The Black Knight Squash Fiction League Match

The Quill Shots CHAPTER SIX

“Sor-ry” mouthed Nick as Julian and Bethany entered the club. Their eyes registered relief at seeing Sadie, but then widened at the shattered case.

Sadie’s heart was jackhammering as Julian asked Nick “Who are you?”

“Nick Lee. Senior at Galileo High. I- I came to check out Smash Courts ‘cause of how tight Sadie’s play is. We had a mix-up, but completely not her fault. Got no cash but I’ll work off all the damage!” said Nick, his words gushing out like a firehose.

“What happened here?” demanded Julian.

“I’m so sorry!” said Sadie. “I was closing up when Cheeto bolted through the door. Scruffy orange cat was freaked out by something. I screamed and Nick rushed in to help. I thought he was attacking so I tackled him. We landed in the trophy case.” It sounded lame to her but Julian and Bethany seemed to buy her story. Nick threw her a grateful look.

Bethany said “When I couldn’t reach you, my brain went down the worst-case-scenario-path!”

“Sorry, you were worried, Mom, but I can take care of myself!”

“True,” agreed Julian, “though I wonder about your judgment here. What if Nick was a bad guy? You could’ve gotten hurt.”
 
Sadie surreptitiously scanned the room and thankfully found where the bullet landed. It had gone clear through a heart-leaf philodendron and wedged in the planter’s dirt. Before anyone could see it, she plucked off the tell-tale leaf and put it in her pocket.

“Well, thank goodness you’re okay. Call me tomorrow. We need to talk about something,” said Bethany, yawning as she left.

As they picked up the trophies, Sadie was relieved that they looked glue-able. “Just sweep up the glass for tonight,” said Julian. “Tomorrow afternoon, Nick, be ready to work. And don’t stay too late, Sadie.” He paused and gave an odd look back as he went out the door.

When she heard their cars leave, Sadie asked, “H’boro biddie?”

“I freaked when you shot at me and I reverted to Squad mode.”

“What’s with the gun anyway?"

Nick’s face darkened as he looked down. “I had a free period this morning so I went under the pier. It’s the one place I can chill and not be hassled. I was into the rhythm of the water slapping against the wood pilings when I noticed two men arguing. I watched from the shadows as this older country-club-looking dude jabbed his index finger at a headband-wearing runner.  They started shoving each other, there was a pop and Country Club slumped to the sand. Headband then dragged the corpse into the water. I ‘bout crapped my pants when he snapped his head my way, but then thrust the gun in his backpack. In his freak’n rush, he missed his bag completely! The sound of a ferry made Headband throw on his pack and jog off in a hurry. When he was outta sight I punked the gun. Not sure why. . . I’ve never seen anything so fucked-up before.” Nick’s dark chocolate eyes welled up with tears and Sadie put her hand on his arm. He felt surprisingly ripped and had a nice sea-salty smell. Mmm, like her favorite sea salt caramel chocolate bar.

“So, you’re a senior?” asked Sadie.

“Yeah, people always think I’m younger, but I’m 18 next month.” Sadie had thought he looked young, but that was before hearing his sexy deep voice.

“Lee sounds Chinese. You part Asian?”

“Mom’s Chinese and my dad’s black. Lee is his last name. But he’s been outta the picture since I was five.”

“That’s harsh,” Sadie commiserated. “My dad has no idea what I’ve been up to since forever. Especially since he bailed on us three months ago.”

“Lame-ass! Ever since I saw you play, Sadie, . . .squash’s all I think about. I left the Squad for good, but no way can I go to the cops with this shit.”

Sadie grimaced, “I’ve quite the juvie record, but now that I’m 18, it’s serious, so I can’t be tied up in this murder business either. She zipped the gun into a plastic bag and buried it in the dark, crumbly soil of the wooden planter the bullet lodged in. “It’s safe, for now. Let’s sleep on it and see what comes up.”

In the morning, last night’s events seemed unreal to Sadie. She reached into the pocket of the black shorts she’d been wearing and found the still glossy green heart-shaped leaf. Like a cross between Zuzu’s petals and a twisted Valentine, it proved it hadn’t been a dream. She circled the bullet hole with her finger. Damn. That means someone was murdered yesterday. And there’s the gun to deal with. But first, she had morning classes to get through.

The clock ticked in slow motion all day until she could get to Smash Courts. It was a Herculean effort to not look over at the planter. She was counting the cups at the water cooler when the hairs on the back of her neck tingled. She looked up and saw Nick saunter into the lobby. In his maroon muscle tee and satiny shorts he looked older and even hotter. “Julian’s got a crap-ton of work for you, Nike,” she teased. She remembered the Nike of Victory sculpture from Art History class and pictured the triumphal winged female but with her own head on it. While Sadie checked the sign in sheets, her eyes kept going over to where Nick was squeegeeing the glass walls with long languid strokes. She told herself she wanted to make sure that he wasn’t messing up anything. But every time she looked over, he would glance at her right then. It was disconcerting. Whenever he paused, the blue liquid would run off the squeegee and dribble down the glass. At one point glass cleaner dripped on his shirt. Like a jungle cat, he slowly licked his hand and rubbed on the spot. I’d hit the rewind button on that image thought Sadie as her face flushed. She marched over with a microfiber cloth, her dark brown ponytail swinging from side to side, and said, “Let me wipe up after you so it doesn’t look streaky and crappy.”

“Sure, Boss,” Nick said with a devilish smile. They worked like that for several minutes. Whenever her cloth hit extra-frictionless spots, Sadie would slide into Nick’s firm shoulder. She never shied away from shouldering on the court. She liked dominating the T with physicality. But this felt different. The heat off of him made her thoughts fuzzy.

At first she apologized when they bumped, but soon was giving into the slides, exaggerating them and saying “Oops, sorry.” Who’s afraid to hit the spectacular nick now? she joked to herself. Still, she shouldn’t trust him. He could be—was already—a whole lot of trouble. Better suggest to Julian it’s time to change the alarm code.

Julian was working Nick really hard. His mantra is Discipline and Respect, after all. His Mr. Miyagi-like squeegee-on, squeegee-off workout is giving Nick cut shoulder muscles and the glass walls have never looked better. . .  But what Sadie was dying to see was Nick on the court.