Page 88 of The Golden Boys
“Good idea,” Dane cuts in, seeming to come to his senses.
I grunt when I bring her to her feet with little to no help on her part. This girl isdrunkdrunk.
Dane follows behind her, already arranging her ride from his phone when they leave me and Sterling out on the balcony.
“Our last Homecoming at CPA. You ready to leave all this behind next year?” he asks, sounding sentimental like Mom. I’ll ream him for it later. For now, I just shrug and stare out at the crowd below.
“It’s time to move on, lay claim to a new kingdom,” I tease.
He laughs at that. “I feel you on being ready to move on, but if I’m being honest, it’ll be so much sweeter with one last championship under our belt. You know, assuming South Cypress doesn’t steal it.”
“Fuck Southside.”
There’s silence for a bit, and he sounds suspicious when he speaks again. “Are … we still talking about football?”
I don’t answer. Because I’m not so sure myself.
“Mind giving us a sec, ladies?” he asks, prompting the harem surrounding him to stand and leave.
He leans forward in his chair and I brace myself. It must be serious.
“I overheard something tonight,” he starts. “And take it for what it’s worth, but I thought you’d like to know.”
I’m intrigued, so I drop down into the seat Dane left empty. “What is it?”
Sterling sips his drink first, letting it dangle between his fingers after. “I was out getting some air and Southside walked out to take a call.”
Hearing him explain, I remember seeing her rush for the exit right after Joss and I got crowned. Now, I guess I know why.
“She didn’t notice me, but I heard her conversation,” he explains. “From what I could gather, it was her mom on the line, but … I got the impression her life’s pretty screwed up.”
My jaw tenses. “What’d you hear?”
He sighs and keeps his eyes trained on the pool below. “Sounded like her mom was asking for money. Then, Southside got triggered, started talking about how she can hardly pay bills and provide for her sister as it is. They went back and forth like that for a bit, before Southside finally got fed up and ended the call.”
I don’t say a word, but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel every single thing he just said to me.
“But anyway,” he pipes up again, “just seemed like the kind of thing you should know.”
I see right through him. This isn’t an act of loyalty toward me, to my cause. This is an appeal, a one-man intervention with hopes that I’ll go easier onher.
Of course, he’d want that because he doesn’t know what I know about her. Doesn’t know how our lives are connected to hers.
With that thought, her words creep inside my head again and I hate that I’m not so sure anymore. Hate that she’s made me doubt what I had been so certain of not so long ago. But I can’t unsee that pic in my dad’s phone. It isn’t something I just dreamed up; it’s real and there’s only one explanation for it being there. And while I may not know Southside all that well, I sure as hell know Vin Golden.
Sterling stands and slaps my shoulder before taking the balcony steps by two. Then, he pulls off his shirt and dives headfirst into the pool, leaving me here with my thoughts.
I refuse to feel for that girl. She doesn’t deserve our sympathy, no matter how pathetic her life is. The only thing Sterling has done here is expose Southside’s motivation, the likely reason she attached herself to my father.
It’s simple.
She needs cash, he has tons of it.
My father has a knack for sensing people’s weaknesses and exploiting them. This is no different from every other stunt he’s pulled.
Anger fills me, but I’m shaken by where it’s stemming from. It’s not even aimed toward Southside this time, but my father. For manipulating yet another person just because he can. And, as much as I don’t want to sympathize with Southside … I do.
Because I’ve been in her shoes before. No, not the same situation, but bound to my father because he’s good at what he does—negotiating deals.