Knight

20

TRIGGER WARNING: use of homophobic slur

Mason Maloney

"Do you boys want me to make some dinner before the game?" my mother asked as she barged into my room where Pete, Ross, and I sat.

"Sure, Mom," I answered, not taking my eyes off of the TV.

Pete turned toward her, a ridiculously innocent smile on his face. It took everything in me not to smack him.

"That would be great, Mrs. Maloney. Thank you," Pete said politely before my mother walked out of the room.

This time I didn't hold back my smack. Pete's head snapped over to me with an offended look on his face.

"What the hell was that for?" he asked incredulously.

"You know what," I responded to which Ross nodded in agreement.

"Quit hitting on his mom, dude," Ross told him, leaning back onto the headboard.

"I wasn't," Pete muttered, crossing his arms over his chest with a pout.

Ross gave me a knowing look but it quickly turned into a grimace as his eyes found the injuries that were still visible on my face. He looked away down at his lap and let out a sad sigh.

"Stop it," I said to Ross, nudging him with my shoulder.

He continued to feel guilty no matter how many times I told him it wasn't his fault. He wouldn't let it go.

"I know, I know," he said. "I can't help it. If I had just picked you up..."

"Then it would have happened some other time," I told him. "It was inevitable, Ross."

"I still can't believe your brother didn't kill them," Pete added, turning to face us from the foot of the bed.

"That would only cause more problems," I said.

We dropped the subject after than and I was glad. I didn't know how many times I had to say I was done thinking about the situation before the people around me started to get it. I still couldn't have a normal conversation with my father without him trying to pry names out of me.

After my mother called us down for a brief dinner, we made our way to the school for the football game. The bleachers were already packed as usual, but I could see Bella sitting with some of her friends, her short legs stretched out across the bench to save seats for Ross, Pete, and me.

"Hey!" Bella yelled, waving her hands to get our attention when she saw us ascending the bleacher stairs.

I waved to let her know that we saw her before making our way to the seats, sliding by the crowd of people at the end of the aisle.

"You guys have to get here earlier next week!" Bella exclaimed as the three of us sat down.

"We had dinner before," I told her to which she sent me a pout.

"Did you guys go out without me?" she asked.

Pete leaned over from beside me to face her. "No, Mase's hot mama made us food."

I glared at him before shoving him forcefully into Ross's side.

"Cut it out with the mom jokes," Bella said, obviously annoyed.

"Oh, I am very much not joking," Pete replied, causing me to turn and face him with another glare.

Pete held his arms up in surrender and gave me an innocent smile while Ross shook his head at him in disbelief.