The Locker Room Read Online Free PDF

sat
    them down on his battered red couch, then offered them each a bottle of
    water and power bars—in Xander"s case, two.
    Xander was too out of it to be proud. He ate both power bars and
    guzzled the water, and then stopped, aware that the only sounds in the
    office were him eating, and Christian"s careful breathing.
    “I"m sorry, Coach,” Christian said after a really awkward moment.
    “I got nothin" but respect for you, yanno? I shouldn"t have yelled at you
    like that.” Christian stood then and offered Xander a hand.
    The Locker Room
    21

    Xander had taken it and was leveraging himself up when Coach
    said, “Karcek, Edwards, sit the hell down.”
    Christian"s eyes locked unhappily with Xander"s, and Xander
    shrugged. He wasn"t sure how much longer they could have kept it up.
    “Why you starving, Karcek?”
    Xander looked at Christian, and Christian shrugged, and then
    picked up the burden.
    “I didn"t get him enough food,” he said, and that pissed Xander off.
    “That"s not fair! You been feeding me for two months!”
    “Yeah, but I didn"t bring you more bread this morning. I"m sorry,
    man. I slept late, and I forgot. I mean, I know you get free lunch, but
    that"s your only meal—”
    “Wait wait wait wait—”
    Xander looked up from his furious argument with Chris, and they
    both subsided.
    “Christian, why the hell you bringing him food?”
    Chris flushed. “He doesn"t have much left after rent, Coach. He
    eats dinner with us a couple nights a week, but, yanno, he can"t work
    more hours because he doesn"t get enough sleep as it is.”
    Coach let out a big long sigh. “You paying rent at your house,
    Karcek? What"re your parents doing?”
    It was Xander"s turn to flush, and he found he couldn"t answer.
    There was a terribly awkward silence over the coach"s office then, and
    Xander found himself counting the number of celebrity “Got Milk?”
    posters on the walls. He"d gotten to eleven, and was trying to figure out
    who the cute (male) tennis player was, when Coach cleared his throat
    and apparently stared down the weak link in their little chain of two.
    “Got anything to add to that whole lot of nothing, Edwards?”
    Xander turned his head back in time to see Christian flush
    helplessly. “Xander"s story, Coach.”
    “Yeah? You been sneaking him food from your parents" table,
    seems like maybe it"s your story too, you think?”
    “That"s the only story you need to know from me, Coach. Can we
    go now? Xander needs to eat before he goes to work.”
    22
    Amy Lane

    Coach"s eyes narrowed, and Chris worked hard to keep his
    expressive, angel"s face straight. “Where you work, Xander?”
    It seemed to be an innocuous question, so Xander and Chris
    exchanged glances and Xander answered. “Walmart. I do truck.”
    Coach pinched the bridge of his nose then. “Aren"t you fifteen?
    Walmart doesn"t take you unless you"re eighteen.”
    Xander made a little helpless sound, and Christian let out a sigh,
    and Coach tried one more time.
    “Okay, boys. Edwards is going to sit down, Xander"s going to eat
    another power bar—”
    “But, Coach, they make my stomach icky!”
    “Xander"s going to eat my sandwich and yogurt leftover from
    lunch, and we"re going to start from the top, and if either of you ever
    wants to play for me again, you had better clear out the smell of bullshit
    in this room with some sweet-smelling truth, you boys hear me?”
    They nodded reluctantly and sat down, and Xander got a salami
    sandwich on sourdough, while Christian did all the talking.
    When he was done, Xander was still cleaning up the strawberry
    yogurt, and the Coach looked like he might be getting an ulcer.
    “Son,” he said after a moment, and Xander stopped scraping the
    yogurt container and looked up.
    “Sir?”
    “Why didn"t you get help? Man, we"ve got foster services, and
    social workers and—”
    Xander thought for a moment he was going to get sick.
    “Yeah, but… but—” Oh God. “But I"ve got two things,