Chapter 9
Brian
There was a hole in my bedroom wall right behind the headboard.
I punched it in when I was eight because I’d just gotten a bad grade.
Nobody ever bothered to plaster it over.
My mom pretended not to see it so every morning I’d hit it again, always in the same place to not give Amelia a reason to worry.
My sheets were always in a heap in the morning, a battlefield on which I was forced to fight against the night.
Every night I found the sheets reorganized in perfect order by Miss Maria, but I knew they’d go back to the way they were.
I tapped my phone to turn off the alarm, but I was still tired. I dragged myself to the window.
A figure on the lawn came into view. Amelia was vaping. I pulled up the blinds.
“First thing in the morning? It’s 6:40, what’s your deal?”
“Chill. I only take two hits before breakfast,” she yelled from downstairs.
I’m gonna kill him. Hunter had been back for less than a week, and he had already started slinging his usual shit: prescription pills, weed, and party drugs of all kinds.
“I’m not taking you to class high. Get back inside,” I threatened. Now time for the usual morning routine—shower, boxers, shirt, pants, and jacket.
I was put together and well groomed enough to look like my mom’s son.
It was a shame that I only saw my dad’s reflection.
I went downstairs. Amelia was pouring maple syrup onto a pancake.
“She’s already in court.”
My mom was a defense attorney.
I poured some coffee as Amelia laughed at her phone.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“The girls and I are throwing a party.”
“Seriously? Why? But most importantly, where?”
“Calm down, not here. It’s to celebrate June moving here.”
I was glad June was fitting in, but it didn’t seem like a good enough excuse to raise hell. Also that would mean that Ari would drag me to something I had no interest in being at. “Not at his place,” I clarified.
Amelia poured cold milk into a steaming cup of coffee and looked me up and down.
“James has the biggest house out of—”
“Not at his place,” I said, putting my foot down. “Besides, he and June can’t stand each other, so I doubt he’d be up for it.”
I turned around suddenly to hide my rage. “Did you already talk to him about it before telling me? Don’t you understand why you shouldn’t talk with that—”
I clenched my teeth.
“Brian, chill. I’m not talking to James. I just want June to understand that she’s fully part of our group.”
My sister talked a big game about being a rebellious, nonconformist bad girl, but she was actually very na?ve.
“It’s just an excuse to make trouble. And we’ve had enough of that.” I shook my head as she scoffed loudly.
“Let’s go. We’ll talk about it later. Is Ari coming this afternoon?”
“I don’t know,” I said curtly.
“All right, let me know, so I can give you some privacy.” She made a mischievous face that I pretended not to see, because there was nothing mischievous about my relationship.
“Cut it out.”
“You were fun once upon a time, Brian.” Once.
>> <<
The bell hadn’t rung yet. Blaze was fiddling with a chain between his fingers as I stared into space.
We were sitting on the lawn enjoying the morning peace and quiet when the rumble of a sports car caught our attention.
I didn’t even have to turn around to know who it was.
Hunter and his friends were making their grand entrance.
“Did you just see a ghost?” I asked as I saw Blaze’s facial expression suddenly change.
“No, forget it.” He shook his head.
“Can’t we move on with our lives and pretend he’s not back?” I complained, noticing that he was staring at Hunter’s group.
“We’ll just not go, Brian.”
“Of course. Are you gonna be the one to tell my girlfriend that?”
“Sure, I’ll tell her. But be careful. Soon your reputation will beat mine.”
“Meaning?” I scowled.
“That you’re getting boring.”
“Is that what the girls say about you?” I teased.
He shrugged and went back to staring at the gate.
“Who’s the lucky girl?” I asked.
“What?”
“You’ve been staring at the gate for a while. Do you want me to pretend not to notice?”
“If you could mind your own business, that would be great, Brian.”
Blaze was reserved; he’d never had a girlfriend, and I rarely ever saw him talk to any girls.
“Do you like June?” I probed.
“June?”
I nodded; he was already starting to shrug.
“Eh, she’s cute.”
Blaze’s expression only meant one thing: Not much to look at.
Blaze was the kind of guy who got excited about Game of Thrones and described it as “sublime” and “off the charts.” If he was that noncommittal about June, he must not be interested in her at all.
“I think she’s really pretty.” I threw that out there to gauge his reaction. It seemed strange to me that someone like Blaze wasn’t into June.
He was a smart, deep guy—he didn’t only care about appearances, and he never gave in to the advances of even the most uninhibited girls. To me, June seemed sharper than the average chick, but even she didn’t do it for him.
“You don’t even know her,” Blaze shot back.
Jackson and Tiffany appeared on the lawn. Obviously they were with Hunter.
