“I was just holding it!”
Jem’s laugh was more of a bark.
“I was!”Daniel bristled.“You can’t—”
“I can do whatever the fuck I want,” Jem said.When Daniel opened his mouth to protest, Jem said, “I saw you, dumbshit.Have some fucking decency and don’t lie to my fucking face!”
By the end, it was a shout.And then Jem was out of air.He was breathing, he knew he was breathing, but he couldn’t seem to fill his lungs.Black specks snowed at the edge of his vision.He wanted to keep shouting:You could have gotten yourself killed!
When he did speak, his voice was tight, and even to him, the words had a limping quality as he struggled to breathe.“You know how this works.You stay where we can see you.”
“That’s so stupid!”
“That’s the rule.”
“It’s a stupid rule.Are you going to come into the locker room and watch me change?”
No, Jem almost said.I’ll find some eighty-year-old to do it.You’d like that.
But maybe because he’d been spending so much time with Tean, he managed to be an adult and say, “The rule is to keep you safe.”
Daniel had already shifted gears.“It’s not my fault.Coach Broadbent told me to help them carry out some of the mats they weren’t using.”
“Then you text us.”
“I was gone for, like, five minutes.”
“Then you fucking text us!”
So, maybe not so much of an adult.
“You’re such an asshole,” Daniel whispered.But he was starting to cry.
Jem shifted his weight.There was so much more fighting to get out.Don’t you know how dangerous it is?Don’t you know how many bad things can happen?Don’t you understand that it’s when you think you’re safe, that’s when they get you?You stop watching your ass for five seconds, and that’s when shit happens.
“Look,” Jem said.“I’m sorry.I freaked out.”
Daniel shook his head—anger, refusal, hurt.
“Just text us next time, okay?”
“It isn’t fair.”
“No.It isn’t.It’s shitty, and I’m sorry it happened to you, and I wish it were different.It’s not going to be forever.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yeah, I do, actually.Because we’re going to find these guys, and I’m going to kick their asses, and that’s going to be the end of it.”
Daniel rolled his eyes.But it seemed automatic more than anything else.
“You text us next time, okay?Because do you know what it would do to Tean if something happened to you?And that’s not to mention Scipio.”
Daniel nodded.
“And if I catch you with this shit again, bucko—” Jem held up the vape.“—we’ll have a different kind of conversation.Understand?”
“Oh my God, you’re the worst.”
