Hissy Fit (The Southern Gentleman #1)(26)

***

Raleigh

I looked up, startled to find fifteen sweaty boys standing in my way.

I swallowed, trying not to relay my fears of having all of them standing there, blocking my way out.

“We came to apologize.” Johnson looked apologetic.

All of them did. All of them but a few. But those few were outnumbered by the rest that did.

One face, in particular, Mackie Tombs, stood out. And not in a good way. I had a feeling that if these other boys weren’t there with him, he might very well be doing the opposite of apologizing.

“Um, thank you?” I replied hesitantly.

Johnson’s lips twitched, and he shook his head, causing his shaggy hair to fall haphazardly over his face.

Bolstering my courage by looking at his face, I turned to the other boys, one by one, and looked each of them in the eyes.

“I realize that y’all think it’s a joke.” I paused. “But this bullying stuff is serious business. You don’t know anything about a person that you’re bullying. You have no idea what’s going on at home. You don’t know whether his father just died, or his entire life had changed due to a parent losing a job. Of course, in Morgan’s case, you do know some of what he’s facing…but you also don’t know the struggle that he’s going through. Y’all should be role models, not bullies.”

Feet shuffled, and I smiled then. “I appreciate y’all coming over to apologize. But I think that Morgan could use the apologies more than I could…and I also think it wouldn’t hurt you to spend a little time with your friend. I’m sure that he misses y’all.”

Morgan didn’t have any friends any longer. It was like he’d isolated himself, doing what he could to put up a shield and keep people that wanted to be his friend out.

Murmurs of agreement filled the air, and all of a sudden, I realized that these boys had no idea that Morgan missed them.

“All right, guys.” I smiled softly at them. “Y’all should probably head home and get showered…don’t y’all have a test in sexual education coming up tomorrow?”

Chuckles filled the air, but again, Mackie only glared.

I swallowed and looked away from his gaze.

Moments after issuing the dismissal, they all left, leaving me staring at their retreating backs.

Biting my lip, I started down the walkway leading to the parking lot about fifteen steps behind them, being sure to keep enough distance in between me and them to be sure I felt safe.

I’d learned my triggers, and since one of them was being too close to a group of boys, I kept my distance.

I’d just rounded the final corner to the parking lot when I realized that Mackie was holding back. He was at least eight to ten paces behind the rest of the team, and Johnson was looking over his shoulder every couple of steps to keep an eye on him.

I felt my heart warm, loving that he was protective like his father—and his uncle.

His uncle that I hadn’t seen nor spoken to in well over forty-eight hours.

At first, I’d beaten myself up about it. Told myself that he was having second thoughts about what we’d done. Then I realized that the cell towers were out due to the weather we’d had roll through, and he didn’t know where I lived.

And this morning, all hands had been on deck when it came to helping clean up around the school, meaning I hadn’t seen him there, either.

Hell, I was honestly surprised we were even at school today since we didn’t have power in all of the buildings.

The cafeteria ovens and microwaves were being run off of generators, and luckily it was spring, meaning it wasn’t oppressively hot.

And, if I was a guessing girl, I would say that today had been more productive than other days because there was nothing to inhibit the children from learning. There were no cell phones out, or disturbing influences. I’d taken almost all of my classes outdoors so we could do work in the sun—and I had to say, my kids in every class had given me better work than I’d had from them all school year.

“Yo,” Johnson called, startling me. “Is something wrong, Mackie?”

I looked up to find Mackie way closer to me than to the rest of the group, causing me to slow my pace.

Johnson along with a few other players stopped as well and hung back until Mackie was back in line with them again.

I felt a sense of relief wash over me as Johnson hung back to walk with me.

“Hello, Johnson,” I called softly. “Have you seen your uncle lately?”

He gave me a droll look. “Before or after he kicked our asses during practice?”

I felt my lips twitch.

“Uhhh,” I hesitated. “Was it bad?”

“We ran two miles, then did a thousand burpees. Do you know how long that took us?” He paused, looking at me with a sense of exhaustion about him.

I was scared to ask what a burpee was.

But I did it anyway.

He looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “You don’t know what a burpee is?”

I shook my head.

Then he surprised the ever-loving crap out of me by dropping into a push-up position on the ground, doing a push-up, then snapping up into a squat position before jumping in the air.

“That,” he winced, “is a burpee. You’re lucky I was able to get up from doing it. I burned a thousand and two calories during that workout. That means I can have four hamburgers for dinner and it won’t matter.”