Page 6 of Safe (King’s Heart #1)

Landon

“You guys know each other?” Javi asks, dragging his finger between the two of us.

I open my mouth to answer him, but before I can, Grant’s rough voice interjects. “His mom used to come over and suck my uncle off.”

Javi lets out a quiet, “Whoa,” while my brain struggles to catch up to what the fuck he just said.

I stare at him while the anger slowly sets into my blood.

He’s much bigger than he used to be, taller and more built than me, no longer looking like that sickly, weak kid.

And yet, it seems like his personality hasn’t changed at all.

He’s still the same asshole who wants to stir shit up.

And for what? To this day, I don’t know why he wanted to get my mom fired, besides maybe he found it entertaining.

Maybe that’s all he’s trying to do right now. Entertain himself.

I take a calming breath, remembering why I’m here. To get to somewhere better.

“My mom used to clean his uncle’s house. She used to bring me with her whenever he wasn’t?—”

He takes a step closer to me. The distance is right on the edge of being uncomfortable. The clean scent of pine wafts off of him while water continues to run down his chest. I feel myself lean back a little to gain some space.

He stares right into my eyes, the piercing green color vivid against his porcelain skin.

He speaks quieter this time, like it’s only for me, even though Javi is close enough to hear everything we say.

Or, I think he is. I can’t take my eyes off Grant.

“Who did your mom have to blow so that you could come here?”

I clench my jaw, trying to grind all of my anger out with my teeth. His face stays blank as he awaits my answer, periodically flexing his right hand next to his side. It draws my eye, so I glance down to see an amateur-looking barbed wire tattooed across his knuckles.

I swallow and look back at his face. “Listen, man, I’m just here to play football.”

His brow raises the tiniest bit. That surprised him. He turns his head to look at Javi, wanting confirmation.

Javi nods. “Yeah. He’s the new wide receiver.”

Grant turns his attention back to me, dragging his eyes up and down my form before licking his lips. “Catch my fucking passes and stay out of my fucking way.”

A retort sits on the tip of my tongue. But I bite it until the urge to let it leak out of my lips fades away.

Instead, I give him the slightest nod of my head right as the bell sounds to end first period.

He turns away from me without saying another word, whipping his towel off and giving me a glimpse of his muscular ass before I quickly avert my eyes.

“Well that was weird. You better get to second period.”

I look over at Javi. He’s still staring after Grant with a confused look on his face.

I try to keep it light and smile at him anyway. “Thanks for showing me around. I’ll see you at practice.”

“Yeah,” he mutters absently.

I nod and turn back the way I came, hoping that my day gets better, because I can already tell that practice isn’t going to be easy.

Classes go excruciatingly slow. It’s all first day bullshit. Rules of their classroom. How much each assignment is worth. After I’ve been through second and third period, it all starts to sound the same.

No one talks to me, but everyone looks and whispers. I’m not really sure of the dynamic in this school yet. It seems like they don’t get that many new students. Maybe that’s why there’s some fascination with me.

So when lunch comes around, first, I marvel at how amazing their lunch food looks. Even before tasting it I know it’ll be the best thing I’ve ever eaten. Second, I try to look for a quiet corner to sit in by myself.

One entire side of the cafeteria is a wall of glass, leading up to a soaring, high ceiling.

The wooden floors are dotted with round tables, which are mostly filled.

As I scan, I find a familiar face, sitting by himself, away from the more congested areas.

He’s bent over the table, meticulously painting his nails a neon purple.

I walk up to the table and tentatively set my tray down. “Hey. Declan, right? Mind if I sit? We don’t have to talk if you want. I’m just trying to get some peace today.”

He flicks his eyes up at me, then right back down to his nails. “Be my guest, but I feel like I should warn you that the football dicks usually all sit together.”

I snort a quiet laugh and drop down into the seat opposite him. “Somehow I don’t think they care that I’m not sitting with them.”

He pauses his painting to look at me, then quickly caps the nail polish and sits up. “Well, you just became a thousand times more interesting.”

I smile. “Yeah?”

He nods and blows his nails to help them dry, then looks past me. I turn my head too and find Grant and Javi, plus some other guys I haven’t met yet, all glaring at where Declan and I sit.

“Oh my,” he says, shaking his head and putting his eyes back on me. “What the fuck did you do to deserve that? I mean, I know what I did, but what did you do?”

I raise an eyebrow at him as I take a bite of the grilled chicken on my tray. I was right. It’s so fucking good. “What did you do?”

He shakes his head and crosses his arms, making sure to keep his wet nails on top. “I don’t know you well enough for that story yet.”

I nod in understanding. “Okay, that’s fair. To be honest, I don’t know what I did. I knew Grant growing up, but that’s it.”

“Out of all the dicks sitting over there, he might be the biggest one. Well, he and Javi might be in a competition for the title. And I mean big dicks metaphorically. They literally probably have tiny dicks.”

I smirk and mime zipping my lips. “That’s my captain and teammates. I’ve got nothing to say.”

He scoffs. “Wow. They already have you brainwashed even though they don’t like you?”

I shrug and shovel more food in my mouth. “That’s just being a good teammate. Even if they may or may not be dicks.”

We both share a laugh. His is a tinkling sound that rises in the air and dances all the way over to Grant’s table, and if it’s possible, everyone glares a little bit harder.

