Chapter 11 #2
“Aesthetically,” I echoed with a snort. “You’ve been reading books with long words in them again.”
“Shut up.” He laughed softly, but it was true what Lee had joked about earlier.
Cash was the smart twin. He was always reading all kinds of books, and he loved watching TV shows about science and history and shit like that.
He’d raided Avery’s bookshelf plenty of times.
And at work when he wore his earbuds, he didn’t even listen to music.
It was all audiobooks. His brain was like a sponge.
It made me sad sometimes to think about what he might have achieved if he’d had the chance to go to college or whatever.
As it was, we hadn’t even graduated high school.
But we’d made it out of there, which wasn’t nothing.
We sat out there for a while longer, passing the beer back and forth because we were both too lazy to grab another one, and Cash leaned his head on my shoulder and relaxed against me. The weight was familiar and grounding, and the disquiet in me slowly settled. Still there, but not as loud.
A punch to the face wasn’t how I’d have chosen to introduce Lee and Cash, but they’d both gotten past it.
And now that I’d had some time to calm down, I kind of liked the idea that Lee had wanted to fool around some more.
But most importantly, he hadn’t acted like Cash was some kind of weirdo or there was something wrong with him for reacting the way he did.
“You ever think what would have happened if you’d said no to Danny that night?” Cash asked me.
Every fucking day.
I swallowed. “Yeah.”
“It’s okay to trust people sometimes.”
“I know.” Except I hadn’t trusted Danny that night.
I hadn’t trusted him for weeks. He’d just been slightly less terrifying than the dumpster rats, plus Cash had been sick.
If he hadn’t been and I hadn’t been desperate, who knew where we would have ended up?
Nowhere good probably. Hell, we hadn’t even had any place in mind when we’d run away.
Just anywhere that wasn’t that fucking house.
The away had been the important bit.
I drew a deep breath. “Stop giving me idiot pep talks.” I read his expression.
“They’re pep talks, but for idiots. Like you can’t just come out and say that I have trust issues, like I don’t already know that.
You gotta coax me into it by reminding me that one time I trusted Danny, and it all worked out great, and hope that I know you’re really talking about Lee. ”
“Well, in fairness, you are an idiot,” Cash said.
“Asshole.”
He grinned. “I know.”
My shitty phone buzzed with an incoming message, and I pulled it out and checked the cracked screen. It was from Lee.
Hey, tell Cash I’m sorry again. And Sam wants to know if you guys and Wilder and Gracie can come to her birthday party next weekend?
My eyebrows must have shot all the way up to my hairline because Cash grabbed my phone and read the message.
“Nuh-uh,” he said. “You should go, though.”
He typed out a message and hit send before I had a chance to stop him.
Cash says no.
“Asshole,” I said and hurriedly typed out another message under that one.
I’ll come, and I’ll check with Wilder and Gracie. Cash says he’ll forgive you if you make him more biko.
“Asshole!” Cash elbowed me hard. “It was gross!”
“It was awesome,” I said, “and you’re outvoted.” Then my stomach clenched as the thought hit me. “What the fuck am I supposed to get Sam for a present?”
When Lee’s truck pulled into the driveway on Wednesday night, I tugged at the collar of my shirt nervously and tried to ignore the butterflies in my stomach.
I didn’t even know what I was nervous about—I’d had Lee’s dick in my ass so often we’d lost count.
Going out to dinner was no big deal, right?
The butterflies and I both knew I was full of shit.
“Hey,” I said when I climbed into the truck. “Let’s go.”
I didn’t want any of the guys looking out and seeing what was going on. I hadn’t told any of them I was going on a date, but I figured that Cash knew since he’d seen me dig through our closet looking for a shirt with a collar that wasn’t plaid flannel.
“Hey,” Lee said as he backed out of the driveway.
I was used to seeing him in those khaki pants Bobby had decided were our uniform, with his baker’s jacket and apron and stupid little hat.
Tonight he was wearing jeans that looked nice and tight on his thick thighs, some kind of retro band T-shirt, and a suede bomber jacket. He looked good.
I wished it looked like I’d made an effort too.
I mean, I had, but it probably didn’t look like it since Cash and I shopped at Goodwill and, when we were feeling especially rich, Walmart.
As it was, I’d rolled up the cuffs on the dark blue shirt I was wearing to hide the fact that the buttons were missing on one sleeve.
There was no hiding that I needed a new jacket, though.
“There’s a good burger place in South Hill,” Lee said as he drove. “That work for you?”
“Whatever,” I said, but the butterflies settled down some. At least I knew how to act at a burger joint.
“You had a good day?” Lee asked me as we drove out of Goose Run.
“You saw me like three hours ago at work,” I said.
“It’s small talk, Chase.”
“It’s weird.”
He snorted out a laugh. “I guess it is.”
He reached out and turned up the volume on his stereo, and the blast of classic Springsteen carried us all the way to South Hill.
The place we pulled up at didn’t look like much—a low-set brick building with a flickering neon sign, a gravel parking lot out front, and a gas station across the road—but Lee said, “The nachos are great too.”
