by E. L. Todd
“That bad?” Zeke was technically my brother’s friend, but he was my friend too.
“He spit in my mouth. Let’s put it that way.” I was still brushing my teeth vigorously to get all that spit out of my mouth.
Rex’s face contorted into a look I’d never seen before. He looked disgusted but curious at the same time. “You’re saying he literally spit in your mouth?”
“Pretty much.” I took a long drink of the beer to get rid of the taste that still lingered far behind.
“How would that even happen?” Zeke asked. “I mean, you just stood there with your mouth open and let him?”
“Yeah?” Rex asked. “Was it like a game of darts?”
“No!” Their imagination always took dangerous roads. “At the end of the date, he went for the good night kiss and it turned into him drowning me with his mouth. God, it was disgusting.”
“So, you just pushed him off, and that was it?” Zeke asked.
“He wanted to come inside and screw,” I said. “But I told him to take a hike. If he kisses like that, imagine how he is in bed.” I shivered at the thought.
“I wonder why Jessie set you up with him?” Zeke asked.
“I don’t have a damn clue,” I said. “I’m not sure if she even had a conversation with him—ever. He probably just told her he thought I was cute and she played cupid.”
“Well, she should keep her day job,” Rex said. “She’s not very good at matchmaking.”
I turned to Zeke. He was my brother’s best friend, so he understood just how annoying Rex was. “When I came home, Rex was watching porn in the living room. Can you believe that?”
Zeke gave Rex a disgusted look. “You were beating off even though you knew your sister was coming home?”
“Hell no,” Rex said. “I was just watching it. You know, for the surround sound.”
“Oh.” Zeke nodded in understanding. “Now I get it.”
“What?” I was about to take a drink of my beer but stopped. “You get it?”
“It doesn’t sound the same on a computer,” Zeke said. “If you have the right speakers, you really get the full effect.”
Men were gross.
“Right?” Rex said. “You watch it on your TV too?”
“When I’m single,” Zeke said.
“Exactly,” Rex said. “The TV is better.”
“But it’s my TV,” I argued. “Don’t forget you live with me right now.”
“How could I?” He shot me a glare before he took a drink of his beer.
“Zeke, why don’t you take him?” I pouted my lips and pleaded with my eyes.
Zeke shook his head. “Hell. No. If I did, we wouldn’t be friends anymore.”
“Hey.” Rex gave him an offended look. “Bros before hoes, dude.”
“I’m just being honest,” Zeke said. “Would bros lie to each other?”
Rex looked away when he didn’t have a comeback.
Zeke turned back to me. “We’re going to play ball. You want in?”
“Don’t invite her,” Rex said. “She’s such a pain on the court.”
“Am not,” I argued. “You just think I’m a pain because I’m better than all of you.”
“You foul everyone like crazy,” Rex argued.
“No, I don’t,” I said. “I shove them out of the way just the way LeBron does, but you give me shit for it because I’m a girl.”
“I want her to play,” Zeke said. “She can be on my team.”
“You mean, you can be on my team,” I said.
Zeke glared at me. “Hey, if it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be playing ball at all.”
“See?” Rex said. “I told you my sister is a pain in the ass. I prefer to call her SAID.”
This nickname was the stupidest one I’d ever heard. He kept it between us, but it seemed like he was going to include Zeke in the know now.
“SAID?” Zeke asked. “Do I want to know?”
“It means stupid, annoying, irritating, and dumb.” Rex tapped his finger against his head like he was being clever.
Zeke bottled his laugh and didn’t let it escape because I was sitting right there. He covered his mouth with his lips, but his chest heaved a few times like he was trying to keep it in.
“It’s great, huh?” Rex said. “I can get everything out with just a single word. Saves me so much time.”
“That’s ironic,” I said. “Because I have a nickname for you too.”
“Yeah?” Rex asked. “Coolest guy in the world? Everyone calls me that so it doesn’t really count.”
