Page 6 of All the Discord

Both our heads snapped up to take in the three guys my age stomping toward us. They all looked familiar, but I had lived in my own little bubble, so I couldn’t figure out from where. The one in the lead looked like an exact replica of Calvin, just older. He had to stand only a couple inches taller than my five-eight. Dirty blond hair poked out of his beanie, and gray eyes narrowed on me as he got closer. The stranger was athletic by the way he moved, with a fluidity of someone used to running, and the soccer uniform supported my thoughts. He had to be taking part in one of the scrimmages today. His uniform was the Coronac Falls one, in orange and blue. He had probably played soccer all summer as a club sport.

His eyes kept flickering between the two of us, suspicion clouding his gaze. I put distance between Calvin and me, not wanting to get involved in anything confrontational.

“Relax, Paxon,” another boy spoke up. He was a tall, Black man, maybe around six feet and slightly older. The boy-ish teen look was slowly melting away and giving me a peek into the kind of man he was becoming. His eyes were a revolving honey brown, the golden hues reflecting the little bit of sunlight peeking from the clouds. His black hair was buzzed, shorter on the sides than on top. As they came closer to tower over us, my body stiffened as I took in his tall, broad frame. He wasn’t bulky, but he was still big. A dark dusting of stubble covered his jaw, and my fingers twitched to feel the coarse hairs.

Another guy stepped up, and I had to lean back to take in the scene of all three of them standing together. This third one reminded me of those actors that tended to play the sweet boy next door roles. Black hair, dark brown eyes framed by black-framed glasses. He was taller than the second guy, but only barely. His baby cheeks were noticeable, but give him another year and they’d be gone and he’d be even more attractive. He dressed the nicest of the three but didn’t stand out among his friends.

The three of them were breathtaking standing together. All three were handsome in their own way and there weren’t any signs of the normal cocky attitude that teenage boys usually got when they knew they were hot. They also didn’t feel so cliquish. Each member of the group had their own style, and I could tell right off, their own personalities too. If I saw them individually, I’d probably have never guessed that they were friends.

I stood up slowly while they watched. By the time I straightened up, I had four escape routes in mind. Escape routes were always good to have for when shit started falling all over. And they seemed upset.

Calvin scrambled to his feet with a relieved smile. He stepped toward me and motioned to the guy who had spoken first. “That’s my brother, Paxon.” Then he waved his hands to the other two. “And Seth and Bryan are his friends.”

I nodded and mumbled, “Cadence.”

“Where the hell have you been?” Paxon asked again as his eyes kept flittering toward me. “We’ve been searching for you everywhere. The game is about to start too.”

Calvin’s expression fell and something hard in my chest stirred. I straightened my spine and glared at his brother, fisting the trash from the crepes in my hand. The thought of throwing it at him may have crossed my mind too.

“Well,” I drawled out, ignoring the shaking in my body. All I wanted to do was run away, but I couldn’t let Paxon yell at his brother like that. Little Calvin didn’t deserve that. “Maybe if you kept a better eye on him, you wouldn’t have lost him.”

Everyone’s attention turned to me, and I had to work to keep my back and shoulders straight, ignoring the tingling up my spine. It felt like I was going to war and would most likely get a big smackdown. I was used to it.

“Lost him? We didn’t lose him,” Paxon spluttered, his eyes darkening with anger.

I licked my lips. “He’s your responsibility. I doubt he wandered off. You probably had to backtrack to find him. He didn’t lose himself, you did. He knew right where he was. Was smart, too, and sat here to wait for you guys to pull your heads out of your asses and come back to find him.”

I barely hid the wince when I realized I’d just swore in front of a child. I glanced at Calvin, but he didn’t seem to care, instead settling with an expression of shock and awe. His mouth had popped open and his eyes were huge as they stared at me like I held all the answers to the world. The look creeped me out. I barely knew the answers to my own life, let alone the world.

One of the boys—Seth I think—snickered, and Paxon’s face darkened even more. He stepped toward me, and I jumped away, keeping out of reach, knowing I probably looked like a coward. He paused and blinked a few times before blowing out a breath.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” His anger had slipped away and now he just sounded tired.

“Really?” I glanced at Calvin, remembering how lost he had seemed. Drawing in a breath, I knew I couldn’t back down, even if all of me told me to just walk away. Calvin was safe now. “Let me guess. You guys were too self-absorbed, goofing off with each other, not even noticing that you’re taller than your brother and tend to walk at a faster pace than his little legs can keep up with. Before you knew it, you lost him in the crowd because no one was paying attention to him.”

Paxon’s face flushed with embarrassment and I realized I was right. The other two boys looked away as if they would rather be somewhere else than to admit they made such a simple mistake like forgetting that for every step they took, Calvin would have to take two to keep up.

The older brother reached up and ignored my flinch as he removed his dark gray beanie and ran his hands through his hair. I followed the movement, making note of the way the corded muscles of his forearms flexed. Forcing myself to look away, I settled on his face, staring and waiting for his response.

He was staring at me too, as if seeing me for the first time. My brows furrowed in confusion. Why was he looking at me like that? Like I did something interesting.

The older boy, Seth, nudged Paxon and stepped forward. “I apologize for Paxon. He’s a mama bear when it comes to Cal.”

“Dude,” Paxon mumbled, his cheeks flushing a little.

Seth ignored him and smiled kindly at me. When was the last time someone smiled like that and aimed it my way? My own cheeks turned hot at the simple act, and I tried to ignore the way it made my stomach feel funny.

“We want to thank you for keeping him company. Would you like to come watch Paxon make a fool of himself on the soccer field too?”

“Dude!” Paxon repeated himself, this time louder, glaring at his friend.

Seth just shrugged. “She did us a favor, keeping watch over Calvin until we could find him. Who knows what could have happened if she wasn’t around. We can at least show her our thanks.”

I shook my head, picked up my guitar case, and took a step back as I hiked my purse up on my shoulder to keep it from slipping. “That’s okay. I have something to do anyway. Just keep a better eye on him.” I turned to Calvin and gave him a small, awkward smile. “Bye.”

He beamed at me. “Bye.”

I nodded and, without looking at the other boys, turned and fled.

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