Aly giggled. “Yep! The four amigos.”
Mike snickered. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet.”
I rolled my eyes. “We need a much better nickname than that.”
Rae grinned. “Brick and the gang?”
Mike scoffed. “Why does he get to be the frontrunner?”
Aly smiled brightly. “Because the three of us have to hold him up until he recuperates.”
I paused. “That’s… painfully accurate. Ouch. Thanks for the dose of reality.”
Rae nudged me softly. “Don’t worry. She’s really good for that sometimes.”
Mike nodded toward the school. “You two go inside. We’ll meet you at Rae’s locker.”
And with that, he pulled away from the curb.
I walked into the school, leaning against Rae more than I wanted to. More than I wished I were. She held me against her with a firmness and a strength I’d come to admire. We walked into the school’s back doors and I tried ignoring the looks. The gasps. The whispers and the attention. I hated it, which was something I never thought in a million years I’d hate. A month ago, I’d been strutting my shit. Playing up the bruises and the limping just to get the attention of the girls. And now? All I wanted to do was crawl into a hole and get away from their glances. Their whispers. Their unasked questions.
Rae kissed my chest. “Don’t worry. They’ll get over it.”
I wasn’t as hopeful about that as she sounded.
We finally got to Rae’s locker and I leaned against it. I felt myself huffing for air, which was yet another thing I didn’t like. Walking was still a chore, and I had no fucking clue how the hell I’d lug my books to my classes. I watched as Rae opened her locker. Her eyes scanned it quickly before they fell to her body. She groaned and rolled her eyes, then closed her locker with a bang.
My brow furrowed. “What is it?”
Aly yelled down the hallway. “She left this!”
I looked up, watching Mike and Aly walk down the hallway. And the two of them were clutching Rae’s shoulder backpack thing she always had with her at school. The straps looked as if they were crying out for mercy. The bottom of the bag looked as if it were about to give way. I watched Rae as she scurried for it, allowing it to fall to the floor. She dragged it over to her locker and started sifting through things, pulling out not only her books, but mine as well.
And all I wanted to do was help her.
“Uh-uh-uh, not so fast.”
Rae pressed her hand into my chest. She pushed me upright, abandoning her bag on the floor in front of her locker. She leveled me with a look as her hand slid down my torso. And when her fingertips rumbled over my ribs, my eye twitched.
Aly sighed. “We can help her. You need to rest when you can.”
Mike nodded. “Trust me, the girls have it.”
I bit down onto the inside of my cheek to keep from firing back. I didn’t like this. Not one bit. I didn’t like the sweat forming on Rae’s brow. Or the soft groans falling from Aly’s lips. I didn’t like how hard they were working for me, because I had no idea how I’d repay them for their efforts. I mean, I could hardly bend the fuck over. How the hell was I supposed to repay their generosity to them when I was beat up like this?
I felt all eyes on me as we stood there, waiting for the morning bell to toll. We’d made it to school a little too early for my liking. Usually, I rode up on my bike just as the homeroom bell sounded. I never got here before that damn bell. And if I did, I was usually in the cafeteria, shooting the shit with Roy and the gang.
Speaking of, where the hell were those guys?
I sighed. “Thank you guys.”
Rae gathered both my books and her books in her arms. “You’re welcome. It’s really not an issue.”
Mike shrugged. “I mean, what were you going to do? Walk to school? Ride a bike?”
Aly nudged him. “Michael, be nice.”
I snickered. “He is being nice.”