“What is it?” Zeke asked.
“HPOS,” I said.
Zeke raised an eyebrow. “What does that mean?”
I gave Rex a triumphant look. “Homeless piece of shit.”
***
We walked down the street to the local courts just a few blocks over. School had gotten out long ago so we hoped there weren’t any kids hogging it. Otherwise, we’d have to play with them like last time.
Rex tried spinning the ball on his forefinger. “How does Michael Jordan do it?” The ball kept falling over sideways and he had to steady it.
“First off,” I said. “He knows how to play basketball. Second of all, he has manly hands. You have little fairy hands.”
Rex threw the ball at my shoulder, and he caught it when it bounced back. “Turd.”
“Is that supposed to stand for something?” I asked sarcastically.
“Nope,” Rex said. “The meaning is implied.”
We rounded the corner then reached the courts. They were blocked by a metal fence and were situated between two apartment buildings. I felt bad for whoever lived there.
“A few of my friends are playing with us,” Rex said.
“I know.” I rolled my eyes. “I’ve met them all before.”
“Well, my buddy from New York is here too. He just moved back. Zeke and I haven’t seen him in ages.”
I didn’t care for his biography. “Is he any good?”
“Definitely,” Zeke said. “We played basketball with him in high school.”
The air was cold outside and the sky was overcast. It looked like rain but we hoped it didn’t. The sweatpants and sweater I wore weren’t water-resistant. We’d played in the rain before and it was fine, but I got sick afterward.
“Yo.” Rex greeted Toby with a high-five. “What’s going on, man?”
“Nothing much,” he said. “Just ready to kick your ass.”
“Ha.” Rex clapped him on the shoulder. “Good one.” He turned to the other guy, blocked from my view by Rex’s shoulders. “Oh my god, look who’s all grown up.” He embraced him with a fist bump then stepped back.
When Rex moved out of the way, I got a look at him. My eyes immediately registered his facial features and the bright color of his eyes. His dark hair was short and slightly curly at the ends. His expansive shoulders filled out his t-shirt, and his muscular legs were just the same as they were the other day.
It was Ryker.
When he walked away from me, I thought we would never see each other again. But somehow, our paths had crossed once more. My heart fluttered in my chest and formed wings like a butterfly. Even though he walked away from me without asking me out, I still felt the heat in my core when I looked at him.
“Dude, how’ve you been?” Rex asked.
“Great,” Ryker said. “It’s nice to be back home.”
Rex tucked the ball under his arm. “You’re full of shit.”
Ryker smiled when he’d been caught. “Okay. I’m not a big fan of Seattle.”
“Then why are you here?” Rex asked.
“Dad needed my help with the business.” Without even saying it, it was clear he wanted nothing to do with his job. He was being forced. “And you can’t turn your back on family, right?”
“Never.” Rex turned my way. “Speaking of which, here’s my annoying sister, Rae.”
My eyes met his, and an unspoken conversation passed between us. J
udging by the slight surprise in his eyes, he never expected to see me again. He didn’t look pleased or disappointed.
Ryker recovered from the shock quicker than I did. He stepped closer to me, towering over me with his height. A slight smile was on his lips, along with the scruff that had been there just a few days ago. “It’s nice to see you again.”
“You too.”
“Where’s Safari?”
“At home. He’ll chase the ball across the court if I bring him.”
“Uh…what?” Rex eyed us back and forth. “You know each other?”
“We ran into each other in the park,” Ryker said calmly. “Safari wanted to come home with me.”
I did too.
Ryker stared hard into my eyes, like he was trying to look for something. “How’d that date go?”
“Terrible.”
“Yeah?” he asked. “Was the guy a psychopath?”
“Just a sloppy kisser.”
Ryker chuckled then stepped back. “Those are the worst.” He turned to Zeke then greeted him. “You’ve really caked on the muscle, man.”
