Page 10 of About to Fall

“Enemy? He’s not a fucking comic book villain.”

“Oh, so you're the bad guy?”

“Have you seen Nico? Guy's basically an angel. Face like a cherub.”

He raised a brow. “So you like him?”

“God, no. He's such a kiss ass. Calls his own uncle Coach like we don’t all know he’s a nepo baby. It's so…”

“Respectful?”

“Lame.”

Cam laughed—smoke billowing out of his mouth. “You're threatened by good manners. That's embarrassing for you.”

“I'm not threatened. I'm annoyed. Different thing.”

“Sure.” He took another hit, smirking. “So he's polite and angelic and you can't stop talking about him.”

“You asked about how the other skaters felt.”

“And you brought up his angelic face unprompted.”

“I was making a point.”

“Uh huh.” He stretched his legs out, way too pleased with himself. “Is he really as pretty in real life as he is on TV?”

“I'm not doing this.”

“Does he have a halo too or—”

“I hate you.”

I shoved him and he tipped sideways, laughing as he righted himself.

“You love me.” He grinned, steadying his blunt. “Maybe not as much as you love Nico—”

I shoved him harder and this time he went down, the lounge chair scraping against the terrace tiles. He grabbed my arm on the way down and pulled me with him, and we were both on the ground like idiots, wrestling the way we used to when we were kids.

“Get off me, you're heavy—”

“Say you're sorry—”

“For what? Telling the truth?”

I got him in a headlock. He elbowed me in the ribs, hard. His blunt and my vape had rolled somewhere under the chair and neither of us gave a shit.

“Uncle,” he gasped, tapping my arm. “Uncle. Jesus. You're way stronger than you look.”

“I'm an elite athlete, asshole.”

I let him go and we both collapsed onto our backs, breathing hard, staring up at the darkening sky. The city hummed below us. Somewhere far off, a siren wailed and faded.

“I'm glad you're here,” he said after a minute. Quiet. No joke underneath it.

I swallowed. “Yeah. Me too.”

6. Nico