by A. R. Perry
“I was thinking it’s best if we plan a casual run-in first. Test his temperament. It’s been two years—he has to have cooled a little by now.”
Lyla nods. “I mean, he can hold a grudge better than anyone I know, but he might have forgotten about whatever happened.” One of her eyebrows shoots up, and it’s clear she’s asking me if there’s more to the story without coming out and asking again, but there’s no way I’m going to elaborate.
Knowing Lyla, she’d want to step aside and try to mend fences between Jay and me.
The waitress chooses that moment to return with our drinks. Even though she’s still eyeing me in a way that comes off as a little desperate, I’m thankful for the interruption.
“I’ll take the medium order of wings. Half blazing and half Thai chili.”
Lyla snorts. “Nothing has really changed.” She gathers up the menus and shoves them at the waitress, giving away her annoyance. “Same.” She throws her a sugary-sweet smile, but I still can see right through it.
As soon as the waitress is out of earshot I grin. “This jealous side of you is kinda hot.”
“Not jealous. Annoyed. It’s clear I’m here with you, and still she’s screwing you with her eyes. I’m surprised she didn’t jump on your lap and start licking your face.”
“Seems like you’d be used to it by now. I was popular with the ladies in high school.”
Why am I reminding her of my man-whore ways?
Seriously, I do such a fantastic job sabotaging every single one of my relationships. No wonder Jay didn’t want me to date his sister.
I take a drink of lemonade, doing my best to avoid Lyla’s glare.
“Done now?”
“Done what?” I ask.
“Reliving your glory days?” Lyla chucks a sugar packet at my head and it bounces off before falling under the booth somewhere. “If you need it, I can go snag a pushpin off the bulletin board up front and pop that enormous head of yours.”
“No need. You do a good job of deflating my ego all on your own.”
She smirks, playing with the straw sticking out of her lemonade. “If I had cut you down a bit in high school, you might have admitted your feelings for me sooner. Maybe you wouldn’t have moved to Texas.”
Her words are like an ice bucket. If I admitted everything back then, I still would have left. Right now, I’m even considering calling this off because for some stupid reason that I can’t explain, I have a strong desire to remain loyal to Jay.
Something tells me that Lyla won’t like coming in second, even if it’s to her brother.
We were both right to be concerned about where this—whatever it is—is going when he’s in the back of our minds.
Yet I still want to do this. I still want to be with her despite knowing it will end in disaster.
“Hey.” The second my fingers twine hers there’s a grunt and then a shadow looming over both of us.
“J-Jay,” Lyla stutters and stands, breaking our contact. “What are you doing here?”
His angry eyes land on me. “I could ask you the same thing.”
I’m not sure who he’s talking to because all I can focus on is the murder in his eyes.
“Are you screwing?”
“Jay.” Lyla places a hand on his arm to yank him back from the table. “Keep your voice down.”
“I don’t have to do anything. And answer my question.”
“No, we’re not…doing that. We’re just having lunch.”
“Jay.” I stand but only make it up halfway before he fists his hands in my shirt. I don’t resist because I’ve been expecting it.
“I told you to stay away from her.”
“Jay, stop it!” Lyla tugs on his shoulder but he doesn’t move.
He’s a lot bigger than I remember and I’m not looking forward to his fist smashing into my face.
“I warned you that night. What did I say? Walk away or we would have problems.”
“Jay, what are you talking about?” Lyla continues pulling on his arm, trying in vain to get him to step back. Her eyes are wild and they’re bouncing between us, trying to put those missing puzzle pieces together.
Soon she’ll figure out that the only reason I left town is because her brother forced my hand. That’s something I never wanted. Losing a best friend is one thing. Losing the girl is another. But coming between siblings who are practically best friends? I could never live with that. It’s the reason I bailed. He told me to go and I did.
“Do we have a problem?” A stocky man with an ugly yellow tie and dingy white button-down asks. He’s got his cell in one hand and I’m positive if we don’t break it up, he’s going to call the cops.
“There’s no problem.” Lyla squeezes between us, putting a hand on Jay’s chest. “Right, Jay?”
His jaw ticks once before he focuses on her. “No. No problem at all. We were just leaving.”
Before she can protest, he latches on to her wrist and is dragging her toward the exit. She casts a final glance over her shoulder as she’s hauled out the door and my heart slams into my ribcage.
She’s always had an ability to speak with her eyes and that look, well, I’ve never felt disappointment so strongly in my life.
“Jay, what the hell?” I rip my wrist free from his grasp as we approach his car. “What was that?”
He directs a glare my way as he rounds the front of his car and yanks open the driver side door. “What was that? That was my finding my little sister in a dark corner with a slimeball’s hands all over her. That’s what that was.”
“Slimeball?” I cross my arms over my chest, refusing to get into his car so he can yell at me some more like I’m a child. “This is Shane we’re talking about. The guy who you spent every waking hour with for most of your life.”
“Lyla, get in the car. I’m not doing this with you here.” He points over my shoulder and I turn to see we’ve got an audience.
“I’m going back inside to finish lunch.” I make it a few steps before his hand is on me again and I’m being dragged toward the open passenger door.
