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“Are you a sore loser, Mr. I’m a Big Rugby Star?”
Johnny’s face turned a hilarious shade of red.
“Don’t you like it when a girl beats you?” I continued to tease, using the same smack-talk taunts that drove Joey berserk when we played together. “Can’t you take your beating like a man?”
“You are so lucky you’re a girl right now,” Johnny told me, lips twitching.
“Why?” I snickered. “Do you prefer losing to boys?”
“Give me that fucking controller,” Johnny growled and then pounced on me. “The power’s going to your head.”
“No!” I scream-laughed, twisting onto my side to protect the controller. “I’m not finished… Ahhhh!”
“Give it to me,” Johnny said, laughing as he tried to slip his hand under my arm.
“Never,” I declared through fits of laughter. “It’s mine… Stop, please… Ahhhh, I’m ticklish—”
“Now, Shannon, love, I’m so sorry about that. My work call took longer than expected.” Mrs. Kavanagh announced as she pottered into Johnny’s room without knocking, causing me to spring out of the beanbag and Johnny to groan in despair.
“Go on into the bathroom and change out of those wet clothes,” Mrs. Kavanagh instructed as she placed some towels on the foot of his bed. “I’ll put your uniform in the dryer and it will be ready before you go.”
“No, no,” I hurried to say, wielding the PlayStation controller in front of me like it could somehow ward off her kindness. “I’m fine as I am… Thank you.”
“Nonsense, love,” Mrs. Kavanagh said with a dismissive wave. “You can’t be sitting around in wet clothes. You’ll catch your death.”
“Ma,” Johnny said with a pained sigh. He climbed to his feet and exhaled a frustrated breath. “Leave her alone, will ya?”
“Don’t be so rude, Johnny,” Mrs. Kavanagh warned. “Show the poor girl to the bathroom and bring me down her clothes to dry.”
“I really am fine,” I choked out, eyeing Johnny pleadingly. “I’m drying off.”
I wasn’t. I was damp and cold, but I had been having so much fun that I completely forgot about my drenched uniform. I had quite literally forgotten about my problems, my wet clothes, my parents, my everything, for the past hour.
The moment my brain registered the damp seeping into my bones, I inwardly shivered.
Dammit.
“She just told you she’s fine, Ma,” Johnny groaned, staring at his mother in horror. “Leave it alone. Please.”
Ignoring her son’s protests, she turned to face me, smiling. “A nice hot shower will warm you up, love.”
“W-what?” I croaked out. “I can’t shower in your house.” Again.
Why were people always telling me to shower in this boy’s house?
God!
“Of course, you can,” she replied with the warmest smile I’d ever seen.
“Ma, can you just go?” Johnny bit out. “Now? We were in the middle of something here.”
She gave him a hard stare. “In the middle of what?”
I waved the controller at her. “I beat him at PlayStation.”
“No,” Johnny corrected. “She didn’t beat me at anything…” He paused to glare at me. “You haven’t won yet.” And then he turned back to his mother and added, “She just pushed the bar out.”
“To space,” I mumbled under my breath.
