Part 3 (1/2)
”Boys, I need to see you a minute. Come on into the room.” Cade didn't wait for them to acknowledge him before closing the window and heading back to his desk.
Cade picked up the drug test reports and put them in his desk drawer as the door to his room opened. He looked up and into the face of Faust who clearly looked guilty and ashamed. Bonner, on the other hand, looked c.o.c.kier than ever.
”What did you want, Coach?” Bonner asked as he leaned his large body against the wall by the door.
”I wanted to know if you boys had anything to tell me?” Cade folded his arms behind his head and waited. Faust looked like he was about to confess all.
”Yeah,” Bonner pushed himself off the wall and walked over to Cade's desk. He put his hands on the top of Cade's textbooks and stared right into his eyes. It was hard for Cade not to break eye contact. He was just so shocked at Bonner's appearance. His eyes were bloodshot, his face flushed. Beads of sweat dotted his brow. ”You're not letting me blitz the quarterback enough.”
”Is that it?” Cade slowly put his arms down and stood up and walked around the desk to face the boys.
”What kind of question is that? Of course that's it. If there was more, I would have told you.” Bonner folded his arms across his wide chest and glared at Cade with such anger it rolled off of him and hit Cade in the face.
”Then, I'm sorry to tell you, you both are off the team for testing positive for S2. Go clean out your lockers immediately.” Faust hung his head and nodded once. Before Cade could say anything more Bonner exploded.
”You can't do that! Football is my life. It's my way out of here. I have scholars.h.i.+p offers to some of the best schools in country!” Bonner yelled. The sweat on his brow was now rolling down his cheeks as his face became redder and redder.
”What did you expect, Bonner, you were taking illegal drugs? You knew if you were caught you'd be off the team. Why risk it?”
”You a.s.shole! The drugs were to get me into LSU. I was so close to a scholars.h.i.+p offer and you just ruined it for me!” Bonner took a step toward him and glared pure hatred.
”There is no reason for me to ruin you. You ruined yourself. Now go clean out your locker.” Cade stared him down. The situation was so volatile he knew Bonner might snap. A flicker of color appeared behind Bonner, and Cade glanced quickly to see if it was a threat.
That split second was all Bonner needed. He pulled back his right arm, curled his hand into a fist and planted it right on Cade's cheek.
Annie stepped further into Cade's cla.s.sroom and sighed. Here we go again. Could he not see that he was about to get...punched? Ow. Annie didn't wait to see what happened next. She kicked out her leg and hit Bonner in the back of the knee, sending him falling to the floor. She was afraid Cade might collapse to the floor in dramatics, but when she looked up, she saw that he was staring daggers at her instead.
”You really need to learn self-defense. I can't always be around to save you.” Annie knew she was being a smarta.s.s, but it was fun to see the way his mouth hung open like that.
”You b.i.t.c.h,” Bonner moaned from the ground as he turned towards her. His face was so red Annie gasped. Sweat was pouring off his face. His s.h.i.+rt was damp. She watched in horror as he tried to stand up to grab her arm but fell face down onto the cool, tile floor. She saw a trickle of blood run out of his nose and pool on the floor.
”You, kid... call 9-1-1! He's had a heart attack. Tell them to send the heli.” She didn't wait for the kid to pull out his cell before falling to her knees to help Cade turn Bonner over.
”You sure it's a heart attack?” Cade asked her as he felt for a pulse.
She focused her attention to finding the pulse. It was there but fading. His heart was struggling to work. He had stopped breathing, or it was so shallow she couldn't detect it.
”Yes. It's a side effect of S2. We need to start CPR if he's going to have a chance to live.” She waited for Cade to start the chest compressions before tilting back Bonner's head, pinching his nose closed and breathing into his mouth.
They continued CPR while Lee stood frozen to the spot, cell phone still in hand. Annie could feel that Bonner's skin had turned clammy. This was not good. She felt for his pulse again and felt it flutter. They needed to hold on a little longer. If they could keep him breathing, the doctors may be able to save him.
Annie was too afraid to check to see if he was breathing on his own or not. But the white tint to his skin with the shallow blue lines around his lips told her enough. Sweat rolled down her back as she bent to blow some more air into Bonner's lungs.
”Kid, go out front and meet the EMT's. They should be here any minute.”
Lee finally moved from where he was rooted to the floor but still stood staring at Bonner's unconscious body with a look of shocked disbelief.
”Now, kid!” Annie snapped when he didn't leave right away.
She heard his feet pound down the hall at the same time she heard the first sounds of the helicopter. They couldn't get here fast enough. Cade had been doing chest compressions for almost ten minutes. He had to be exhausted, but he hadn't said a word about it. He had counted and compressed, counted and compressed and had helped her keep Bonner alive.
