Ballistic (43 page)

“We love you,” they said as a group, hugging me tight. “You feel it right? You know it’s the truth?”

“Yes,” I whisper
ed, clutching them back. “I know and I love you too.”

Venessa was the first to step back
, followed by Macy and last, Jules. “I’m making a rule,” Venessa announced. “Group hugs once every ten years. That’s enough, yeah?”

“No,” I
said, smiling. “Not even close.” Narrowing my eyes at her, I start to creep when she starts backing up.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” she warn
ed, trying not to laugh.

“Or what?” I ask
ed, reaching out. “You’ll kick my ass? Tell Rogan on me? Oh I know! You’ll make Boner hump my leg?”

“He barely does that anymore!”

“Venessa!” Rafe yelled from the backyard. “Get this fucking hard on off my cow!”

“It’s a calf
, you idiot!” she yelled, then faked innocent. “What? He loves Rafe.”

Pouncing on her, I wrap
ped her up tight and held on. “I love you, Venessa,” I whispered. “And I’m going to hug you a lot. Sometimes I might even want to talk about my feelings or---”

“You are so lucky I love you,” she
snorted. “Crazy bitch.”

“Craziest bitch you know,” I
told her, kissing her cheek.

“I know some crazy fuckers too,” she
said, wiping it off. “And that’s saying something, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Tonight I have a match at the Masonic. I’m an asshole and invited the crew in a moment of weakness. I hope they enjoy it when I eat floor because, I totally will. It’s one thing to roller skate, but it’s another to actually be good at it. I’m really not that good at it, for the record. Our match is against the Pistol Whippers too, so yeah, fun times. Looking up from the bench I’d recognize my group anywhere. Three gorgeous chicks and a handful of hot men is nothing to shake a stick at. Venessa screams for me, causing Macy and Jules to follow. Macy hits Rafe seconds later, but knowing him, he opened his mouth. As happy as I am that they came to support me, it is when I see Rachel screaming my name with Kris by her side that my face lit up. Skating over and spitting out my mouth guard, Rachel runs down the steps at warp speed.

Flinging herself over the bar to hug me
, she’s squealing. “Lina, I missed you so much! I’m on the honor roll. I have my own room and I like a boy! I did everything you said---
”
I swear she did it all in one breath, she was so excited.

“Kris!” I yell up to her and when she waves I ask her
, “Pizza after?” When she nods, Rachel screams even louder. “I want to hear all about it after I kick some butt, okay?”

“Go get ‘em!”

When they call us out, I wave at my cheerleaders and get in position. At this moment, I’m so glad that I showed. I needed this outlet; my friends and seeing Rachel more than I thought I did. That’s Tony’s doing though. I also would have been perfectly fine wrapped up in a blanket at home.

“Yo
, happy!” Nicole, aka Betty Boobs, says, hitting the back of my helmet to get my attention.

“Dammit Betty, I was in the zone. What?”

“You don’t hear that bitch talkin’ shit about you?”

“What bitch?” I ask
, turning to face the other team. Hell I haven’t played long enough to even know anyone on their side.

“That one,” she says
, pointing to a tall woman with uneven braids and knobby ass knees.

Skating up to her, of course, I have to crane my neck to see her. “Should I know you? Better yet, should I care?”

Taking off her helmet I see its Jessica. What are the fucking odds? “I told you I’d get you,” she says, cracking her knuckles (which is bad for your joints) and nodding to her team. “Now we’ll all get you.”

Okay
, so the adult thing to do would be to skate away and take it out on the rink and certainly not in front of Rachel, but I never claimed to be an adult. My first shot was to her nose, followed by one to the stomach. Wouldn’t you know it, I was right. She has abs. “Welcome to fist city!” I yell, pushing back down, but the momentum of it knocks me down, too. One of my team mates helps me out and then I am up and ready for more. Seriously, after the shit I’ve seen, a bitch on four wheels doesn’t scare me even a little bit.

“Get her!” she screams
, holding her nose and suddenly it’s a derby smackdown.

