Page 237 of The Locker Room

“Shut up and come here.”

Xander did, pulling up a chair and sitting close to the head of the

bed. Chris grabbed his hand tight, and Xander felt the tension in his arms

as he clasped the hand tight and shuddered the tension out of it.

“I"m sorry,” Chris slurred, and Xander was pretty sure he was

exhausted, just from spending the morning awake.

“No worries.”

“Shut up, asshole. I"m sorry about crashing the car, and drinking

too much, and fucking up basketball for you—”

Xander couldn"t stand it. “You didn"t,” he said, kissing that taut,

bony hand. “You didn"t ruin anything for me. You made it beautiful all

our lives, Chris, how"re you going to ruin it for me?”

The Locker Room 205

“Just let me apologize, dammit!” Chris was really distressed—his

little life-support monitor started beeping faster, and Xander subsided,

kissing his hand again. “I… I was never as strong as you, Xander. I

wasn"t. And now our whole lives—”

“Are ahead of us,” Xander told him, meaning it. “They"re ahead of

us. You get better, I"ll knock out a couple of games, and… God, Chris.

There"s nothing we can"t do, right? Start a foundation? Breed champion

puppies? You name it. You"ve got the brains, I"ve got the muscle…

we"re a team. Just not on the court, right?”

Chris nodded, and tears—of weakness, of exhaustion, of pain,

Xander could only imagine—slid down his cheeks, and Xander leaned

forward and took over, because now he knew he could.

“Listen to me,” he said softly. “You can"t play anymore. You know

it, and I"m not going to lie to you, baby. It"s going to suck. It"s going to

hurt. But you know what? I"ll go out and play for you, okay? I"ll take

you onto the court in every game, and you can sit back, and get better,

and you can know every shot"s for you, alright? My whole life, all I