“Gimme another Twizzlers and I won’t.” She belly laughs.
“Fine,” I cave.
“Truth,” he says, and I look up. “It’s wonderful to see you here.”
“Well, I go to school here, and—”
“So does the kid who outweighs you by a good thirty pounds—her brother,” Dad grumbles.
“Yes, I know Justice. He’s a fine young man. You’ve clearly done a wonderful job parenting.”
“Great. Now, what can we do for you?” Dad cracks his knuckles.
Uncle Jase chuckles. “C, hand me that popcorn; show’s about to start.”
“I’ve been attempting to court your daughter for the past few days, and it dawned on me that her resistance could possibly be because she’s more old-fashioned than the rest of the women I’ve been acquainted with.”
“Cyrus.” I hear Mom whisper a soft warning.
“Uncle Jase?”
“Yeah, T?” He chuckles.
“Can I get some popcorn?”
“Sure thing, baby girl.” He laughs as he hands me the popcorn.
Leaning back, I look up at Harrison, who is pursing his lips, then glance at Dad, who is white-knuckling the bench.
Dad looks at Mom. “This punk still standing here, looking at me, Birdie, or am I imagining this shit?”
Mom looks up at Harrison, trying to defuse the situation, and smiles. “Thank you for coming to introduce yourself to us, but we didn’t catch your name.”
He smiles, and honestly, it’s kind of dazzling. “My name is Harrison Reeves the second, Mrs. Steel.” He holds out his hand, and she goes to shake it, when he turns it and starts to lean down to kiss the back of her hand.
When Dad growls, Mom quickly reacts by shaking Harrison’s hand and, unfortunately but fucking hilariously, she ends up shaking it so hard that it hits him in the face.
Uncle Zandor and Uncle Xavier burst out laughing.
Uncle Jase reaches behind Dad, grabs a handful of popcorn, says, “Did not see that twist coming,” and then pops the popcorn into his mouth.
Laughing, I look at Harrison, who pulls a monogrammed handkerchief from his pocket, gives it a quick shake, and then dabs his lips.
“Oh my God,” Mom breathes out. “I am so sorry, Harrison. So very sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Harrison says as he shoves the hanky back into his pocket. “Mistakes happen. And hopefully, first impressions can be forgiven.”
“Since my girl hasn’t said two words to you, I’m guessing she’s not interested.”
“Cyrus.” Mortified, Mom whispers, “This is Harrison Reeves.”
“Yeah, Birdie, I got that. The second.” Dad holds up two fingers, and my uncles laugh.
“Harrison. Reeves,” Mom whispers.
“The kid in the fucking tights?” Dad whispers back, or attempts to anyway.
She looks at me and mouths, “I am so sorry.”
“I do a bit of dancing, Mr. Steel.”
“Saw that. In tights.”
“I wasn’t aware Truth has spoken publicly about her attraction to me, but I’m hoping that means—”
“Lemme clear this up for you. Truth didn’t say a word about you to me.”
Harrison smirks and looks at Mom. “So it’s you she speaks to about matters of the heart.”
Dad hisses, “Listen, Shakespeare, I—”
“Oh my God, Dad.” I try not to laugh, I really do, but it can’t be helped.
Dad swings his head toward me. “T, would you rather I call him Peter Pan?”
Harrison laughs, and I think it’s actually genuine, as Mom palms her face. “I give up.”
Dad swings his head back to Harrison.
“I’m not offended, Mr. Steel.”
“I’m not sure if that makes me happy or pisses me off even more.”
Harrison looks at me. “I see you have your father’s sense of humor and your mother’s beauty.”
He then looks at Dad. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about. You’ve raised a very strong young woman. As a matter of fact, she has already told me that, before even coming to the academy, she found me online, knew of my family and, apparently planned on making me her bitch to get a leg up.”
Dad looks at me, amused. “Did you say that, T?”
I shrug. “Might have.”
“You do know you got two strong legs and don’t need anyone else’s to get you where you wanna go, right?”
I nod.
Dad looks back at Harrison. “How old are you?”
“Eighteen in a few weeks, sir.”
“Ask my permission to ask her out then.”
Harrison tilts his head to the side in question.
“I can’t kick the ass of a minor, deserving or not, and I can’t have him arrested if he so much as cops a feel. So, when you’re legally an adult—”
“I appreciate that, sir, and just wanted to make you aware the age of consent is actually sevent—”
“Dude, I have tried to be quiet”—Jase laughs—“but this shit is painful. Harrison Reeves the second, he wouldn’t give you the thumbs-up if he had two handfuls of thumbs.”
Harrison nods at Jase. “Fair enough.”
Then he looks back at me. “I’d like to take you out to dinner this evening.”
“We already have plans.”
“We do?” Brisa asks, and I give her a dirty look. “Sorry, T, but this is better entertainment than this ball game.”
“We all were invited to Gabrielle’s party. I decided we should go.”
“The boys, too?” Dad asks.
I nod.
He looks up at Harrison. “Gonna say it again, ask me after you turn eighteen. Do it at my house.”
“After midnight?” Harrison jokes.
Dad looks back at me. “You into this kid?”
I roll my eyes.
He looks back at Harrison. “Make it before dark.”
He nods. “See you on my birthday, Mr. Steel.”
“I’ll be waiting.” Dad gives him a scary-ass smile.
Harrison looks back at me. “See you tonight then.”
“Stupid little shit,” Jase mumbles as Harrison walks away.
I hear Xavier and Zandor laugh, and then the group chat notification goes off.
I hit the app and see that one of them has edited a picture of Harrison on stage, in tights, leaping, and me to the left, holding a whip and a leash.
“Shit’s not fucking funny, Z,” Dad snaps.
“Why do you automatically assume that’s my work?” Zandor laughs.
“Oh, gee, I wonder,” Tris huffs.
When the crowd starts applauding, I look toward the field and notice that, two rows down, Nina and a few other girls are sitting next to Gabrielle and Tobias Easton. Gabrielle is looking back at me, whereas Tobias has his elbows propped on the bench behind him, facing the field.
She mouths, “Thank you.”
I force myself not to roll my eyes or flip her off, and nod instead.
When she looks away, I look at my girls. “You accepted just now?”
“Hell yeah, we did.” Tris grins and looks over her shoulder. “Dad, I’m going to a party.”