Chapter 6 Cash
SIX
CASH
SIXTEEN YEARS OLD
“Go long,” Cash shouted, cocking the football back before he sent it sailing for his brother, Matthew, who was thirty yards farther down the road from him.
Matthew turned around. Surprise filled his expression as he tipped his head toward the blue sky and saw the trajectory of the ball, which sent him running backward a few yards.
He caught it with an oomph.
“Holy shit, bro, that was nearly half a football field. My baby brother has quarterback written all over him. Just like his big brother.”
“Doubtful,” Cash mumbled, doing his best to tone down the grin that wanted to pull to his face at his older brother’s belief.
His dad told him pride would take him down faster than any two-hundred-pound defensive end, so he knew better than letting a good throw go to his head. Because every throw could always be a little bit better, and he worked on that every chance he got.
He’d be a sophomore this coming school year, though he’d been brought up to the varsity team halfway though his freshman season. There’d been some rumblings by the coaches that he had potential to play in college, which to him only meant he had a ton of hard work out ahead of him.
He wasn’t about to get cocky doing it.
His brother on the other hand…
Matthew ran out ahead of him, throwing the ball long and hard. Hard enough that Cash had to turn on his heel and go sprinting across the street.
He jumped, just barely snatching it out of the air before he tumbled onto the ground, taking two somersaults along the pavement of the pitted road.
“What the hell, man?” Cash complained as he climbed back to his feet.
Matthew howled with laughter. “Have to keep you on your toes. Wouldn’t want you thinking you can show up your brother.”
Like that was going to happen.
Cash would never admit it aloud, but he pretty much idolized Matthew. His brother would be a senior this coming year and was the star quarterback. Cash could only hope to keep up with him. To be as good as him.
“You didn’t have to take me out doing it,” he grunted as he punted the ball in Matthew’s direction.
Matthew reached out and caught it easily. “Just making you tough because in this world that’s what you gotta be.”
Matthew grinned, the afternoon sunlight pelting down from above, the air stagnant and hot with humidity.
“Going to be the strongest man alive if you have anything to say about it,” Cash grumbled, though he wasn’t really mad. It was just Matthew’s way. Pushing him hard and making sure he was prepared. Cash only admired him for it.
Cash jogged to catch up to him.
Matthew glanced at him, and his hazel eyes that were the same color as Cash’s shifted into excitement. “You want to come out with me tonight? Rager at the old Crager farm.”
Surprise jetted out of Cash. “You want me to go to a party with you?”
Matthew grinned and slung an arm around his shoulder. “Hell, yeah. My brother’s going to be a star, and it’s my duty as big brother to make sure that happens. Want to introduce you to everyone.”
“That’d be cool, I guess.”
Okay, it fuckin’ rocked, but he figured he shouldn’t go and do some kind of celebration in front of his brother.
They continued walking down the road toward their house.
It was in a modest neighborhood in a small town in West Virginia.
The houses weren’t big. A few were two stories, but most were single.
Each surrounded by trees and fronted by green lawns, some overgrown but, for the most part, people took care of them.
Worked hard to keep their families housed and fed and clothed.
The way their mom and dad did every day.
It was the type of neighborhood where kids were always out and about, playing ball or hide and seek or basically running amok.
Which was why Cash didn’t take much notice of the glint of a bicycle coming down the hill from the opposite direction.
That was until he heard a scream, and he looked up just in time to see a girl flying over the handlebars.
Fully pitched through the air.
Arms and legs pinwheeling.
Metal clanged and crashed as the bike tumbled against the pavement, but it was the hard thud and pained cry that came out of the girl that had Cash’s mouth dropping open in shock.
“Oh shit.” He blinked through the surprise before he realized she could be really hurt and went running in her direction.
Matthew howled from behind. “Holy balls, did you see that? That was epic.”
Cash didn’t slow until he was standing in front of the girl who was rolled up in a ball, moaning and rocking back and forth.
Frantic, he knelt. “Are you okay?”
She only tucked tighter into that ball, now fully on her side as she struggled for the breath he was pretty sure she got knocked out of her.
Worry twisted his stomach. “Hey, it’s okay. Tell me if you’re hurt.”
She only whimpered, and when he tried to pry her apart, she flinched.
“I’m here to help you,” he murmured.
“Go away, I’m fine.” It was a mumble buried in that tight ball she was still contorted into.
“I’m not sure your definition of fine, but you don’t look fine to me.”
He could almost see her pout, then something was pressing full at his chest when she finally peeked out at him.
He was impaled by these cornflower eyes. So blue they were nearly purple.
Striking and different and making him stall out.
He didn’t know what it was. But there was something so timid in them that they hit him like a plea.
Matthew whistled from behind. “Dude, she’s wrecked.”
Cash ignored him. “Can you sit up?”
Reluctantly, she did, though she kept tucked tight.
Warm brown hair kissed in wisps of cinnamon was tangled and hanging over her face.
Warily, he reached out and brushed it back.
Those cornflower eyes dipped, and she chewed at the inside of her cheek. Her cheek that had a big scratch running across it. He forced himself to take stock, noting her ripped shirt and skinned knees.
“You’re banged up pretty bad. Do you think you can stand?”
“I…I’m not sure.” Her voice was timorous. Her head drooped like she couldn’t even look at him.
“I’m Cash.” He kept his voice gentle, trying to get her to relax.
She peeked up through the locks of her hair.
“I’m Daisy,” she whispered.
Daisy.
He’d heard of her. She was one of the two foster girls who just moved in with Ms. Lopez at the end of the street. Supposedly she and her older sister.
