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I stand up straighter, making sure he sees just how much bigger I am than him. “No. I was going, like, twomiles an hour. But you can back the fuck up before I have to hurt you.”
I’m still pissed off about what she did last night, and I have no problem at all taking it out on Thomas. Her, I can’t hit, him, I can.
“You’re such a fucking coward.” He gets so close to my face that I can feel his breath on my chin. “Just like your old man. But I get it. You let your big, fancyfakework truck do something for a change. How did it feel, actually using it for what it’s made for rather than driving it around like the poser you are?”
My blood starts to boil with how much he is in my space, but I don’t let him see it. “Don’t be jealous that my truck is better than your filthy piece of shit.”
“At least my piece of shit is dirty for a good reason. I use it for an honest day’s work. Work that feeds this entire community and everyone else around us.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “Are we done here, or did you have a real reason for coming over here?”
He shakes his head and backs up. “Yeah, that’s about right for all you TimeLand crew. Whenever you want to know what it’s like to be real men, doing actual manly work, you just let me know. Until then, have fun pretending to do so on the football field.”
“What the fuck did you say?” I step toward him.
“I said, you all have no clue what being a real man is. You drive around in your fancy cars, run into each other with big, bulky pads to protect you”—he shrugs his shoulders, like he’s pretending to be scared—“then run off and hide indoors in your tech world. Just like my dad said about your dad. He was a computer nerd back then and is raising you to be a pansy ass now.”
That’s it. I might not agree with my dad all the time, but there’s no fucking way I’ll let anyone talk shit about me in any way.
I rush toward him and swing my fist to smack him square in the jaw. He falls to the ground, and instead of letting me take another swing at him, Eli jumps in and yanks me off him.
Thomas gets up, ready to fight, but Eli just towers over him with a glare. I’m a big dude, but next to Eli even I look small.
“Don’t even think about it,” Eli bites out.
Thomas opens his arms out wide. “You might have gotten me this time, but watch your back, techie. This shit ain’t over.”
I don’t pay him any more attention as I turn around and shake out my hand, hoping I didn’t break it.
“Ooh!” Marcus sings as he dances around like he’s getting ready for a fight. “You smacked the shit out of him.”
I open and close my hand a few times, seeing the pain it causes me isn’t too bad so it can’t be broken.
“You think it’s going to be just fine now, Maya?” I ask over the top of Ben’s truck.
She shakes her head. “Well, maybe you shouldn’t have hit the guy.”
“He deserved it,” I grunt out.
“Yeah, but it doesn’t mean you should have done it.” She laughs,as she slides in Ben’s truck.
Ben walks toward me with his hand out to slap mine in the same goodbye greeting we’ve done for years. “You good, bro?”
I slap his hand. “Yeah, I’m good.”
Marcus and Eli nod their heads in goodbye, and we each get in our vehicles with the little bit of adrenaline still rushing through us.
Natalie
“Where have you been?” I hold my arms out in question when I finally see my brother arrive at his truck that’s parked near the FFA back lot.
“I had to handle some business.” He hops in the truck and unlocks my side.
Without a word, he starts the engine, puts the truck in reverse, and places his hand on the back of my seat to look behind me.
“What happened to you?” I ask when I see his jaw is red and swollen.
“Nothing.”