The place didn’t look fancy, but the inside was pretty nice, and once we walked through to the back, there was an outdoor garden eating area with wooden picnic tables and fire pits.
It smelled pretty great too, and the combination of grilled meat and fried onions wafting through the air made my stomach growl.
On the other side of the fence, large trees rose up, making it feel like we were surrounded by forest. There was even a little wooden stage in one corner of the garden, but it was empty tonight.
We sat together at a small table near a fire pit, and I looked through the menu.
“I don’t know if I want chicken wings or nachos,” I said.
“Get both,” Lee suggested. “We can share.”
I narrowed my eyes at the menu, then at him. “If we’re sharing, you’re paying.”
“I invited you,” he said. “And I already said when you agreed to come that I’m paying.”
“Then maybe I want a burger too.”
“Okay,” he said.
Great. Now I didn’t know if I wanted wings or nachos or a burger.
Lee shot me a glance across the table and said, “I’m getting the wings and nachos. We can share if you want.”
“And a burger,” I said quickly, before he changed his mind.
“Sure thing. What do you want to drink? They have a good selection of beers here.”
“Do they card you, though?”
He blinked at me. “How old are you, Chase?”
“Seems like that’s the sort of question you should have asked before you railed me in our workplace,” I said. “Repeatedly.”
Who knew someone with his skin tone could blush?
“I know you’re not a kid,” he said. “Just… how old are you?”
“Twenty,” I said.
“Then I guess we’ll just have sodas.”
“How old are you?” I asked.
“Twenty-four.”
“Okay, that’s not creepy then,” I said. “Good. I want a Coke.”
“Look at us,” Lee said after a girl came and took our order, “making small talk. So, are you from Goose Run originally?”
“No,” I said.
“Cool. Where are you—”
“Where are you from?” I shot back before he could even finish asking the question.
“I was born in Norfolk, but my parents moved to Emporia when I was small enough I don’t remember living anywhere else,” he said.
“My grandparents, my dad’s parents, live in Hampton Roads, but they’re both from the Philippines originally.
My mom’s parents are from somewhere in South Carolina, but she hasn’t spoken to them since she broke the news she was marrying a Filipino guy, so I’ve never met them. ”
“Oh,” I said, wondering why he was telling me all this. I’d asked where he was from, not his whole family history. And I’d only asked in the first place so I didn’t have to answer him. “What happened to your dad?”
“Cancer,” he said, and I gave a guilty jolt. “Me and Sam were just kids. So it was pretty scary, you know, when Sam got diagnosed too. Like everyone kept saying she had fantastic odds, but that’s pretty hard to keep in mind when you remember your dad passing from the same thing.”
I felt bad I’d asked. Small talk wasn’t meant to include dead parents probably. But what the hell did I know? “Oh. She’s okay now, though, right?”
“Yeah.” His smile was full of relief. “I mean, she still has to go for regular checks, but the doctors have given her the all clear.”
“That’s good,” I said and added, “I like Sam.”
Lee’s expression softened. “It was rough for a while there. She’s fine now, but I still feel like I need to watch out for her, you know?”
“Yeah,” I said, thinking of the nights I stayed awake listening for the roar of Cash’s dirt bike.
We talked some more while we waited. I told Lee about the time Bobby’s goose chased a little kid down the main street, and he told me about the time Sam had tried to smuggle a kitten home and cried for days when her mom returned it.
We didn’t talk about anything important, just dumb shit that had us both laughing, and by the time the server came back with our meals, any first date nerves I’d had had disappeared.
I didn’t waste any time attacking my burger, and holy shit, it was incredible.
It was so good that when I caught Lee’s mouth quirking up in a smile as I licked sauce off my fingers I ignored it, too invested in the food to bother giving him shit.
And even though it was a decent-sized burger, I wasn’t going to turn down free food, so once I was finished I stole some of Lee’s food as well.
If he hadn’t meant it about sharing, then he shouldn’t have offered.
It didn’t take long until I was full, though, and I pushed the nachos away.
“I’m done,” I said, leaning back in my seat and patting my belly. “It was good, though,” I added, because for some stupid reason I wanted him to know he’d picked a good place for our date.
Lee gave a small pleased smile, and my insides danced in anticipation. I’d never been on a date before, but it seemed like this one was going pretty well. And now we’d go somewhere and I’d give him a blow job to finish off the evening, right?
Wrong.
When we drove back toward Goose Run, I kept waiting for him to pull over into a parking area, but he didn’t.
We pulled up outside my house and he cut the engine.
He leaned over toward me, and I was just about to tell him that I wasn’t going to blow him in full view of my house when his mouth brushed mine.
It was hardly even a proper kiss. I didn’t even register it until it was over and Lee was already leaning back.
“I had fun tonight,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow at work, okay?”
What?
“Yeah, okay,” I said and got out of the truck.
I waited until he’d left before I walked into the house, wondering if that unsettled feeling in my stomach was rejection or if it was something even worse—the growing realization that Lee didn’t just see me as a quick and easy way to get off, but as an actual person.
And I really wasn’t sure what to think about that at all.