“I actually talked to her a few times. And unlike Poppy and the others, she seemed like she could carry on a serious conversation.”
“You realize that you’re also low-key insulting your sister, right?” He rolled his eyes. “Not to mention Ari . . .”
Blaze was my best friend for one reason: He didn’t know how to lie. He told you exactly what he thought. And if Ari was sometimes superficial, I knew it too. But I loved her, warts and all.
“Let’s change the subject.”
I lost his attention as soon as Hunter sat down on a bench near us. He had a vape between his lips and wore his usual arrogant expression. Jackson settled in nearby with his arm around Tiffany, who seemed to have just rolled a joint.
Hunter stretched his arm out on the back of the bench and fiddled with Tiffany’s curls and Jackson’s jacket collar.
He was shameless. I would’ve liked if he was all bark and no bite, but he’d been boxing since he was in elementary school.
The last time we encountered each other he sent me to the hospital with two broken ribs.
He could’ve killed me. I still wondered what had stopped him.
“They disgust me. They change girlfriends like they change their underwear.” I realized this while watching Tiffany giggle in Jackson’s ear. “Wasn’t she with Hunter? What’s she doing with the other one?”
“Jackson isn’t with Tiffany,” Blaze blurted.
“Hold on, are you jealous of them?” My sister’s voice surprised us, blaring like a horn.
Amelia sat next to us as Blaze blushed.
“I guess we got him this time,” I commented.
“No, Blaze. Please, not Tiffany. She’s even worse than Taylor!”
“What are you talking about, nobody’s worse than Taylor,” he corrected her.
“At least Taylor’s a bitch. Tiffany’s so vapid that it’s scary,” I said without a hint of tact.
“Who are you talking about?”
We heard steps behind us.
I grinned as I recognized Ari’s voice. She slipped under my arms.
“Brian . . .”
I caressed her cheek even though I recognized her tone. She wanted something. “Tell me, honey.”
I ignored Blaze’s and Amelia’s grossed-out expressions as Ari and I rubbed the tips of our noses against each other.
“We were thinking about throwing a party . . .”
“Okay,” I grumbled despondently.
The deck was stacked against me, which was why I gave in so easily.
Ari ran her fingers through my hair to ruffle it as she gazed at me with her cat eyes.
“Okay? Just like that, without putting up a fight? If I’d asked you, you’d have told me to go to hell,” Blaze exclaimed.
Ari smiled. “It’s the way I ask him, Blaze,” she revealed.
“Yeah, it’s the long eyelashes.”
“And the great tits that you don’t have, Blaze,” added Amelia, inappropriate like always.
Blaze jumped up as the bell rang. He’d been really elusive lately. In fact, I thought he was seeing June on the sly.
“Wanna study together?” he asked before heading out.
“Brian’s with me today,” interjected Ari.
“Leave them alone, Blaze. They’re making me nauseated,” Amelia said.
Blaze and Amelia disappeared as Ari threw her arms around my neck.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea, I have to study today,” I said.
“You always have to study. Can you at least make up another excuse?”
“It’s not a lie, it’s true.” My voice barely cracked.
Would there always be this divide between us? Would the day ever come when I could tell her everything?
“We’ve been together for two years, Brian,” she muttered under her breath.
“I know. But I can’t today.”
“Then promise me you’ll come to the party this weekend. Do it for me. Don’t say you will and then not show up.”
I nodded absentmindedly. “I promise.”
“And promise that you’re not gonna go home trashed.”
“You know I can’t drink. We have games.”
She suddenly had a dark look on her face. She fiddled with the ponytail, which fell on her back before she started talking again. “I’m referring to getting beaten up if you get into it with James.”
I heard an annoying whistle, which made it impossible to think reasonably. “Why do you call him by his first name?”
“Brian . . .”
“You shouldn’t even look at him.”
I realized I was squeezing her hand too hard as Ari pulled it away.
“Please, don’t be jealous of him.”
“I’m not stupid. I see how he looks at you.”
I tried to loosen up, but my tone was still cutting.
Ari stared at her hands for a few seconds. “I gotta go. I got math first period, and you know she hates me.” She slipped between my fingers, almost like she was fleeing from me.
“Will he be at the party too?” I asked, grabbing her by the wrist.
“Of course he will. We’ll probably go to William’s. His parents are traveling.” She laced her fingers in mine.
It was a vicious cycle. I always hoped things would change, but they never did.
“Will and June have a date tonight. If they get together, you’ll have to start considering closing the door on everything that happened last year.” I made a face, and she smiled.
“Brian?” Ari stood up and looked down at me.
“Yeah?”
“I’m coming over this afternoon. And I’m not in the mood to study.”