by Taylor Wade
“Are you not coming out with is tonight, Brookelyn?”
I looked up from my textbook at Colin who had just gotten arrived. He was waiting for Elle to finish getting ready so that they could make their way over to the frat house. Savanna, who had stayed at the apartment last night for the first time in a week, had left already. Things were back on with her new lover apparently. She said that he was picking her up for dinner before they met up with everyone. Despite her lack of presence this past week, she seemed to be in higher spirits than usual and I was both happy for her and somewhat envious.
“Nope, not tonight. I figured I’d stay in and work on my paper that’s due Tuesday.” I lounged on the couch in a baby blue tank with matching pajama shorts, my hair pulled into a messy bun. I scooted over, making room for Colin, assuming that Elle would be a few more minutes.
“Are you sure it doesn’t have anything to do with why Wes’s hand was all fucked up from last night?” he asked, giving me a pointed look as he lowered himself into the seat beside me.
I had told Elle what had happened with Gabe when Wes and I were outside last night and she had promptly called Colin, forbidding him from hanging out with Gabe ever again. My best friend, the drama queen.
“I’m not hiding from Gabe.” He just looked at me, so I added, “or Wes.”
“I call bullshit on the second part of that statement but she’s sticking with it,” Elle walked into the room, zipping up a light jacket over her dark green maxi dress. It was getting colder at night but it’d be a few more weeks until the weather required fluffy coats and Ugg boots. “And if I see Gabe tonight I’m ripping his balls off and feeding them to him so just know that I warned you, baby!”
Colin and I chuckled, and I secretly hoped that she did run into him because I didn’t doubt that she’d at least try to do just that. After the things that he’d said last night I couldn’t care less; he had shown his true colors.
“If you change your mind give us a call and we’ll come get you.”
“Thanks, Colin, but I’m good for tonight.”
Elle pouted but didn’t try to convince me to go with them again. She had been giving me grief for the last few hours and so I was relieved when they finally left the apartment.
~~~~
An hour after Elle and Colin had left I was feeling burnt out and I looked at the clock to see that it was only nine o’clock. I’d been working on my paper for the last three hours so I decided to take a break and finish the last few paragraphs tomorrow.
I headed over to the freezer and grabbed the pint of Moose Tracks I had bought a few days ago and brought it with me over to the couch along with a spoon. Flicking through the channels I found the movie Castaway had just started so I settled into the couch with a blanket and my ice cream in my lap. I hadn’t seen this movie in years but I remembered how sad I always got when Tom Hank’s character befriends the volleyball named Wilson and then loses him. The scene brought me to tears every time I watched it.
I was about an hour into the movie when I heard a knock at the door. I groaned because I didn’t want to open the door looking like this, but also because my ice cream was starting to melt. I paused the movie, thankful to Comcast for allowing me to pause regular television channels, and turned on the lights, yelling to whoever it was to wait a minute. I put the lid back on my Moose Tracks and placed it in back inside of the freezer, wrapping the blanket around me as I strolled over to the door.
I was more than a little surprised to say the least when I opened the apartment door to find Wes behind it.
“Hey.”
He wore light blue jeans and a long sleeved black thermal that hid his tattoos, a black ball cap resting backwards on his head.
“Hi.” I said back, standing in the doorway like an idiot. He seemed amused, and I watched his expression as he traveled his gaze down my body taking in the blanket that barely concealed my skimpy pajamas and my fluffy slippers. I gripped the blanket around me tighter, feeling uncomfortable under his gaze.
“So, uh…can I come in?” He rocked back on his heels with his hands in his pockets. I was relieved to see that he looked like he was feeling just as uncomfortable as I was. I nodded and stepped aside, allowing him entrance. He looked around for a moment and I saw him notice the television.
“Castaway, huh? I always got so sad when he lost Wilson.”
“I know, right?! It was so sad!” We both laughed a little but then a silence fell back over us and we were back where we started. I felt the familiar quickening of my heart rate but then I remembered how he had danced with that girl last night and felt a knot form in the pit of my stomach.
“You can, you know, sit. If you want to, I mean.” I stuttered over my words and walked past him back to my seat on the couch hoping that he missed the heat rise to my cheeks.
I felt the cushions sink down under his weight as he sat beside me, a little closer than necessary. Although, I certainly wasn’t complaining—the closer Wes was, the better I could smell the heavenly scent of his cologne. He leaned back, making himself comfortable, and grabbed the controllers from between us, pressing the play button. The movie started back up and, without giving me any explanation or reasoning for showing up at my apartment on a Saturday night, he trained his eyes on the TV. I was enjoying the closeness of him too much to argue so I brushed aside all of my questions and focused my attention back to Tom Hanks.
