I give him an apologetic glance. “I’ll explain later.”
“Get back in the car, Jayden.” Mrs. Morales gestures to her daughter. “Look at her hair. Look at what she did.”
I roll my lips between my teeth, choosing my words wisely and not letting the snarky responses come out. “Mrs. Morales, your child is going through something, and I know it may be shocking, but he needs your support.”
Her face turns seven shades of red and her nostrils flare. “You do not get to tell me what my daughter needs. She did this becauseyouencouraged her.Youtold her that this was okay.”
My chin jerks back. “I didn’t tell him to go get a haircut. He came to me with something serious, and I told him to talk to you and your husband about it.”
“It’s true, Mom.” Tears stream down Jayden’s cheeks. “Please, don’t yell at Coach Ainsley.”
“Look at yourself.” Mrs. Morales turns to her daughter. “You look ridiculous. You can’t possibly think this is okay. You can’t turn yourself into a boy. You are a female, Jayden. And you’llalways be a female. You’re too young to know what you’re doing.”
Oh, hell no.
I step forward, but Landon beats me to it. “Stop talking to him like that. You’re upsetting him.”
“Stay out of this,” Mrs. Morales spits.
“I will not stay out of this.” His body goes rigid and his voice rises. “I will not stand by while you berate him when you should be supporting him. Jayden is young, yes, but he knows what he’s feeling and he knows what he wants. This is exactly the reason he didn’t come to you in the first place.”
Oh, damn.
Mrs. Morales clamps her jaw so hard, I wait for the sound of her teeth shattering. She has a giant bulging vein in the middle of her forehead ready to burst. “The superintendent will be hearing about this.”
My stomach drops into my ass, but I feign nonchalance. “Good, make sure you spell my name right. It’s A-I-N-S-L-E-Y. People either forget the I or the E.”
A disgusted noise leaves the back of her throat as she spins around, and grabs hold of Jayden by his wrist. “Let’s go.”
Landon moves toward them, but I press my palm against his chest. “Hey, not now. Let them go.”
“She’s hurting him,” he says, his eyes glued to Jayden until he disappears into his mother’s car.
I snap my gum as I close my eyes. “Fuck. I need to do damage control. I should tell Principal Harrison, and Danbury too.”
Landon plants his hands on his hips. “What exactly did Jayden say to you?”
I blow out a long breath through my lips. “That day he asked to talk to me, and I told you it was about girl stuff? He said he wants to be a boy; that he feels like he’s stuck in the wrong body.He was worried about not being allowed to stay on the girls’ lacrosse team.”
He nods, running a hand through his hair. “And what did you tell him?”
“That it isn’t something he should decide on his own, and that he needs to talk to his parents about it.” I gesture to the parking lot. “Clearly, he didn’t.”
Landon’s brown eyes bounce between mine. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
I grimace. “I didn’t want to betray him by telling his secret. I also didn’t want you to treat him any differently, because he’d notice and then he’d know that I told you.” I pause. “Are you...are you mad at me?”
His chest rises and falls as he pauses. “No, I just feel bad that my own team doesn’t feel like they can talk to me.”
I frown. “Only when it comes to something sensitive like this.”
Of course, he’d take it personal. Landon is the superhero who wants to swoop in and save the day.
I used to hate that about him. The Golden Boy. The do-gooder.
Now, I realize his empathy is his superpower. It’s one of the best things about him. His lion heart.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
