“Nah. Just some shit from school.”
“Shit from school!” Tycho snarled. “Is that what you call it when you fuck my girl!?”
A slow smile spread across Jayden’s face. “Is she really your girl if she begged to suck my dick?”
“Motherfucker!”
Jayden’s gaze narrowed. “You get one of those, asshole,” he said to Tycho, voice deadly serious. “I’ll let it pass since, yeah, I fucked your girl. But unless you wanna get jumped tomorrow, I’d fucking let this go, bruh.”
Chuck and Marisol exchanged glances as though silently communicating about how long to let the conversation play out. Since the teens seemed to be calming down, they didn’t intervene.
“Fine!” Tycho sneered, a flash of fear crossing his features.
“Alright, both of you yahoos need to get out of my gym,” Chuck said.
I didn’t realize Cori had slipped away until she reappeared at my side carrying an ice pack, holding it out to Marisol.
“Chuck is right,” Marisol said levelly, putting the cold gel against her cheek. “And you’re both suspended until next week. Come back on Monday. With much better attitudes.”
“Yes, Miss Mari,” Tycho said. He sidestepped around Jayden to grab his backpack from against the wall, mumbling, “Sorry again,” to my sister as he passed us.
Jayden sat down, wiping his wrist against his bleeding mouth until Chuck came up to him with another ice pack. “Take this and get out of here, Muhammad Ali. See you Monday. And just come for basketball, okay, not MMA.”
Jayden chuckled, accepting Chuck’s hand to lift himself off the floor. “I’ll try, man. But you know how it is.”
Chuck neither agreed nor disagreed. He blew his whistle and did his best to wrangle the other kids back into some semblance of a game, reminding them to keep their noses down unless they also wanted to get suspended and miss the dance.
On his way out, Jayden paused by Marisol and said, “I didn’t know Shayna was his girlfriend. She never said. I wouldn’t have gotten with her if I’d known ’cuz that’s fucked up.”
Marisol nodded. “Just leave him alone now, alright? It’s over.”
“Dang,” I said, once Jayden was outside. “That was exciting.”
Cori watched until he reached the sidewalk. “He really is a good kid. Deep down. I wish we could figure out a way to channel all that energy into something positive.”
“We’ll keep trying,” Marisol said.
“What’s his deal, anyway?” I asked. “I don’t want to judge or anything, but he doesn’t seem like a kid who’d come to the Center. Especially not at his age.”
“He comes because his mom wants him to,” Marisol explained. “His brother, Greg, got locked up a few years ago, and now their mom is terrified Jayden will end up the same way. He comes here to make her happy, but you can see it in his eyes. He wants something more. Greg was a petty dealer, maybe worse. Before he went away, he had money and a sweet car. I know that’s in Jayden’s head.”
“Too bad the going to prison part isn’t in his head,” I quipped.
“From your lips, brother,” Marisol said. “Greg’s old crew wouldn’t mind adding Jayden in, if you know what I mean. But he doesn’t want to break his mother’s heart. Maybe coming here helps. I hope.”
“It helps,” Cori said, slinging an arm around Marisol’s shoulders. “Every day he’s here and not out there helps.”
Optimistic words. But I saw the look in Jayden’s eyes after he threw that punch. I’d seen it before. In the mirror. Reminding me it only took one bad decision to ruin everything.
Chapter twenty-four
Cori
By the time eight o’clock rolled around and the DJ was pumping Tyler the Creator, most of the kids had stopped talking about the fight between Tycho and Jayden.
Deck had rigged the disco ball so that the gym took on a starlit quality, a real accomplishment considering how old and dingy the walls were. He’d stayed for the dance, telling me he wanted to see his hard work in action.
“Nothing better to do on a Friday night?” I teased.
