Page 44 of Game Plan
"Then I'd have to kiss it better," he said.
Oh, crap. Now I was tempted to fall for real.
"I might even let you." I couldn't meet his eyes. I quickly pressed the button for the lights and waited. Apart from that one car, there was little traffic around at the moment, but crossing the road safely was a habit.
"Are you feeling daring?" Hawk asked.
"I don't know, why?" I turned to him, and his eyes gleamed with mischief.
This was gonna be amazing, or traumatizing.
Without another word, he pulled my hand and we ran across the road, which was totally empty of cars. We reached the other side as the little red hand turned green.
"I didn't realise you were such a daredevil," I said with a laugh.
"I'm a risk taker from way back." He grinned. "There's nothing scarier than jaywalking on an empty street."
I shook my head at him. "Jaywalking is the gateway drug to all sorts of things, you know."
"It is? Like what?" He cocked his head at me.
"Trying grapes at the grocery store." I managed to keep a straight face. "Placing banana peels here and there for people to slip on. And the worst of all…" I paused for dramatic effect. "Stepping on cracks on the sidewalk."
He clutched his chest and gasped dramatically. "Why did no one tell me? I'm doomed to a lifetime of crack-stepping."
I nodded, my face still serious. "Once you've started down that path, it's almost impossible to go back. I can see the headlines now."
I put a hand up in front of me and sketched a line in the air.
"Hawk Florence's crack problem. Humpbacks quarterback and his un-a-peeling addiction."
"Florence facing time for stealing from the vine," Hawk added.
I laughed. "You're good at this."
He chuckled. "Yours are better. The serious question here is, what do I do to keep from falling down that crack?"
"Years of intensive therapy, I would think," I said.
"We could all use a bit of that." He seemed to be thinking of something in particular.
"Five cents for your thoughts," I offered. Since inflation, I didn’t think a penny covered the cost of thoughts anymore..
He hesitated, and I didn't think he was going to answer at first.
Finally, he said, "I wanted to explain something. Back in high school, it wasn't just my ego. When I, you know…" His throat bobbed up and down.
"Laughed at me?"
"Yeah. My family was going through some stuff." He sighed through his nose. "Mom was diagnosed with cancer."
"Oh." My heart broke a little for him. In that moment, reflected in the streetlights, he looked like a lost boy. Much as he had back then.
I spoke softly. "I'm so sorry. I had no idea."
"We kept it to ourselves," he said. "I didn't deal with it very well. That's kinda why I did what I did. I felt… powerless."
"Wow," I whispered. "I've been so self absorbed about it ever since. It didn't even occur to me there was a good reason for it." I never considered I wasn't the only person in the universe that might be going through things. Teenage arrogance.
