“Out! Clear it out. This is a closed practice. You girls have to go. Enough.“ Coach Evans shooed them like annoying goats that were eating his flower garden.
“To imagine, you could’ve been hitting that the whole time you were here in this damn school.” Mark slapped my shoulder harder than necessary. “So glad you didn’t, though. Because she was hurting for some dick, and I have just what she needed.” Mark held his two fingers up to his mouth and let his tongue dart between them while grabbing his crotch.
“You’re trash-talking your own girlfriend now?”
Mark didn’t make any sense. He was great on defense, but he sucked at being a good dude, clearly.
“Just making sure you know what you missed out on.” Mark stopped himself from saying more, possibly aided by Greg’s warning hand to the center of his chest.
“Maybe play the fucking game and stop being a ten year old about gossip and drama,” I offered and held up my hands for the ball Greg had passed to Mark. He threw it harder than necessary, but I didn’t let it show. My reflexes were dependably quick. I didn’t even remember processing the ball’s movement before I was holding it.
And that was my golden ticket. I was amazing at this game. Even if I was having a bad day, I was better than every single player on the team. And on my good days? I was like having three guys on the team. I was everywhere, cutting off passing lines, taking shots, making aggressive offenses turn into points. They needed me as they stepped closer to the finals. So when I stopped engaging Mark, the rest of the team kept him quiet. Some of them remembered how Pixie and I were as kids. Each other’s sun and shadow at the same time.
I thought of her out there with Austin, getting a dress together for prom. I was looking forward to it, even if I had to fight every freaking guy in the building for her to have a good time.
Chapter 56
Pixie
AUSTIN HELD AN armful of dresses at the thrift store. I had a jacket/pants combo that he promised would look amazing when he was done with it. At the register there was a bin of fabric scraps, and he snagged an embroidered piece with some matte metal sequins on it.
“This is exactly what we needed. The universe provides, Kitten.” The store clerk put everything in a clear trash bag and Austin wrapped his arms around the bundle. “I feel like I can already see the whole damn thing.”
When we were walking home, Austin bumped into my shoulder. “What’s going on upstairs there? You look deep in thought.”
“Just trying to figure out if Ashlin and her friends will somehow ruin this for me.” I pressed the crosswalk button.
“Gaze’ll be right there. And he’s only got eyes and ears for you. For the past three years, you were pretty much brought up daily. He’s going to be in heaven going to the prom with you.” Austin and I crossed the walk. I could smell the hot pretzels cooking in the cart at the end of the street.
“Really? I kind of pictured him putting me out of his mind while he was having a great time with you guys. He’s told me so many stories.” After splitting up to allow an older couple holding hands to walk between us, we recovered our conversation.
“Oh, every day. He’d loop something we did back to you. Always. He never forgot you. Hell, I felt like I was meeting a celebrity when we were introduced.” We made it to the apartment building. I couldn’t help myself and tossed a glance in the direction of my old apartment. Bic was in the window of my old room. “This way, Kitten. Look forward.” I turned to Austin and his kind eyes were waiting with a tinge of understanding.
After setting my shoulders back, I listened to him and we walked into Gaze’s building. I hated how much the window from Gaze’s room to mine pulled on me. Bic was the monster in the dark for me, and he was there as clear as day. Waiting. Of course, the curtains were closed now, the window shut tight no matter how hot it got. Gaze never complained.
Austin’s empathy moved me, though, as if he could sense where my attention was hogging. “How about we check out this haul in my room for a little while? We guessed at some of these sizes.”
Hanging the dresses on hangers from various things around his room created modified mannequins. “Okay. So I want you to try on each of these.”
I took the white dress with the sparkles and it fit nicely. I came out of the bathroom and whirled for Austin while he bit his index finger. “The way that hangs is perfect. Just what we needed. Okay, take it off.”
I handed the white dress out of the door. Austin took it, but instead of handing me another dress, he said, “Get dressed, Kitten. The other dress is just for parts.”
It made me laugh and I closed the door. I had only heard of cars being used for parts, so I was interested how the rest of our purchases would handle their fate.
When I came out, Austin was already into deconstructing the deep purple dress with the high-low train. He seemed sure about his scissors as he cut away the bodice and skirt.
“Okay, over here I have a pile of safety pins. I want you to take that sequin fabric and make it like an overlay on the front of the white dress. Just put it where you think it might look good.”
Safety pins didn’t seem very permanent, so I did my best arranging the sequins in a V shape over the front of the dress.
Austin came behind me and held the purple train up to my hips. “Little shorter. Needs a finish on the band.”
I didn’t ask what he meant because he seemed like he was in the zone.
“Okay. Now, I have to add all the pieces up and see if we’re crazy or not.” He took the train to the hanging white dress with the overlay. After even more safety pins, he had a shape on the dress. “What do you think?”
It was hard to see what he was seeing. I mean, certainly there was something there. But the way it hung didn’t really look like a dress. “Hard to tell.”
He squinted. “Yeah. I think we need to shape the overlay.”
And then Austin and his scissors were confident friends again. The bits of fabric floated to the floor and the sequins he was slicing through shot around the room like cartoon bullets. I ducked a few times. Then, he had a mouthful of straight pins and wiggled his eyebrows at me.
I sat on his bed after a bit, waiting to see what he needed from me next. When he finally stepped back, he seemed pleased with himself. “We’ve got it. Can I trouble you to put this on again? I may have to help you with the zipper because it’s got a few pins around it. Are you comfortable with that?”
“Oh yeah. That’ll be okay.” I really did feel comfortable with Austin. It made me wonder about the rest of the family. Were they all this unique and outgoing?
After I retreated to the bathroom a second time, I was able to get the dress over my head. I felt a few scraps of metal from the pins, but nothing poked me.
I walked out with the back unzipped. Austin looked at me in a very clinical way before swirling his index finger for me to turn. I grabbed my hair and pulled it over my shoulder to give him a clear path to the zipper.
He tugged it up and adjusted the bodice slightly. “Okay, turn again.”
I tossed my hair over my shoulder and spun on my heel.
He put his hands together and touched his fingertips to his lips. “Oh, Kitten. You look beyond.”