ohh,” I heard my mother say. “Baby, are you awake?”
My head throbbed.
It hurt so badly that I couldn’t stand to keep my eyes open.
Immediately after opening them, I closed them again, groaning.
“Turn off the light,” Banner suggested.
I heard more than saw the light get extinguished above me and chanced a look through slitted eyelids.
I saw my dad, my mother, and Banner all standing there. Banner was in the corner of the room, looking like he’d had his guts brutally ripped from him.
I looked at my father and got much of the same.
I didn’t even have to look at my mother before I knew.
“What’s wrong?” I asked worriedly.
“You don’t remember?” my dad asked, sidling up to the bed.
“I do.” I paused. “I remember going to the bathroom, and then nothing…”
Banner cursed.
My eyes flew to him.
“Why?”
“You were attacked under the bleachers,” my father said gently. “You were unconscious when Banner got to you.” He looked as if he didn’t want to say the next part. “You were also naked from the waist down.”
Chapter 20
Blood type: Little Debbie.
-Milk Cup
Banner
“Can Banner stay, Dad?” Perry pleaded. “Please?”
Her dad took one look at her, then at me, and he nodded. “That’s fine.”
“Don’t worry, sir. I’ll wake her up every two hours. I won’t let you down,” I said.
He paused. “Just know that I don’t want to be a grandfather right now, Perry. Banner, please, for the love of all that’s holy.”
****
The cry of the alarm had me jolting up in bed and reaching for the light. I had been doing this all night long.
“Perry, wake up,” I ordered, twisting on the air mattress that I’d borrowed. Perry’s dad brought it up for me to sleep on tonight. “Perry.”
Perry’s dark eyes opened, and when they did, a flood of tears fell with them.
“He didn’t rape me,” she whispered. “I remembered. He never planned to.”
My hands clenched in the sheets as I stared at her with fury boiling underneath my skin.
“You remember?” I asked.
There was a shift at the door that had me looking up to find Perry’s mother standing there.
But Perry didn’
t spare her a look. Her eyes were wholly focused on me.
“I never saw him,” she said. “He came up from behind me and dragged me underneath the bleachers. He didn’t stop until he had me pinned up against the big pole in the middle, so deep in the shadows that when he turned me around, I still couldn’t see him.” She swallowed hard. “He didn’t talk. He pulled my shorts off, though. God, I was so scared.”
Bile rose up my throat as I thought about what almost happened.
“He didn’t do anything more. Just slammed my head up against the pillar. I didn’t pass out until he was long gone. I was lying there for what felt like forever.” She paused. “I was awake through the entire Star-Spangled Banner, and then I passed out when I tried to stand up and couldn’t. I hit my head twice.”
I gathered her into my arms then, unable to stop myself.
“He was messing with me,” she said softly.
I pulled her into me tight, and when I next looked up, it was to see her father there, in his underwear, staring at us as if he wanted to come yank his daughter out of my arms and squeeze her tight and never let her go.
Instead, he caught his wife’s hand and led her out of the room, closing the door softly behind them.
It wasn’t until the door was closed that I pressed my lips to Perry’s cheek.
I wasn’t sure when it happened. Somewhere in between meeting Perry Street and now, I’d gone and fallen in love with her.
No turning back. Fight anyone that tries to hurt her. Kill anything that does kind of love.
“So I had to tell your dad that I had sex with you last night,” I said conversationally. “I think he’s waiting for you to get better, and then I think he’s going to kill me.”
There was a long stretch of silence and then, “I don’t even know what to say.”
“I didn’t either,” I admitted. “I wasn’t sure if they needed to know. But I told them anyway. And I swear to God, I think your dad nearly killed me right there in the middle of the ER. I think he would have had my brother and dad not been standing right there.”
There was a long silence and then, “Your dad doesn’t feel bad, right?”
I remembered the devastation on my father’s face at hearing, and seeing, what had happened to Perry.
“I think you’ve got someone in your corner for life when it comes to my dad,” I said softly. “And my family already loves you.”
Somethin' About That Boy Page 15
