Eli sank down beside him, pads and jersey rustling. Everyone else in the locker room pointedly looked somewhere else.
"Nik's a big boy," Eli said. "He can take care of himself. I know it's important to look after your teammates, but that crossed a line."
"I know," Blair said again. His vocabulary had been reduced down to about four or five words.
"Am I gonna have to keep an eye on you?" Eli leaned down so that he filled Blair's field of vision. Blair pressed his mouth into a small, thin line.
He looked deep down inside himself and found that he genuinely did not know the answer to that question.
Eli exhaled a heavy sigh, his stubbled cheeks puffing out. "We'll talk later, when everyone's not so worked up."