There’d been a slew of gossip surrounding their arrival. From them being caught stowed away on a ship to the one that they’d murdered their parents, but Cash wasn’t one for rumors.
Only thing that mattered to him right then was the fact she looked so horrified and embarrassed and like she was gonna cry that his stomach hurt.
“Come on, let me help you up.”
He stretched out his hand. She looked at it like she was afraid it was going to bite her, before she reluctantly took it.
She trembled as he started to help her up, then she yelped when she put pressure on her right foot.
His attention darted to where her ankle was already swollen to twice the size it should be.
Crap.
“That shit’s bro-ken,” Matthew drew out, doing nothing to hide the laughter in his voice.
Cash sent him a scathing look.
Would you shut the fuck up? She’s freaked out enough.
“Come on, I’ve got you.” Cash swept her up, cradling her in his arms like she was a baby when she was probably only a year or two younger than him. She didn’t weigh much though, this frail little thing who turned bright red when she realized he was holding her.
“I can walk,” she breathed into his chest, though she clung to his neck.
“Don’t think you can.” He started in the direction of Ms. Lopez’s house.
“You’re seriously going to carry her?” Aghast, Matthew shouted it at his back.
“Yeah,” he returned.
Of course, he was.
Matthew laughed. “My baby brother with his bleeding heart.”
What was he supposed to do? Just leave her there?
He scowled at Matthew since he couldn’t shoot him a middle finger before he continued to trudge up the street, leaving his brother laughing behind him.
“I’m sorry.” Daisy mumbled it into his shirt.
He barely shook his head. “What are you sorry for?”
“I’m really clumsy,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to.”
“Nah, it’s not your fault. That hill is way steeper than it looks. Bet you picked up speed before you even knew it, and there’s a big pothole at the bottom. No way could you dodge it when you were going that fast.”
He could feel the heat of her embarrassment followed by a bout of worry at the end. “Do you think I ruined the bike?”
“It’s probably as beat up as you, but I’ll take a look at it. I’ve wrecked a bike or two that I had to repair.”
He lumbered up the hill, his breaths coming shorter and shorter with the exertion. Good thing he’d been training all summer on the field.
“How do you know where to take me?” she asked in that timid voice.
“Heard I had a new neighbor by the name of Daisy.” He kept it light. “I live right there.”
He angled his head toward their house on the right side of the road, a two-story tucked far back on the property in a thicket of oaks.
“Oh,” she stammered, barely lifting her head to peek at it.
He continued to carry her to the top of the hill and to the front door of Ms. Lopez’s house. “Going to set you down, but don’t put any pressure on your foot. Just hang onto me.”
She nodded, and he settled her on the ground, the girl hanging onto him for dear life as he pounded the back of his fist on the door.
There was thudding from the other side and, a moment later, the door swung open wide.
“Oh, goodness,” Ms. Lopez gasped when she saw Daisy.
Daisy ducked her head.
“She wrecked her bike,” Cash explained for her since she didn’t seem to want to talk much.
“Oh no, sweet girl. Are you hurt?”
Daisy only dipped her head further.
“Think she might have hurt her ankle,” Cash supplied.
Ms. Lopez looked at him with a soft smile. “Thank you for getting her back here. I told her to head to the park to see if she could meet with any of the other kids she’ll be going to school with. It looks like she found her first friend.”
The next day, with the sun blazing down from above, Cash knocked at Ms. Lopez’s door. He’d spent most of the day in his father’s garage hammering out the bend in the frame and replacing the bike’s tire.
He could hear rustling on the other side, though it felt like an eon passed without anyone answering. He raised his fist to knock again when it finally cracked open.
One giant blue eye peered out.
“Hey, Daisy,” he said, casually, while her face turned crimson red. The freckles he hadn’t noticed yesterday were vibrant where they were smattered over her nose and cheeks.
“Hi,” she whispered.
“Fixed your bike.” He lifted it by the handlebars, letting it plop back down with a little bounce. “Good as new.”
“You didn’t have to do that.”
“Sure I did.” He grinned.
She turned redder and dipped her head.
“How’s your ankle?” he asked.
She peeked up at him. “Sprained but not broken.”
“That’s good news.”
She hiked a shoulder. “Yeah. It’s not like I was going to be trying out for the track team, anyway.”
Light laughter left him. “And why not?”
She chewed at the inside of her cheek with the faintest grin pulling at her lips. “Clumsy, remember?”
“Like I said, I might disagree.”
“Apparently, you don’t know me.”
He cocked his head. “And here I thought I was your first friend?”
She let go of a disbelieving, “Pfft.” Then she mumbled, “I don’t have any of those.”
Something fluttered in his chest.
She was cute in this super shy way, and looking at her right then, he realized she was probably older than he thought.
Likely the same age as him.
He let his attention wander over her. Maybe it was rude, but he had the sudden urge to know everything about her. His focus stopped when he noticed she was holding something in her hand.
A half-eaten Red Vine.
“Are you gonna share, or what?”
A moment’s confusion dented between her bright blue eyes, then she jolted when she realized what he was staring at.
“Oh, really? You like Red Vines? I mean, they’re kinda my favorite, and I could eat the whole package, but I really don’t mind sharing.
You know, since you fixed my bike and everything. ”
His grin only grew as she fumbled through the words.
“Who doesn’t like Red Vines?”
“Weirdos.” She almost grinned, and a slight laugh got out of him. A bunch of time passed as she just kinda stared at him.
“You gonna let me in or have me die from salivating over those Red Vines?”
“Oh, right, yes, okay.” Flustered, she widened the door.
He rested her bike against the exterior wall then strode inside. Shooting her a big smile as he passed.
Deciding he was definitely going to be her first friend because he got the sense that she needed one.