Plowing forward, I clothesline the first one to advance on me
, then I see my team mates join the fray. My pig tail gets pulled, sending me to the floor again and when I’m helped up, I look over and say “Thanks” when I see my friends standing there looking ready to do damage. Smiling, I give each of them a fist bump and we form a wall. Just like we did back in high school, it is the four of us against the world.

“You ready?” Venessa
asks.

“Fighting on skates is a bitch,” I tell her
, trying to stay upright, but then Macy stands behind me.

“I got your back,” she says
, making sure I don’t go down again.

“Point her out,” Jules
says, ready to defend me like always.

“She’s mine,” I announce, “
but anyone who tries to pull my damn hair again is fair game.”

Glancing up at the stands, I see the men on their feet cheering
, even Kris and Jessica too, but I focus on Anthony smiling at me. When he gives me a thumbs up, I turn and beat the ever-loving hell out of Jessica. In the interest of fairness, I didn’t even try hard. Just enough to make my point and earn a fist full of hair. My girls hold the rest back while she begs me to stop. Her own team even starts begging when she can’t defend herself anymore, but it isn’t until Anthony was there whispering to me she was done, that I let up.

When the ref comes over to officially throw me out
, the entire place, including my team, erupts in applause. I do my best curtsy and glance back at Jessica. Skating over to her with Anthony at my side, I lean over her.

“Someone needs to get a Vagfax report on you,” I say to her
. “You come at me or him ever again, I’ll put this child size skate up your flat ass for real, feel me? You and your abs can Namaste yourselves.”

Point made,
Anthony and the girls walk me off the rink and over to the group. After high fives and ass slaps, we settle in to watch the rest of the match. My team didn’t win, but honestly we aren’t that good to begin with. We just like to skate and hit people.

An hour later, out in the parking lot once we get back in his car,
Anthony says, “I have a surprise for you, Sherlock.”

“Gimme!” I squeal
, jumping up and down in my seat. He hands me an envelope and when I open it, I scream so loud he covers my mouth with his hands. “For you and the girls,” he tells me.

“You’re not coming?” I ask
, slightly panicking.

“It’s a night out for you and them
. They’re excited to go. I’ll admit his music is catching on, but I have to sit this one out. The first show is tomorrow night and I’ll be waiting for you when you get home.”

“Will you be okay while I’m gone?”

“The guys are coming over for poker.”

“Oh, poker huh? That’s new,” I tell him
, then smile. “Coach?”

“Yeah?”

“I feel a freestyle coming on,” I warn him, then I let him have it. “There they go, packing stadiums as Shady spits his flow. Nuts they go, macadamian they go so ballistic, whoa. He can make them look like Bozos. He's wondering if he should spit this slow. Fuck no! Go for broke, this cup just runneth over, oh no.”

Placing both hands on either side of my face, he leans in
, kissing me hard. “No one loves you more than I do,” he says, “but the truth is, you didn’t miss your calling as rapper.”

Laughing harder than I have in a long time
, I kiss him back and tell him, “No one loves you more than I do either and a girl always needs a backup plan, coach. With the proper training I could go solo, you never know.”

On our way to meet Kris and Rachel for pizza, let the record show
, my man can freestyle
much
better than I can.

Figures.

“Are you going to slobber over my entire back?”

“Mhmm,” I mumble
d, making sure my mouth covers every inch of her inked skin. “This is how people get staph infections, you know.”

“You have no open wounds,” I
said, softly biting her. “My licking you is totally safe.”

“Whatever you say
, Dr.,” she commented wiggling around. “But if you’ve got all this energy you could work your way down and---”

“Lina,” I warn
ed her.

“Huh?” she
asked, looking back at me. “Shut up and let me enjoy this.”

“Sure thing, coach.”

The following night, Jules walked over and she and Lina went to grab the girls from Venessa’s house. Ten minutes later
, Max knocks before entering.

“You sure about this?” he asks
, sitting on our sectional.

“Yes I’m sure
. Rogan and Rafe will be here shortly.”

“It’s going to hurt,” he says
, “but whatever. If you can take two bullets, this should be easy.”

“Let’s go bitches!” Rafe
says, peeking his head in the door. “My partner ain’t as patient as I am.”