“I got into weight lifting in college.” Zeke wasn’t as warm to his old friend as I thought he would be. He hardly gave him a handshake before he stepped back. “Let’s get the game started.”
Ryker raised an eyebrow slightly but quickly brushed it off.
“Alright,” Rex said. “I don’t care how the teams work out, but I’m not on my sister’s team.”
“She’s playing with us?” Ryker asked in surprise.
The tension suddenly fell on all of us, and it was palpable.
Rex rubbed his temple in irritation. “Man, you shouldn’t have said that…”
I crossed my arms over my chest and gave him a venomous glare. “Why is that surprising? Because I’m a woman?”
Ryker knew he said the wrong thing. “No, that’s not what I meant.”
“Then what did you mean, exactly?”
Zeke took the ball from Rex then dribbled it between his legs. “Rae is the best player out of all of us. So watch yourself.”
Ryker played it cool and hid his thoughts behind his eyes. “In that case, I want to be on her team.”
Rex leaned toward Ryker and lowered his voice to a whisper. “Good save…”
“Let’s play,” I said. “I’m done with the chit chat.”
***
Ryker was a good ball player like I expected him to be.
But I was better.
I was quicker on the court, and I had more control over the ball. And just like my man, Stephen Curry, I could down those three-pointers with ease. Whenever Rex blocked me, he was forceful. He didn’t care about giving me a hard shove or throwing his shoulder in my face. I played hard and so did he. Whenever Zeke was on me, he always kept his distance. He refrained from touching me at all costs. Even though my brother knocked me around, Zeke still treated me like I was fragile. The gentleman inside him just wouldn’t die.
By the end of the game, we were thirty points ahead. “And that’s how it’s done.” I made a dramatic bow.
Rex stuck his hand in my hair and messed it up forcefully. “What’s the point in winning when you’re hideous?” He dribbled the ball and walked to his water bottle near the bench.
Zeke came up to me, sweaty and still out of breath. “Good game.” He high-fived me.
“Good game,” I said in return. “You’re quick on the court.”
He put his hands on his hips as he tried to catch his breath. “Not as quick as you.”
“Well, nobody is.” I flipped my hair and jutted my nose into the air.
Zeke laughed then gave me a playful shove. “Brat.”
I shoved him back. “Sore loser.”
“Did you ever consider the fact that I might have let you win?”
“Hmm…not really.”
“Well, maybe I did. Losing would hurt that ego you carry everywhere you go.”
“I think your ego is the one at stake here, so I’ll go along with your story to preserve it.”
He chuckled then shoved me again. “Loser.”
“Let’s head to Bill’s,” Rex said. “I’m thirsty.”
“That’s a bar,” I noted.
“Duh.” He rolled his eyes then started walking with Ryker and Tobias.
Zeke stayed by my side and walked with me. “I could use a cold beer right now.”
“After exercising?”
“Isn’t that the whole point of working out?” he asked. “So you can eat whatever you want?”
“I eat whatever I want regardless.”
“You’re lucky your physique stays nice on its own.”
I laughed. “My physique?”
“What?” he asked. “You don’t know what the definition is?”
“It’s just a funny way of saying it. And believe me, it doesn’t stay nice. My thighs are like the blob. Whenever I take my pants off, I wonder if I should run away from them screaming.”
“Since running requires the use of your legs, that’d be pretty difficult to manage.”
“I could saw them off. Then you can put them back on.” Zeke was a doctor. He’d been running his own practice for a while now.
“I’m not a surgeon,” he said. “I’m a dermatologist.”
“That’s right. You aren’t a real doctor.” I tried not to smile after I said that last part. Rex and I liked to tease him for this. When he got beet red, it was really funny.
“I am a real doctor.”
“Popping zits is a medical treatment?”
He glared at me for a second before a smile started to form. He knew I was trying to get a rise out of him. “What’s so special about today?”
Now I was drawing a blank. “What?”