We didn’t speak for the remainder of the film, the only noises in the room being from the movie or from our occasional laughter. At some point Wes had scooted closer and I could feel his thigh pressed against mine. His right arm was stretched behind me on the couch, my shoulder pressed against his side. I could feel his chest and abdominal muscles flex when he laughed and I found myself zoning out more than once.
When the credits started to roll reality set back in. I jumped up from the couch and grabbed two sodas from the fridge, handing him one as I sat back down beside him. I made sure to keep a space between us this time, and turned my body so that I was facing him. Neither of us spoke for a moment but I could see him searching my face, considering his words carefully.
“Sorry for just stopping by like this. You weren’t at the frat house and Elle mentioned that you were staying in tonight, so…” he said with a sigh. “Look, I’m sorry about how I acted last night after what happened with Gabe. I was a dick.”
“It’s okay.” I squeaked, hoping my face wasn’t giving away how hurt I had actually been by his blow off.
“No, it’s not okay.” He said, looking into my eyes. I could see that he was wrestling with himself. “I was so fucking pissed and I knew I couldn’t just sit back at that table and pretend that nothing had happened. I knew every time I looked at you I’d wonder what that fucker told you and want to head over to his place and kick his pretentious ass.”
“I need to know what he told you, Brookelyn.” His words were firm yet gentle when he said my name. I melted at the desperation in his voice.
He can sense my unease and added, “I promise I wont go find him and put my fist through his face.”
I smiled a little at the fact that he could tell what I’d been worried about, but my smile vanished at the mental picture of his words. I hated violence, especially unnecessary violence. But then again, was violence ever necessary? I hadn’t minded so much when Wes was defending my honor and punched Gabe last night but that had been a different circumstance, I rationalized.
I fidgeted with the blanket in my lap and avoided his gaze, speaking softly.
“He just told me that you were freshman roommates and had always hated each other. He said that he had met Emmy your sophomore year and they dated for two years until he came to her house to surprise her over the summer and you opened the door, both of you half naked.”
He muttered a curse under his breath and his jaw clenched, but he didn’t say anything more.
“Is it true? Did you sleep with her to hurt him?” I asked softly.
His gaze shift
ed back to mine. Anger clouded his gaze but he quickly pushed it aside and took a deep breath.
“No.”
I waited for him to continue, and when he saw that I wasn’t going to probe him for answers he continued reluctantly.
“Gabe was my best friend the first semester of freshman year. He didn’t mention that part, obviously.” The disdain was evident in his voice. “Second semester, he fucked me over and I hated him. I hated him so much that I had to transfer rooms so that I didn’t murder the prick in his sleep. Eventually he started to hate me, too, which was fine by me. We stayed away from each other only passing glares in the hallways and an occasional fight on the weekends when his drunken ass got mouthy.
Luke, who grew up next door to me all of my life, was a year younger so when he got to school my sophomore year Gabe backed off mostly, not wanting to chance taking on us both. We got into fights all the time growing up so we were used to having each others’ backs, ya know?”
I nodded, and he took another moment to collect his thoughts. I was shocked to see that Gabe had left out important information like the fact that the two men had been best friends first semester of their freshman year.
“I had to take a leave of absence my junior year and help out at home for a while. I wasn’t sure at first if I’d be able to come back at all but thankfully it worked out that I could. About two weeks before we got back to school I got a text from Emmy.” I grimaced at the mention of her, my disgust clear on my face.
“Yeah, most people feel the same,” Wes chuckled, “anyways, so I got this text asking me to hang out. She lives about three towns over so it’s not too far of a drive, but I said hell no, your Gabe’s girl. I hated the guy but I would never fuck with someone else’s girl, ya know?
She texted back saying that she had broken up with him so I figured what the hell, why not? They weren’t together, and yeah, I knew it’d hurt Gabe when he found out but it wasn’t the same as fuckin’ a chick with a boyfriend.” I scrunched up my nose at his vulgarity and he laughed softly.
“Sorry, but it’s true. So I’m over there and there’s a knock at the door so she asks me to get it while she gets dressed. I answer the door and see Gabe of all fuckin’ people standing in front of me. She had lied to me…they had never broken up. Of course I told Gabe that she’d said they were done, not that he listened to what I had to say. Can’t blame him, really. But I didn’t give two shits, either. He fucked up my life. Whatever pain he went through was nothing compared to what he did to me.”
The story was still messed up, on both Wes and Emmy’s part, but it definitely wasn’t as bad as the version Gabe had told me. And after everything I now knew about Emmy it wasn’t hard to believe that she’d lie about them being broken up. There were parts of the story that didn’t make sense, though.
“But I don’t get it. Why would she lie to you about being broken up with Gabe?”
“She didn’t think he’d find out. She had an itch to scratch. Said she wanted to fuck a ‘bad boy,’ whatever the fuck that means.”
“Why do you still hook up with her, then? Especially knowing what happened with Jade’s sister?” I asked softly, avoiding is gaze. I didn’t want him to think I was being judgmental but I had to admit that, to some degree, I was.
