Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 163209 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 816(@200wpm)___ 653(@250wpm)___ 544(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 163209 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 816(@200wpm)___ 653(@250wpm)___ 544(@300wpm)
“You ever figure out where her eyes are, I’ll tell her,” Derek said. “Hey, Jean, how do you say bro in French?”
Between them Jean cranked his shower off, done with this conversation and their unflagging nonsense. Jeremy half-expected them to try and stop him, but Derek and Derrick let him go with exuberant farewells. As soon as the door closed behind him, Derek turned an arch look on his line partner and said, “Anyway, you better pray I don’t introduce Jean to Cherise. She would choose him over you in a heartbeat.”
Derrick staggered like he’d been hit. “That’s heartless, dude. I thought we were friends or something, brother from another mother?”
“If you’re my brother, you definitely should not be checking out our cousin.”
“No longer brothers,” Derrick was quick to say. “Never even met you before in my life.”
Sebastian frowned over at them. “Does he even like girls? He got scooped up by the floozies so fast. Ouch, what was that for?” he protested when Shawn stepped on his foot. Shawn sent a quick gesture toward Xavier, and Sebastian blanched when he realized his misstep. “Hell, sorry, didn’t mean it like that. Maybe he’s like Cody, then. What’s that kind of queer that likes both chicks and dicks?” He yelped when Shawn got him again. “Jesus, sorry. I just mean that he—never mind, I give up.”
It was a familiar struggle by now; Sebastian had come to them from a conservative upbringing in Birmingham and was prone to taking one step back for every two steps forward. He leaned more toward confusion rather than Lucas’s grudging tolerance, but once he started fumbling, he had a hard time finding his feet again. The clumsiness was a bit painful sometimes, but Jeremy was glad he was trying.
“What are we going to do with you?” Cody said, more amused than offended, but immediately changed tracks as the door opened to let Lucas’s small group in. Jeremy assumed they’d been hanging back until Jean was out of the way. “Heya, Lucas. We’re taking a head count to go see the new Bourne movie this week. Are you in or did you go already?”
Jeremy couldn’t even imagine the effort it’d take to get Jean into a movie theater; just the thought made him smile as he cut his water off. He’d left his towel on a numbered hook near the door, and he gave himself a cursory scrub before winding it around his waist and heading out into the locker rooms. It shouldn’t surprise him that Jean was already fully dressed and waiting on the strikers’ row for him, but he was honestly impressed with how fast Jean could move when he wanted to get out of here. Jean glanced up at his approach but was quick to drop his gaze to the apricot cradled in both hands.
Jeremy took his time drying off and getting dressed, knowing Cat and Laila would be a few minutes more. When he was done, he straddled the bench at Jean’s side and started pulling up news on his phone. He was only distantly aware of strikers coming and going as he tracked the day’s fallout. Someone had caught up to Kevin, it seemed, but Kevin staunchly refused to speculate or elaborate on Jean’s family. The more interesting development was that Edgar Allan had nothing at all to say. It seemed someone had finally been smart enough to put a muzzle on the Ravens.
After Jean refused to talk about his family Saturday morning, Hannah had turned her focus back to Riko’s career and death, and she’d seamlessly pieced together a worthy tribute for the fallen King. Between that touching piece, the revelation that Jean had saved Zane, and Jean’s scandalized defense of his former team, a bit of ill-timed malice from the Ravens might finally turn the tide of public opinion against them. It was perhaps too much to hope they’d apologize for their antagonism this spring, but Jeremy had seen stranger things.
Cat and Laila finally stopped by, but even now they couldn’t leave. Laila didn’t want reporters following them to her house, which meant leaning on the Trojans’ sheer size as a shield. Laila, Cat, and Jean would follow their teammates back to the dorms, and they’d hide out with the floozies until they felt safe enough to sneak home.
Jeremy wished he could go with them, but avoiding his family this weekend had brought about the expected consequences: he was to stay home this week. His parents couldn’t keep him from attending practice, but they knew what time it let out and roughly how long the drive would take. Jeremy didn’t regret choosing Jean and Kevin over their prying oversight, but he was sorry he had to leave his friends to deal with this chaos alone.
“Be safe,” Jeremy said, getting to his feet.