“Of course not.” Oliver laughed at Preach. “Who’d go out with this loser?”
“Hey!” Preach said, raising his hands in the air. “I deservechump, butloseris taking it a bit far.”
Aanya snickered.
“Now me…” Oliver pointed at his chest. “I’d treat you right, girl. Take you to the nicest restaurant in town. Not this McDonald’s crap.”
“Oh please. Who’d go out withyou?” Becca tossed a chicken nugget at him.
“You forgot a word,” Oliver said. “Who wouldnotgo out with me?”
I laughed out loud with the rest of them, and a sense of peace came over me. Hanging out with friends. Well…maybe friends. I didn’t know them very well. But it felt like normal high school stuff. Chilling, laughing, eating…and I was still riding the high of nailing some baton hand-offs, or maybe it was from the kiss…
“So, what gives, then?” Oliver asked, nudging me.
“Tell ’em, Preach.” I tossed a french fry at him.
Becca froze in her seat, her eyes wide and fixed on Preach.
He grinned and nodded. “I’m going out for track.”
“Yes!” Oliver high fived him. “Did you finally pull your head out of your ass?”
I burst out laughing, almost spitting my soda. Preach handed me a napkin and grinned.
“What changed your mind?” Aanya asked.
Preach smiled. It lit up his brown eyes like a campfire, and the dimple on his left cheek flared to life. My heart ramped up a couple beats per minute under the scrutiny of his stare. I grabbed my soda to hopefully cover how his gaze affected me.
“This girl did.” He raised his cup to me. “She verbally slapped me across the face a couple times.”
Aanya laughed. “Awesome! I would have loved to see that.”
“Well, and Coach…he verbally decimated me over how I’ve been acting, too.”
“Good, cuz I was kinda freaking, man, I won’t lie,” Oliver said. “It was like you morphed into Evil Preach or something. You know, like that Spider-Man movie where Spidey’s suit turned black, and he was all moody.”
“Dude, Tom Holland is the only Spider-Man I’ll watch!” Aanya threw a fry at Oliver. “He’s the hottest.”
“I know. But I’m not wrong, right? Totally Evil Preach,” Oliver said, his voice taking on a serious, almost solemn tone.
“Guys, come on,” Preach said, shaking his head, but then he grimaced and grabbed the base of his skull.
I’d see him do that a couple times. He must still be struggling with headaches.
How long would he have to deal with those?
Yet another possible long-term consequence of the accident.
“I always knew you’d snap out of it,” Becca said.
His friends really did like him. I could see it on their faces. Admiration. Happiness.
Buzz.
Reaching down, I fished my phone out of the pocket on the side of my leggings.
A text message notification popped up on the screen.