Animals

41.

LIAM'S POV:

"You know how I keep reminding Garrett to give me back my hoodie?" Mason asked while I was on the bench press and he stood at the foot of it with dumb-bells in each of his hands.

I breathed out, "Yeah," and then got up to put more weight on the bar.

"Well, I remembered you said he lived in that housing development on Spaulding." he started, "So I went there and guess what?" I didn't answer him so instead he answered himself, "The housing development is still in development."

I sat back down on the bench, "So?" I asked as I laid back down on the under the bar.

"There are no houses yet." Mason said, "So unless the dude lives in some backhoe, there's something he's not telling us." I began to lift again, not answering him, "Then there's this other dude, man, he's..." he paused but I continued to lift, "He's been acting really strange. Running to school for no reason. Disappearing at parties. Used to be my best friend."

I was barely listening to anything he said, I only knew that when he finished speaking he was expecting me to talk, "Uh-huh," I mumbled as I got up again to put more weight on.

"And he was apparently on steroids."

I glanced up at him as I sat down again, "What?" I gave him a confused look.

He pointed to the bar, "You're not actually going to try to lift that, are you?" he asked me. I turned to look at the amount of weight I had put on the bar, "Are you alright? I mean, is it about the game tonight?" he asked as he stepped closer to the bench.

"I'm fine." I shrugged, "It's just a scrimmage."

"You know who you're playing, right?" Mason asked, now he was squatting down beside the bench so he could make sure I was listening to him this time.

"Yeah." I said, but then quickly shook my head, "I mean, no. I guess I missed the announcement," I thought back to my first class, Callie had been talking to me, making sure I was okay while the announcements were going on.

I looked down at the bench as he spoke, "Liam, it's your old school, Davenford Prep." my eyes shot back up at my best friend, my heart beat rising in fear and anger. I needed to find Callie right now, she helped me last night and made me calm, she could certainly do it right now. I quickly stood up from the bench, "You okay?" Mason asked again as I tried to think of where Callie might be right this second.

"Yeah, I just forgot that I was supposed to.." I searched my mind for some excuse, "I was supposed to meet up with Callie," I waited for him to nod his head and then I quickly maneuvered out of the weight room and went into the boys' locker room. Once I reached my gym locker, I threw my bag into it, and then looked around it for a second, "What the hell?" I said to myself as I hit the side of the locker, "Where's my stick?"

I went and looked into the locker next to mine in case I just put it in there instead of my own by mistake, I continued to search until I heard a noise, a noise that sounded like nails on a chalkboard. I walked slowly around the lockers until I was at the end of them, I looked at the empty space as a man with dark hair walked up holding a lacrosse stick in his hands, "Is this yours?" he asked. I didn't say anything, just stared at him as I watched him break it into two pieces. He glanced down at the broken stick, shrugged, and then threw it at my feet. My anger was rising as I began to breathe harder and ball my hands into fists. I looked up from the stick and then charged at him, but somehow I was the one who ended up being held up against the lockers by the collar of my shirt. I growled at the man and snapped my teeth at him even though I couldn't moved from where he was holding me.

"Liam," I glanced around and saw Scott walking towards me and the man.

"You're right," the man said, "He is angry." he looked up at me and then released me.