Page 21 of The Locker Room

to sleep. Tucked in Chris"s pocket was an old alarm clock of his sister"s,

because Xander didn"t even have a cell phone or a watch, and Chris had

woken him up on several occasions since he"d moved in, simply by

pounding on the door and hollering for him to get a move on.

Xander was working from nine p.m. to four a.m. at the local

Walmart, unloading the truck, and the two and a half hours of sleep he

got every morning just didn"t seem to be doing it for him. The thing was,

rent cost seven hundred and fifty dollars every month, and he needed to

work nearly full time to keep himself in a safe place. He had about two

hundred dollars a month leftover to help pay for basketball and food, and

Christian did his best to supplement that, because Xander"s wrist bones

reallywerewider than his biceps at this point, and he seemed to exist in

a haze of perpetual hunger.

Maybe they could have done it like that until school ended, maybe

not, but one day, Chris lost his temper and his composure and

inadvertently blew Xander"s secret all over the basketball court.

Coach had been particularly tough that day, and Xander, hungry,

tired, and generally out of it, could barely keep up during the suicide

drills that the team hated to the depth and breadth of their souls.

“C"mon, Karcek, you"re behind! You"re behind the seniors, behind

the juniors, Jesus Christ, kid, you"re behind the fucking sophomores!

The Locker Room

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You think varsity is a given? I know your head"s in the goddamned

clouds, Xander, but you need to get your eyes focused here! Move it,

dammit, move it, move it faster faster faster faster!”

And Xander just about found his rhythm. His head was in the zone,

he was picking up speed, he was moving it faster, moving it stronger,

moving it moving it moving it… until his ankle rolled underneath him,

and he practically exploded across the floor with momentum and speed