was there, and he got on me about ‘abandoning the sport’ again. You know how he is.”
Coach Bentley cocked her eyebrows. “Hmm. What about Coach Steiner?”
Chip glanced at me, his cheeks turning pink.
“He said if there was no, uh, blood, to ice the, uh, affected area.”
Coach shook her head. “Darius, what do you want? Should we call a doctor?”
I shifted in my seat.
“I think I’m okay. Really.”
I did not want to discuss my testicles with Coach Bentley any more than was absolutely necessary.
“You have a ride home?”
I had not considered my return home.
The thought of riding my bicycle caused a little twinge of pain.
“No . . .”
“Why don’t you walk back to my place?” Chip said. “Your parents can pick you up from there?”
“You sure?”
Chip nodded.
“Thanks.”
* * *
Chip and I walked our bikes down The Big Hill. He insisted on carrying my messenger bag for me, so he had his and mine slung over each shoulder, the straps making an X across his chest like some sort of animé hero.
The afternoon light caught the fine hairs on the back of his neck, where his fade had started to grow out, and painted his skin gold.
Cyprian Cusumano was a beautiful guy. It was impossible to ignore that about him, even though I was with Landon.
That’s normal.
Right?
We didn’t talk much on our walk, just trudged down the hill. Sometimes Chip would glance at me and give me one of his grins.
I didn’t know what to make of Cyprian Cusumano.
And my chest felt tight, walking alone with him in a loaded silence, knowing he had seen me naked earlier, when my own boyfriend hadn’t seen me naked.
Why did it make me feel so weird?
And wrong?
And excited?
“It’s this way,” Chip said, turning us onto a side street that led up another, smaller hill. It was shorter than The Big Hill, but way steeper. “We’re at the top, sorry.”
“It’s okay. I bet it sucks riding up this after practice.”
“It’s not so bad after practice. Way worse back when I was on the football team, and Coach Winfield made us do sled pushes.”
“Coach Winfield is the worst.”
“Dude, I know. Trent says he can always tell when Coach Winfield is in a bad mood, because that’s when he makes everyone do squats. Says it brings a sense of order to his universe.”
I didn’t say anything to that.
I really didn’t get how Chip could be friends with a Soulless Minion of Orthodoxy like Trent Bolger, or how he could just bring up Trent in conversation with me when he knew—he knew—how Trent treated me.
Chip cleared his throat. “Hey. Can I ask you something kind of personal?”
“Um. I guess?”
“I kind of saw you in the locker room.”
The back of my neck prickled.
I didn’t know where this conversation was headed, but I had the strong urge to throw myself back down the hill we were climbing.
I glanced sideways at Chip—his face was bright red—and then looked back at my feet.
“Are you . . . uncut?”
“I mean. Yeah?” I swallowed. “But I think intact is a better word.”
“Oh,” he said.
And then he said, “I wish my parents had left me intact.”
My whole body was on fire.
I swallowed again.
Chip stepped around a pothole and brushed shoulders with me.
“Sorry if I made it weird.”
It was super weird.
I would rather have gotten another knee to the balls than discuss my foreskin with Cyprian Cusumano.
“It’s fine,” I squeaked. “It’s not weird. I mean.”
I didn’t know what I meant.
I cleared my throat.
Chip just shrugged and led me up his driveway. He dug through his messenger bag for a moment and must have had a remote for the garage door, because the left one started opening.
“You can leave your bike in here,” he said. “What time . . .”
Before he could finish, the door from the garage to the house burst open, and a small blur darted for Chip.
He laughed and scooped up a little toddler—they couldn’t have been more than two years old—with light brown skin and dark, curly hair.
Chip was white. At least, I thought he was white, with his pale skin and soft brown hair. So I kind of wondered who the kid was.
Not that I could ask that kind of question out loud.
“Hi,” I said as the kid looked over Chip’s shoulder at me. I gave a little wave. “I’m Darius.”
The kid’s eyes got big.
Chip laughed again and angled himself so both he and his passenger could see me.
“Say hi, Evie,” Chip said. His grin was so big it wasn’t even a grin