I nod, understanding where she’s coming from. “I lost my innocence a very long time ago, Shay,” I remind her. “I don’t think there’s much more for Ben to protect.”
“Trust me,” she says, pulling me into her arms and squeezing tight. “There’s plenty.”
She kisses my cheek, the same way mom used to and as she pulls away, she takes hold of my good hand and drags me into the kitchen. We find Ben bent over, scrambling through the fridge. “What do you guys want? Bacon and eggs on toast, pancakes, or cereal?”
“Bacon and eggs on toast,” Shay and I say in unison, making Ben roll his eyes and grumble something under his breath.
Shay takes me over to the dining table and forces me into my seat before trudging to the fridge and leaning around Ben for the orange juice. “Now, I have all freaking day to waste, so if you intend to have some semblance of a life today, you’ll get your explanation out of the way. I need to know every single detail for when I go down to the police station and make an official complaint.”
“Complaint? What the hell are you talking about?” Ben demands.
“Skylah here, got herself assaulted by a cop last night.”
I groan knowing the way she just described it is going to have Ben losing his shit and the moment he turns and gapes at me with fuming eyes, tells me that I’m right. “Tell me she’s talking shit?”
Shaylee hits him for his language and I decide it’s probably best to get this over and done with. “So, Slade and Damian have a bit of a rivalry with some of the guys on the basketball team from Hunters High.”
“Wasn’t that the team that they played against the other week?” Ben questions.
“Yeah, that’s them.”
“Oh, yeah,” Shay chuckles. “When that unfortunate boy turned blue…”
I laugh to myself, remembering the look on Slade’s face as he realized what I’d done. I raise my hand and decide that if I’m letting everything out, that I might as well tell it all. “Ah, yeah…guilty. That was me. I turned that unfortunate boy blue.”
Shay’s mouth drops as her brows raise to her hairline. “Are you kidding me?” she gasps, horrified by my actions.
“Hey,” I say, more than ready to defend myself. “Slade completely deserved it. He was being an ass and besides, what’s a little blue ink between friends? It’s not like it hurt him.”
Her eyes bug out of her head as she gives me an impressed grin. “That was Slade?” As I nod, she goes on. “Wow, he’s really grown into a strapping young man. He’s very tall and the shoulders on that boy are impressive.”
Damn straight they are. She should see what else he’s got going on.
“Can we stop fawning over the blue boy and get back to how she got assaulted?” Ben demands, looking up at me from the kitchen table where he’s busy cracking eggs over the frypan.
I groan and sink back into my chair. “Fine. So, we were just chilling at the basketball courts. The boys were screwing around on the court while I was drawing and then the douchebags from Hunters High came and started trouble.”
“Language,” Shay reprimands.
I roll my eyes and continue. “Slade and Damian literally did nothing but the other guys were determined to start something. I tried getting between them but one of the other guys called me a slut and suggested he wanted to do something you know…not so good to me. Before I knew it, they were fighting.”
Shay sucks in a gasp. “What? Did you try to stop them?”
I cringe again. “Umm, not so much.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, I kind of joined in for a bit. He said nasty things and I wasn’t going to let him get away with it. I’m done being disrespected.”
For the first time this morning, Ben grins wide and seems to actually approve of something I’ve done, but before he can congratulate me for a job well done, Shay cuts him off. “Can we fast forward to the part where the cops got involved?”
“Oh, yeah,” I laugh to myself. “So, they arrived shortly after and pulled us all apart and because Slade was owning it all and the other guys we’re being little bitches and acting like victims, the cops went for Slade. I tried to stop them and told them that Slade wasn’t to blame but the guy was hellbent on arresting him and grabbed me. He threw me down onto the asphalt and that’s how I cut up my legs, but when I threw my hand down to break my fall, there was a piece of glass and it sliced my hand open.”
“Shit, Sky,” Ben groans. “You should have come home after that.”
“I know, but they arrested him and I had to get him out. It wasn’t fair. Those other assholes should have been arrested, not him.”