“I’ve only hooked up with her twice since that day.” He said, with a sigh. “Again a few days later, cause I was pissed Gabe had called me a liar, accusing me of messing around with someone’s girlfriend knowingly. Like I said, I don’t do that shit. And then again the night of the frat party. She was all over me, practically begging’ me, so I just went with it. After you and Gabe walked in, though, I ended that.”
“Why?”
“Because she started going off about you, asking who you were and what you were doing with Gabe. She didn’t care to cheat on him but she cared that he moved on. It was fucked up. I didn’t need that drama in my life.”
We were both silent for a few minutes. He was assessing my reaction to everything he’d told me, and I was still trying to process everything.
It seemed like every bad thing that had happened between the two boys pointed back at Emmy.
“Not everything, no.” Wes shook his head and I realized I had spoken that last thought aloud. “Emmy wasn’t even around yet when things blew up between me and Harris.”
“So then what happened to make you stop being friends?” I asked, missing what seemed to be the biggest part of the puzzle that was the demise of Gabe and Wes’s friendship.
I could tell that Wes didn’t want to answer me but he closed his eyes tightly and took a deep breath. When he opened them I could see sadness in his depths.
“Gabe got into a lot of trouble when he was in high school. He fucked around a lot and got arrested a few times. His parents were able to get most of the charges dropped but he still has a record. My brother came to visit and the three of us are cruising around sharing a blunt when Gabe supposedly notices a bunch of drugs hidden in the trunk of the car. We end up getting’ pulled over because Reese was speeding but luckily we had finished off the bud and so we didn’t get in trouble for possession. Then Gabe starts telling the cops about the drugs he found in the trunk, thinking the cop was gonna arrest us all. So he pinned it all on Reese and got him thrown in prison for possession of narcotics.”
I gasped at the idea of Gabe doing something like that to his best friend’s family but also because Wes just admitted that his brother was a druggie. I had seen what drugs could do to people. How they could turn someone kind and charismatic into a tornado, destructing anything and anyone in its path.
“Even though he knew that the day Reese had come to visit, his car was in the shop and so he’d borrowed a buddy’s car for the afternoon. Gabe knew that the heroine wasn’t Reese’s but he ratted him out anyways.”
My head was spinning now. I didn’t understand why Gabe would do that, especially knowing that they weren’t Wes’s brother’s drugs. I didn’t know what to say so I searched my mind for anything that might make sense through the jumbled haze of my brain. Except, before I had a chance to find the words, Wes spoke again.
“I know it wasn’t his fault but I can’t help but hate him for everything that spiraled out of control from that point on. Reese called my mom from the police station later that day but she never came to bail him out. She had dropped dead of a heart attack a few minutes later.”
NINE
The end of October seemed to appear out of nowhere. The air was getting colder, leaves started to fall from the trees, and the sun started to set a little bit earlier each night. I had been managing my time better in the last three weeks and so my workload was less overbearing. I was doing well in my classes so I wasn’t worried about losing my scholarship. Finding the balance between work and play had lifted a weight off of my chest, and probably Elle’s as well. She could finally stop hounding me about staying in most weekends to prevent myself from falling behind.
My relationship with Wes had changed after that night in my apartment. We hung out frequently, usually in groups, but there were times when it was just the two of us. His mood was lighter and it seemed that sharing that information with me had helped him tear down some of his walls. I was still in disbelief over what he’d told me but I didn’t let it show. I knew that if he thought I pitied him than he’d put those walls back up.
He had opened up even more to me a few times and he even explained the reason for which he had to take a leave of absence last year. It turned out that his father had ran off when he was only four years old, right after the birth of his little sister, Ariana. When their mother died, Reese had been able to take care of Ariana while he was released on bail, awaiting his trial. Unfortunately, even though Reese didn’t own the vehicle with the drugs and pleaded to not knowing that they had even been in the car, he was sentenced to two years in a state prison for drug possession. Apparently the owner of the car had adamantly denied owning the heroine and placed the blame solely on Reese. There was nothin
g just about the situation but the jury had found him guilty and so he had no choice but to serve the time. Reese had been sentenced during the beginning of Wes’s second semester of sophomore year and a family friend had been able to care of Ariana, but only until Wes finished up the year. He had no choice but to take a leave of absence and care for his younger sister as well as sort the finances following their mother’s untimely death. While Wes didn’t blame Reese’s imprisonment for his mother’s heart attack, the timing of her death made everything more painful. During that year, Wes was able to get in touch with their father who offered to take care of Ariana. Because she had never known him, Ariana was looking forward to living with him. Wes said that he wasn’t a bad guy and that he just wasn’t ready for a family. He lived a couple of hours away and was remarried with two other children, and so Wes was able to continue finishing his degree without too much worry about his younger sister.