I turn back to my food while he paints his last few nails, and we finish our lunch period in companionable silence. Pushing my tray away from me, I stare out the window at the blue summer sky until there’s a throat clearing next to me.

I look over and see a guy I don’t know. Blond and tall with a goofy grin on his face. Declan stares at him like he’s annoyed at his presence, so I’m the first to say something. “Hey. How can I help you, man?”

His face starts to turn a little red as small laughs escape his lips. He keeps glancing from us to another table somewhere in the cafeteria. Bringing his hand up to cover his mouth, he takes a calming breath and chokes out words. “C-can I come by your house later?”

I stare at him a moment longer, then cock my head. “What?”

Another chuckle sneaks out, but he rearranges his face. “I was just hoping to see your mom.”

That same fury from before seeps through my skin, making my blood rush in my ears.

I can barely hear anything around the noise.

I flick my eyes over to Grant’s table. He smiles at me around a sucker lodged in his cheek, then pops it out and winks at me.

Even from across the cafeteria, I can see how the sucker colored his lips an obscene red against his skin.

I turn back to the guy in front of me. “Anything else?” I say evenly.

“Um, if I pay extra, will she call me daddy?” Another laugh sputters out of him.

I smile and try to calm myself, taking a few deep breaths, but it doesn’t seem to be helping.

I’m usually pretty cool, but to be honest, no one has really fucked with me or my family before—only Grant. And I certainly didn’t keep my cool then.

The fury just keeps churning. The sound gets louder. And that’s when it breaks out of me.

In a flash that I barely see myself, I stand and fist the back of his head, slamming his face into the table. He bounces off and crumples onto the floor, howling in pain.

I hear a collective “Oooo” from everyone in the cafeteria. Declan abruptly stands and backs up, making his chair fall backward on the floor. Then he looks at me. “Fuck! We’re definitely friends now.”

I pull the asshole back up by his shirt.

He quickly wraps his hands around mine. “Wait! Wait!” he frantically shrieks and blubbers while blood runs out of his nose.

“I’m sorry, dude. I’m sorry. Grant just gave me fifty bucks and told me to say that stuff.

I didn’t know. I’m sure your mom is a nice lady. Ow, fuck! I think you broke my nose!”

“Mr. Moore! Drop him now!”

I follow the direction of the voice and drop the guy back to the floor, where he continues clutching his nose. Turning around, I see an older man in a suit. He’s probably the dean or something. This is not going to be good. “Follow me, Mr. Moore.”

I pick up my backpack and go after him, refusing to look back and see Grant’s self-assured face.

“What the fuck, Landon? You didn’t even make it a full day without getting into shit.”

Simmons’s irritated face looks back at me from the other chair, in what I now know to be Dean Nelson’s office. Apparently Simmons is listed as my emergency contact, so they called him when they couldn’t get ahold of my mom. She’s probably sleeping too hard to hear her phone.

Dean Nelson just stepped out to get the incident report for me to sign, so now Simmons is saying what’s actually on his mind.

“I tried,” I grit through my clenched teeth.

He shakes his head and exhales slowly. “I know. I know. And honestly that kid was an asshole for saying that, but… you can’t let them get to you.”

I had kept my mouth firmly shut about what exactly was said. But when they pulled in some witnesses to get more statements, Declan was more than happy to rat on the guy and Grant.

“So I just have to take all their shit?”

He stares at me a while before wiping his hand down his face and sitting back in the chair.

“You know, I was in a very similar situation when I was younger.

I came from a shitty home. Football opened doors for me, so I used it every chance I could to get away, and just like you, it got me to a much better school than the one I was zoned for.

“And let me tell you something, these kids”—he points behind us, where all the other students are walking to their next class—“whatever they’re doing to you, that’s child’s play.

They don’t have the same stakes you do. They haven’t been through what you have.

And if something goes wrong for them—if they fuck up a little bit—it’s no big deal because they have someone to bail them out. ”

He gets out of the chair and crouches in front of me, grabbing onto my shoulder.

“You don’t have that, Landon. You have everything to lose while they pull some childish and petty shit.

You can’t stoop to their level. You can’t afford it.

It fucking sucks that the world is like this, but it is.

You’re better than them. You need this.”

I nod slowly and think about Gwen and Danny. Mom can’t get them to a new place. Life has beaten her down so much already. I can do it, though. I can hold the weight of the world and shelter them. I have to.

“Okay,” I say.

He nods in agreement and stands up. “I don’t want any more calls.”

“Deal.” I smirk. “I guess we’re both really okay with the cussing now, huh?”

He smiles back at me. “Shut up, you little shit.”

Dean Nelson comes back in then. I sign the incident report, and he tells me I have to go home the rest of the day and miss football practice but that everything is back to normal tomorrow.

It’s a slap on the wrist, really. At my old school, I would’ve been suspended for a week at least. I guess football players really do get off easy here.

I don’t know if anything will happen to Grant or the other kid. Probably not for Grant based on what Javi was telling me.

As I walk out with Simmons, we pass Grant, posted up against a wall of lockers, surrounded by other players.

He stares at me the whole time we walk by, and for the briefest of seconds, I see that same sadness lingering in his eyes from eight years ago, but then it’s gone.

And just like eight years ago, I’m left wondering what this asshole has to be sad about.