Locking up
, we pile into Rogan’s Yukon and drive about three miles when we pull up to the shop. “No shit,” I mumble.

“You got a problem with the location?” Rogan asks
.

“No,” I say opening my door
. “I tracked her here once is all. Small fucking world.”

He introduces me to his artist who
, coincidentally, was Lina’s as well. “I remember you, my man! How’s my girl?”

When all the guys cover their chests with their arms in support, the jealousy I expected to be there
, wasn’t. Okay, it was, but not like it used to be. “She at a concert tonight,” I tell him, shaking his hand. “This is a surprise.”

“She will dig it,” he says showing us in
. “Take a seat.”

The next two and half hours did
, in fact, hurt. The sting was a small price to pay for the masterpiece he created. Looking in the mirror at the piece now covering my side, I thank him, head out and the guys and I even managed to play two hands before the girls came home.

As always
, when the four of them are together it’s loud. Lina oddly enough is usually the most quiet of the group. Crashing through the doors, the three others are all talking at once. Lina though, she came straight to me and crawled into my lap.

“Tony!” Venessa yells
. “I think you need to have her admitted, yeah?”

“Oh stop. It was sweet,” Macy
says, smiling at Lina.

“No lie, I’m still in shock myself,” Jules
says with wide eyes.

“Oh god, what happened?” I ask cautiously
.

“Oh I’ll tell you,” Venessa
says , wrapping herself around Rogan. “That one met Eminem, you know Marshall fucking Mathers? Slim Shady, B-Rabbit, Rap God…”

“You met him?” I ask
, tilting her chin up and cutting Venessa off.

“Yep,” she says
, kissing me.

“Ah
, no!”  Jules says. “She snubbed him, is what she did!”

“She didn’t snub him
, Jules. She just kind of walked away after.” Macy says, still smiling at Lina in wonder.

“
After what?” Rafe asks, looking as confused as I was.

“After he
finished his last track, jumped down from the stage and approached her directly.” Macy confirms.

“
I can see it.” Rogan says, pulling on his beard.

“Weirdest shit I ever saw,” Venessa
says. “He didn’t drop his mic and walk backstage; He literally just said fuck it jumped down and ignored everyone but her, as in hold please there’s someone I gotta meet first.”

“You did that? You walked away? From Eminem? After he
jumped down from the stage to meet you?” I ask, her shocked. “But you love him, Lina,” I remind her.

B
ut she shrugs and says, “I love you more.”

“Everybody out!” I yell and they got credit for leaving quickly. If anyone was offended
, they didn’t show it, but this was our moment. They knew the importance of this as much as I did. “Lina that was a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

“
You
are a once in a lifetime opportunity,” she says, kissing me. Pulling back, I look her eyes and I see love there. “I always knew I’d meet Eminem when the time was right, I guess that was it. Thing is I like Eminem but I love you, coach.”

Taking her by the hands, I tell her, “I have another surprise for you. Take my shirt off, slowly
.” Winking at me, she reaches for me.

“Define slowly,” she says
, careful of my stomach, which hardly hurts much anymore. “Okay, okay,” she chuckles and when it’s half way up, she gasps and her hands flay to her mouth. Taking the shirt off the rest of the way myself, I stand up and turn so I’m facing her.

“Do you like it?”

“Coach,” she whispers. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Does it hurt?”

“You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen and yes, it hurts.”

“May I?” she asks, reaching for me and when she traces her fingers around the swollen edges, my body shivers. “You sure are sneaky with a camera,” she says quietly. “Why this one?”

“Because I knew you loved me when you put your head on my shoulder.”

Speechless, she reaches for the ointment and takes her time applying it and explaining tattoo care to me. It’s not difficult, but I enjoyed listening to her worry about my healing. When I met her she didn’t need me or anyone else. She separated herself on purpose. Now though, she’s opened herself up to love and she struggles with being away from me at all.

Little by little, she’ll find the medium that she’s comfortable with. I will never complain my woman loves me too much.  I get to be the lucky bastard that’s the recipient of her love, and trust me, Lina loves big.