My skull felt like someone had taken a drill to it. Maybe that splash of booze had turned nuclear when it hit the Xanax I’d popped before the game?
“Tell me about it. I overslept,” I croaked.
“Bullshit. You don’t sleep in. You’re like a machine.”
I shrugged and then winced. Even that small movement made my brain rattle. “Must have been something I drank.”
“Double bullshit. You were nursing water for most of the night, like a fucking pussy.”
I searched for a comeback, but came up with nothing. Maybe I was just burnt out; practice building up to the game had been a relentless grind.
“Turn left here,” Phoenix barked, fiddling with the air-con dials.
“Stop fucking with the settings!” I slapped his hand away—hard.
“Ouch, motherfucker!” Nix recoiled, clutching his fingers to his chest like a wounded puppy. “You’re such a whiny bitch. It’s like a furnace in here. Who’s up your ass?”
“You,” I explained with an incredulous look. Phoenix made a face, and I cut a look at the GPS; we were nowhere near Broadway. “You wanna tell me why I’m turning left and ignoring the directions on the screen?” I added, my hands gripping the wheel so tightly my knuckles were white.
At the thought of what we were about to do, my body felt heavy, almost like my bones had been lined with lead.
“Ease down, numb-nuts. We need to stop at the studio first. To pick Harper up,” Nix finally replied as he started to readjust the headrest of his seat. His face was still shooting daggers due to my lightly tapping his fidgeting fingers. I watched with a grunt of annoyance as he started turning back and forth and playing with the seat levers. “Fuck me, does this seat not go any further back? I can hardly breathe.”
Phoenix had a point; my Bugatti certainly wasn’t built for guys with a frame the size of a mountain.
“What did you say about Harper?” I questioned, having been so distracted by the car rocking that I misheard him.
“We need to pick her up. Keep the fuck up.”
OK. That was unexpected. “A heads-up would have been good. I’m not a fucking taxicab.”
As I turned the corner, my foster sister was waiting outside the gym dressed in her yoga shit with an impatient expression.
“Why didn’t she hitch a ride with Storm?”
“Because I forgot my fucking crystal ball, clearly. How was I to know that Storm had a class with Harper today?”
“Don’t you talk to each other?” I grunted.
“Not about mundane shit like that.”
I pulled up to the sidewalk, and Nix slid out to let Harper into the back.
“Why do you guys look so shifty?” she questioned, tugging on her belt.
Phoenix and I exchanged a look. “Hey, I’m just being me. Your boyfriend is the dodgy one.” Nix flipped me off, and I turned away with a grin. “Looking good, Baby S. How are things?”
Nix slid into his seat and pulled the door closed as she replied. “Good, but, looking at your face, you’re not. I heard you got your ass kicked.”
I surreptitiously raised my hand and attempted to brush some of my hair over my bruising. “It wasn’t like that exactly.”
“Good job that my boyfriend was there to save the day,” she replied, beaming at the soppy fucker from the backseat.
“Indeed,” I replied, shooting Nix a dirty look as I steered the car away from the sidewalk.
“What happened to keeping the fight from the girls?” I tutted.
“Yours and Hudson’s fucked up faces happened. What was I supposed to say? You both fell into someone’s fist?”