”Okay, we got the mask ready.” Annie and Cade stepped back as the EMT's bagged Bonner. ”What happened?”
”Heart attack due to an overdose of steroids,” she answered.
”Have you been doing CPR the whole time?”
”Yes. He still had a slight pulse but shallow to no breathing.”
The EMT's lifted Bonner onto the stretcher and hurried from the room while they issued orders into their radios. Lee had been standing by the door as the EMT's had loaded Bonner onto the stretcher and had not moved even though his friend was no longer here.
”You okay, Lee?” Cade asked as he put a hand on the shaken kid's shoulder. Lee just nodded but didn't say anything. ”I'm going to follow Corey to the hospital. I'll call his parents on the way. I don't think Lee here should drive. Can you take him home?”
”No problem. Call if you need anything.” She put her arm around Lee and felt the tiny s.h.i.+vers of shock rippling through him. ”Come on, Lee. Let's get you home.”
Cade lay down on his couch and closed his eyes. He was so emotionally drained that he barely heard SportsCenter on the television. He flung his arm over his eyes and tried to make his mind go blank. However, that was easier said than done. A red head was currently running laps up there, making it impossible to think of anything else.
There was a knocking at the door, and a part of Cade's mind irrationally hoped it was Annie. It was that small part of his mind that propelled him to his feet and sent him racing to the door.
”Don't look so disappointed to see me, brother. It makes me think you were expecting someone else.” Miles Davies snapped his fingers and with a smirk said, ”I know, you're expecting that cute guidance counselor you have a thing for.” Miles may be the oldest of the Davies brothers, but that didn't mean he didn't deserve to have his a.s.s whooped every now and then.
”Don't be such an a.s.s. Where did you hear about Annie?” Cade asked as he headed back to the couch. His brother always did think he was so important. He held himself as if he were the President of the United States.
Where Marshall was always dressed in black, and Cade was usually in some form of athletic gear, Miles was never without a suit and tie. What made it worse was that when pushed, Miles was the most dangerous. He and Miles were doing a s.n.a.t.c.h and grab in the foothills of Afghanistan that turned out to be a trap. He got caught and had transmitted to Miles to get the h.e.l.l out of there. Instead of leaving his brother behind, Miles took out each and every one of them in under twenty seconds. How? Cade would never know. Miles earned a little extra credit for saving his life, but that was only going to afford him so much when it came to teasing him about Annie.
”Where do you think? The biggest gossip of us all Marshall.” Miles laughed as all six feet, two inches of him sauntered in to the living room.
”Jesus. Marshall needs to learn to keep his mouth shut.” Cade fell back onto his mahogany-colored, leather couch and tossed his feet onto the matching coffee table.
”When, in all of your thirty years of life has he ever been able to keep his mouth shut?” Being a rhetorical question, since the answer was clearly never, Cade didn't bother answering. ”So, to hear Marshall tell it, you're ready to get married and have kids. What's the real story? Who is this woman?”
”Marriage, no way! I don't even like her. She's infuriating. She thinks I'm a helpless idiot.” Cade rolled his eyes and picked up the beer he'd been drinking before Miles knocked at the door.
”Sounds promising.” Cade didn't need to look at his brother to know he was trying not to laugh.
”Ha. She has stepped in front of Corey Bonner who was in a full steroid rage...twice! Supposedly it was to protect me. She told me I needed self-defense lessons. Me! Then she helped me save Bonner's life, calm as can be.”
”How is he doing?”
”He's stable. His heart has taken a beating though. He's never going to be healthy again. The walls have thinned after using so much of the drug. His blood pressure was through the roof, but the doctors think he'll be able to live a normal life after he detoxes and his system basically reboots. He'll be on heart meds the rest of his live though.”
”That's tough for a kid. How did Annie keep her calm? Most women would be slightly hysterical coming upon a fight and then a kid collapsing like that.”
”That's just it. She's never hysterical. Instead she thinks I'm the hysterical one? I don't know what the school was like in Miami, but nothing fazes her. It just makes me crazy to prove myself to her, which is crazy in itself because she's so infuriating!” Cade leaned his head back on the couch and cursed himself for not being able to just put Annie out of his mind.
”Come on. Let's go to the Cafe and have dinner. We can talk it out and develop a plan of action,” Miles said, standing up and b.u.t.toning up his sports coat.
”One, you can't develop a plan of action on handling Annie. She doesn't fit into any plans. Two, Summer Ridell is bound to be working tonight and she had a huge crush on you.”