Remember Me

35

I chewed on Reece's sweatshirt strings. A lot. Oops.

I sit in his car, staring into the parking lot, anxiously chewing, and tapping my finger on my knee.

I finally see him jog towards me and I sigh in relief.

He opens the car door and sits in the driver seat, and I notice he's sweaty, which is a good look for him.

He closes his lips tightly, looking like he's trying to hold something in. I narrow my eyes at him.

A laugh escapes his lips and he turns away from me, covering his mouth.

I clench my teeth and my face heats up. "You are not laughing at me right now."

He takes a deep breath and shakes his head. "Nah. I wasn't."

My eyebrow twitches. "Reece."

He makes eye contact with me, then a loud laugh escapes his throat. "It was a little funny. You tried hitting him with the ball and he caught it."

I open my mouth, but nothing comes out, my face heating up in embarrassment. 

"What are you gonna do about Jake?"

I'm not sure if I'm glad or mad he's back to his normal, hard to read self, but at least he changed the subject.

I shrug. "Is avoiding him an option?"

"Not if you keep coming to the field."

I sigh. I'm obviously still going to go to games and try outs.

And then I think, what if he tries to get with me? What am I supposed to do then?

"Why didn't you sleep last night?" he asks.

I purse my lips. "My aunt in Russia wants custody of me. She's insane and I have no idea why she wants me. Maybe cause she doesn't have her own kids." He clenches his jaw and I look away. "But it's fine. Nothing's gonna happen."

"Damn right."

And it's true, it won't happen. I turn eighteen in May, and then I can finish high school and do whatever I want.

My mind wanders and I finally get to the topic of Parker. Even though they explained it to me, I feel like I'm missing around 75% of the story. It actually makes no sense. Fight? What does that even mean?

"Can you tell me what's up with Parker?" I ask. "Like, I have no idea what's going on. Your brother just came here out of nowhere, you went missing, he has a broken arm and you have to — possibly illegally — fight in a match for him. And — what about your dad? I have so many questions that I've been very patient about and now I'm just confused and would really appreciate if you could tell me."

We pull up to his house and I take a deep breath, facing forward and not taking off my seatbelt.

Reece opens the car door and waves for me to come inside with him. We go into his house, upstairs and into his room. I sit on his bed, and the first thing he does is take off his shirt.

I roll my eyes, but I don't mind. At all.

"My dad doesn't hate us. Neither of us. But Parker started getting into stuff soon after our mom died, and my dad decided it would be better for me to stay with Alfred. Fast forward, Parker got into a street fight about something he bought from them a long time ago and broke his arm. He has to pay the guys that did it to him, or else we'll all be in trouble. That's why I have to go to the Ring for him."

"'The Ring?'" I repeat, confused.

"The place where he fights. It's illegal."

I stare at him like the most idiotic person I've ever met. He stares back, but I don't know what he's thinking.