Free Fast Break by Mike Lupica

said.
    â€¢Â â€¢Â â€¢
    Earlier that night, he’d waited until Mr. and Mrs. Lawton were in the den watching television, then quietly made his way down the back stairs and took the bike he’d seen in the garage the other day. Then he’d walked the bike out through a side door of the garage and rode it into the night all the way across town, heading straight to the Pines, having told Tyrese to meet him there.
    Tyrese had been waiting for him in front of the Pines. They decided that Jayson would sleep at Tyrese’s tonight, just calling it a sleepover. Tomorrow he’d come up with a plan and make his next move. Take back control of his life.
    But first he’d wanted to chill with Tyrese, just the two of them. Talk to someone who actually knew about where he came from.
    â€œYou know you’re like my brother,” Tyrese said when they were in the apartment. “But even if there was room for you to live with us, it’s not like you could just go back to our school like nothing happened. Not like they wouldn’t find you in a
snap
.” He smiled at his own joke.
    â€œI wasn’t asking you to do that,” Jayson said. “I just need a night to figure things out. I can’t stay there.”
    â€œDon’t jump ugly with me,” Tyrese said. “But it sounds to me like your setup there is pretty sweet.”
    â€œBut I don’t belong there! I should be with you, Shabazz, and the rest of the boys at Moreland East getting ready to win the county championship. I should be at the Jeff.”
    â€œBut things have changed,” Tyrese said in a soft voice. “You can’t live your whole life on a basketball court. Maybe you just need to give it all a chance.”
    â€¢Â â€¢Â â€¢
    Now Jayson was sitting in the Lawtons’ living room like it was his first night there all over again. Mr. and Mrs. Lawton were telling him that, as difficult as this was, for everybody, he couldn’t just up and run away like that.
    â€œYou told me that already,” Jayson said. “That this is
normal
.” He put air quotes around “normal.”
    â€œYes I did,” Mrs. Lawton said.
    She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt tonight, hair pulled back into a ponytail, making her look more like some young girl than a woman trying to play the role of his new mom. She even wore some pink Nike Free sneakers. She was sitting next to a table that had a sculpture of a horse that she’d made resting on it. She’d told him once that she was an artist in her spare time; there were pieces of hers all around the house. But the horse, she said, was her favorite. Mr. Lawton said it was her best piece of work. Said that his wife had as much artistic ability in her as she had kindness.
    â€œYou scared us tonight, Jayson,” Mrs. Lawton said. “We were so worried that something might happen to you while you were off on your own.”
    â€œDid fine on my own before you came into the picture.”
    â€œWe care about you,” Mr. Lawton said. “And we’re trying our best to do right by you.”
    â€œI don’t care!” he said. “Why can’t you get that?”
    â€œBut
we
care, Jayson,” Mrs. Lawton said. “We care that you give yourself the chance to be happy.”
    â€œThe only time I’m happy in my whole life is when I’m playing ball.”
    Mr. Lawton said, “Your coach told us you didn’t seem all that happy at practice today.”
    â€œYou called him?”
    â€œYeah, I did. Carol called your teachers to find out how the day had gone. I called your coach.”
    â€œI’m not a five-year-old,” Jayson said.
    â€œThen maybe, and I’m just throwing this out there, you could think about not acting like one,” Mrs. Lawton said.
    She didn’t say it in a mean way, and Jayson knew it. And she was smiling as she said the words.
    â€œWhat do you want me to do, act