Read Offensive Behavior (Sidelined #1) for Free Online Page A

put
a glass of water in front of him. “Look who’s sorry for himself. What did you
eat?”
    “Shrimp.”
    “Oh,
bad seafood, that could actually kill you.”
    “Thanks
for the reassurance, doc.”
    “And
you know, binge drinking and fighting. That could kill you too.”
    So Owen
had been talking. Reid held his hands up. “I tripped. This is gravel rash. Owen
should’ve said it’s not binge drinking. It’s full-time alcoholism.”
    Dev
clucked his tongue. “What would your mother think? Mine would whack into you.”
    “Owen
tried the sympathy route. I see you’re going with shame.”
    Dev
took Reid’s empty glass, washed it, dried it and put it away. Reid didn’t have
the energy to point out Dev should’ve thrown it at his head instead. “Thank you
for the food.”
    Dev
stopped wiping the sink, then made a show of sticking his finger in his ear as
if he was having trouble hearing. Reid tried to remember the last time he’d
said thank you for one of Dev’s kindnesses and couldn’t. He got up from the
stool and dragged his feet back along the hall. Dev would let himself out and
Reid intended to sleep until he felt like it made sense to be awake and if it
didn’t, it’s not like anyone other than Mom would miss him and she’d wait till
Christmas to do it.
    It was
light again when Reid woke and his head felt like it was normal size and the
walls weren’t closing in on him. He listened to the apartment and was satisfied
he was alone. Dev was the only person with an access override code, so even if
Lux wanted to check up on him she couldn’t.
    He
flexed his hand. It’d scabbed up, the skin felt tight and dry enough to crack
open and bleed again. Had she seen him fall? He felt his face heat and it was
either the fever still or embarrassment. He’d watched Lux take down a guy five
times her size in the alley and step around him like he was a mere curiosity
and he’d said obnoxious things to her that implied she’d deserved that trouble.
But that’s not what he’d meant.
    She
should be safe leaving her work, same as he was leaving anywhere. He’d meant it
wasn’t safe for her to have to exit Lucky’s by their back entrance, it was dark,
and the perfect place to be ambushed. But he hadn’t explained himself and he’d
been amused enough at her umbrage that he’d laughed when she called him a
dickhead.
    He was
a dickhead.
    And
that next night, the night he felt sick, she’d blown him a kiss from the stage—a
kiss off more like, and then used her body to show him what he was missing out
on. He’d sat there transfixed while she tossed her hair and spread her legs and
danced in that little ripped to ribbons black dress like she was deliberately trying
to make his lungs seize and his heart expand till it punched out his chest.
    He’d
flushed hot and cold and his head spun and eventually he’d realized it wasn’t
lust writhing in his gut and he had more than a headache going on.
    He was
an asshole who’d mouthed off at Lux and barfed all over himself, and yet she’d
stopped to help him, gone out of her way to bring him home and stand over him
till he was safely comatose.
    His
stomach churned and it wasn’t from hunger. He’d been acting like a spoilt brat
and it was time to get real. This was rock bottom of the pity fest he’d been
on.
    There
was nothing he could do about Owen or Dev right away. Too much history between
them and no clue how to set it right, but he could do something about Lux.
    Of
course, Lux, couldn’t be her real name, but that’s all he had for her. He sent
flowers care of Lucky’s. It was a start, but since bastards who assumed she was
theirs to take by force probably did slick things like send flowers too, it
wasn’t enough. He wanted Lux to know he was astonishingly grateful for what
she’d done, that he appreciated it, and was sorry for being . . . just being an
asshole who was hopeless with people.
    He
needed to apologize face to face. It was the kind of thing he’d