“Get in,” he yells in my face.
“No.”
“Lyla, I swear—”
“What? You’ll throw me in and then what? You gonna lock me in my room? Take away my phone? Newsflash, you’re not my dad.”
“No. But I am your big brother and I’m telling you right now I forbid you from going out with him.”
I laugh in his face. Is he kidding right now? “Forbid me? Did you forget the past eighteen years? Because I don’t like being told what to do. And also, may I remind you I’m an adult? I can hang out with and do whoever I want.”
Okay, so I shouldn’t have added the last bit, but he stormed in there accusing me of screwing Shane when as far as he knows we haven’t seen each other in years.
He growls and runs an agitated hand through his hair. “I’m gonna pretend you didn’t say that. Now. Get. In. The. Car.”
“Go home, Jay. Cool off. We’ll talk about this later.”
“There’s nothing to talk about. All that dick wants is in your pants.”
“Yeah, well, if that were true, he had plenty of opportunities at camp.”
Jay’s anger falters and his mouth clamps shut.
Finally!
“Go home. I’m going to go finish lunch and after you’ve run around the block or taken a cold shower, we’ll talk.”
He smirks, and it sets my blood ablaze because I’m certain he’s about to lay into me again. Instead, his gaze slides over my corner. “Looks like you weren’t worth the trouble.”
I twist around and watch as Shane climbs into his truck, never once glancing our way.
My heart plummets to my knees.
Did he really just ditch me? We were supposed to handle Jay together—tell him we’re together—and yet here I am taking the full force of his wrath alone.
“Still want to defend him?”
There’s got to be a reason he just left. Maybe his m
om called, or something happened. Shane isn’t the type to tuck tail and run.
“Get in, Ly.” A lightness takes over Jay’s tone now, almost as if he can sense how much it hurt to watch Shane pull out of the parking lot and leave me here.
The combination of Shane’s betrayal and the concern in my brother’s voice is the reason I nod and slip into the passenger seat.
A few seconds later the engine roars to life and Jay is pulling out onto the same street Shane’s taillights disappeared down.
When I don’t say anything for several minutes, I can sense Jay’s gaze land on me. The radio is down too low for me to focus on the lyrics, and my phone is a lead weight in my purse. Almost ominous. If I pick it up and there’s a message from Shane saying he can’t do this anymore I might break down in my brother’s car which is the last thing I want.
With nothing else to occupy my time besides conversing with this maniac who replaced my brother, I watch as the scenery blurs.
I’ve never seen my brother so angry. No, wait, the last time was the night he told me they were no longer friends. Months before graduation they just stopped talking. Shane even stopped talking to me. No explanation. Nothing. He walked down the halls acting as if I didn’t exist.
When we’re a few miles from home, Jay’s words click in my head.
He said if Shane even spoke to me, they would have problems. Is Jay the reason Shane cut me out of his life? I mean, I guess he was doing the right thing and making it easy on me so I wouldn’t have to choose between the two. They fought over me. But was there more to the story?
“You guys quit being friends because of me,” I say when Jay pulls into the driveway and shuts the car off. I want to hear the truth from him. “He told you he liked me and it pissed you off.”
Jay’s silent, but from the corner of my eye I can see him grip the steering wheel. “There’s more to it.”
“Explain it to me.” I tuck my foot under my butt and angle my body toward him. “Him liking me isn’t enough reason to end twelve years of friendship.”
Jay shakes his head and sighs. “You’re my little sister. I would do anything to protect you.”
“And you think I need to be protected from Shane? This is Shane we’re talking about. The guy who would do anything to make us laugh. Who turned our living room into a campground complete with a fake waterfall because our summer trip got canceled? The same guy who stood by your side and threatened any guy who asked me out.”
“Yeah, and he only did all of those things to weasel his way into our good graces. The second he got what he wanted from you, he would drop you just like every other girl. You aren’t special.”
“Wow.” I rear back, his words are almost as painful as a slap across the face. “Tell me how you really feel.”
“I didn’t mean it like that. I meant you aren’t special to him. Did you ever see him with a girl longer than a couple of weeks? And then he started hanging with Donnie—”
“Donnie Weeks? The douchey captain of the football team?” In all of high school, I think I saw him talking to Donnie once. It was in hushed tones and as far as I could tell, Shane was seconds away from pummeling his face.
“The one and only. Listen, you’re not a guy and you don’t live in our world, but we’re not all good. Even the ones who put on an amazing front.”
“You’re not making any sense. None of this is making any sense. Shane wasn’t friends with Donnie. He hated him as much as we did.”
“Then why did they have a secret bet to see who could nail you first?”
I gasp, jerking away from his words and slamming my head into the window. I barely feel it through the pounding in my chest.
Shane would never do that.
But as I think the words, the day in the hallway becomes clearer.
Donnie had tried to talk to me at lunch. He strolled up to my table and sat down, asking me if I had any plans for the weekend. I got flustered with the way everyone in the cafeteria was gawking and I think I got three stuttering words out before Shane was standing there and telling him we had plans.