“Today is the day you want to die, right?” He raised his hands like he was about to tickle me to death.
I eyed them with dread and tried to think of an escape plan. “It’s funny that you say that—” I took off at a dead run, pushing Rex aside as I tried to get away from Zeke.
Zeke stayed far behind. “Good decision.”
***
I didn’t want to feel left out, so I ordered a beer like everyone else. Orders of fries and wings were on the way, and the TV showed a sports report about the last Seahawks game.
“Where’s your place?” Ryker sat beside Rex, right across from me.
Rex rested his elbows on the table with his eyes glued to the screen. “I have an apartment a few blocks away.”
“Eh-hem.” I cleared my throat loudly because of the false information he gave.
Ryker eyed me, not sure what the interruption meant.
“He means to say, my apartment.” My fingertips touched the frosty glass of the beer. My stomach was aching because I hadn’t put food in it for so long. Greasy wings and even greasier fries sounded like the best thing ever made. “He lives with me.”
Ryker didn’t give him any heat for it. “You like the company?”
“Ugh.” Rex rolled his eyes and his head at the same time. It looked like his head was about to fall off. “Hell no. I had to because I’m broke.”
I turned to Zeke. “You know, you can take him whenever you want.”
“And have him trash my place?” He shook his head slightly. “No, thanks.” His dark bark-colored hair contrasted against the fair complexion of his face. He was easy on the eyes, and girls flocked to both him and my brother like geese. I’d been friends with him since I could remember. He was the other brother I never had, the good one.
“Why are you broke?” Ryker asked.
“I bought a bowling alley,” Rex said.
Ryker was about to take a drink but stopped himself. “A bowling alley?”
That goddamn bowling alley had been nothing but a pain in the ass. “Rex won the lottery.”
“Are you serious?” Ryker asked. “The actual lotto?”
“Yeah,” Rex said. “It was a hundred grand.”
“And this idiot decided to buy a b
owling alley,” I said. “It’s the worst investment ever. He’s barely broken even for the past year. And most importantly, Rex doesn’t know anything about bowling. He’s never even played.”
“Hey, Miss Prissy,” Rex snapped. “Why don’t you stop being so negative all the time? I don’t shove every one of your failures down your throat.”
“Uh, yes, you do.” What kind of memory did he have?
Rex ignored me and continued talking to Ryker. “The economy has been shit for a while so business hasn’t picked up. I keep waiting it out but nothing seems to change. I may have to sell it, and I probably won’t get my money back.”
Even though my brother pissed me off when he was a pig around the house, brought strange women to the apartment, and insulted me in front of everyone we knew, he always had my back. I knew I needed to be more supportive of this. “Maybe you need to make a few changes.”
“Changes?” Rex asked.
“You know, remodel or something.”
“But that costs money,” he snapped. “In case you were wondering why I’m living with you, it’s because I don’t have any money.”
“I have my savings,” I offered. “It can be put to good use.”
Zeke looked at me like I just sprouted wings and horns.
Rex’s jaw dropped to the surface of the table. “Shut your ass.”
“But you know what I think would be really good?” I said. “If you opened a bar. I know they’re a lot of work because you have to get the license, but if you had booze and good food to accompany the game, people would really consider it a night out.”
Ryker nodded in agreement, his green eyes flashing. “That’s not a bad idea.”
“And if we slapped a new coat of paint on the outside and told people we were having a re-grand opening, your business would definitely pick up.” I learned that in a business class in college. Drawing that kind of attention always increased sales. It was the reason so many fast-food chains remodeled every five years as a rule of thumb.
Zeke nodded in agreement. “Maybe you should have ditched science for marketing.”
“Nah,” I said. “I like where I am.”
“You’re a scientist?” Ryker asked in interest.
Anytime he spoke directly to me, I felt my stomach tie up in knots. It was hard to be myself around him because I tensed up anxiously. “My fields of study are environmental chemistry and biology.”