After school, when Shane caught me watching them, he broke off the conversation and told me he was giving me a ride home. Then he mentioned my run-in with Donnie to my brother over dinner that night.
Donnie never spoke to me again and by Sunday Jay and him ended their decade-long friendship.
But that picture of him in no way connects with the guy I’ve known most of my life or the guy I spent weeks with.
“Ly.” Jay places a hand on mine. “I know you want to think he’s a great guy, but he’s not. When he told me he had feelings for you, I lost it. I spoke with Donnie earlier in the day and he swore up and down Shane started the bet. It was some stupid graduation prank. We all made them, but most were something stupid like Saran-Wrapping the principal’s car or TPing the rival school.”
I blink back tears of anger or sadness, I’m not sure which. All I know is the image of the guy I’ve been falling for has been shattered, and it’s taken a chunk of my heart with it.
Blindly, I reach for the handle. “I’ll be in my room.”
“Ly, stop. Do you want to talk about it more?”
Talk about the fact that he’s kept this a secret for years and never once mentioned I was some sick joke to a guy I thought was one of my best friends? Yeah, no thank you.
I shake my head and make my way up the front steps. Jay hangs back, knowing I need space. I hate crying in front of other people and when I feel the urge, I lock myself in my room.
So, that’s what I do. I need time to compose myself before my parents get home. No way in hell do I want to explain today or the past couple of weeks to them.
With cell in hand, I flop down on my bed. Even after all the things Jay told me, I still have the urge to reach out and see if Shane is okay.
How sick is that?
What I need is a girls’ night.
I shoot off a text to Scar telling her to bring all the essentials before I bury my face under my pillow and hope a nap will help soothe all the emotions and thoughts whirling around inside me.
“Pizza or Chinese?” Scarlett asks as she whips out her phone and pulls up the delivery app.
I shrug, leaning against my velvet headboard, and try to focus on the movie playing on TV. Scarlett said it’s a rom-com, but I haven’t processed more than a handful of words the characters have spoken.
“No thoughts on food? Are you sick or something?”
I wish it were that simple.
When I don’t answer right away, she drops her phone and crawls over to me. “What’s going on?”
I’m going to regret this, but… “Do you think Shane is the type of guy who would bet to sleep with a girl?”
“Shane?” she laughs. “Um, more like the type who will threaten to beat the crap out of another guy for glancing his girl’s way. Why?”
“My brother found out about us. Today at lunch.”
“Shit.” Her hands fly up to cup her mouth. “What happened? Was Jay pissed?”
“Oh, it went about as well as you would imagine. The best part was almost getting kicked out of the restaurant and then Jay dragging me out of there as if I’m some child who needs to be grounded.”
“He can go all caveman with me whenever he wants.”
“Gross.” I cringe and she laughs.
“Sorry. Continue.” She crosses her legs and leans an elbow on her knee.
“He said he’s known Shane liked me for a while.” And that he was using me as a bet. A fact I still can’t wrap my head around. “Do you remember Donnie? He graduated before you moved here, but last summer we bumped into him in the grocery store and he all but ran the other way.”
Scarlett tilts her head in confusion, probably at the sudden topic change. “Oh yeah, that frat boy. I swear he acted as if you were gonna hex him just by looking his way.”
“That might be because he had a bet with Shane to see who could sleep with me first and when Jay found ou
t, he threatened to castrate him.”
Scarlett’s black-rimmed eyes widen in shock. “No way. Shane doesn’t seem like the type of guy to do something so terrible. Jason and Dax maybe, but not Shane.
I shrug. “That’s why Jay and him stopped being friends. Donnie confessed, probably out of fear.”
“Wait. Donnie said this. Not Shane?”
“I mean, I’m sure Shane fessed up after being called out by Jay. He looked pretty guilty when Jay was all up in his face and didn’t even try to fight back.”
“Hmm.” With one of her freshly-tipped nails pinched between her teeth she glances away. “Did you ask Shane?”
“We haven’t spoken since he dipped without a backward glance.”
“Call him.” She holds out my phone.
“What? No way.” If he admits I was some bet, I won’t be able to handle it. Sure, we’ve only been kind of dating for a few weeks, but he was one of my best friends for years. Knowing that all I was to him was some sexual conquest will tear me apart.
“Fine.” She jumps off the bed and for a second I think she will drop it. The only thing that drops though is my stomach when I realize she still has my phone and now has it pressed to her ear.
“Scar. Give me the phone.”
With a flick of her hand, she gives me her back, and then she’s talking. “Shane, this is Scarlett. Yeah. So, you bet you could bang my bestie back in high school?”
Their conversation fades as the pounding of my heart fills my ears. In a second I’m up and launching at Scarlett’s back. I somehow hold on, but her stupid cheerleader legs are stronger than I gave credit for and she stays upright.
“Yeah. With Donnie Douchebro.”
Shane shouts something but can’t quite make out the words. Scarlett doesn’t get to ask him to elaborate because I get my hand on the phone and rip it away from her ear, pressing the end button before throwing it across the room. In the next second, we’re in a heap on the ground. Scarlett is laughing and I’m scowling and rubbing a fresh carpet burn on my elbow.
“What the hell was that?” I yell.