Garrison
Of course, I left my window open tonight like Jameson requested, and when he climbs through at midnight, I’m insanely happy until I see him clutching his side.
“What’s wrong?” I’m off my bed and next to him way too damn fast, but I couldn’t care less. He’s definitely hurt.
He tries to wave it off, playing it down. “I’m fine. A fucking goat rammed me.”
“A what?” I try not to laugh. He’s obviously hurt, and it’s not the time to laugh. But a goddamn goat?
“Shut up. He’s huge.”
“I’m sure he is,” I say in a placating but slightly mocking tone, and he flips me off, fumbling out of his jacket.
“Someone promised me a neck rub.”
“Yeah, I can do that.” I lead him over to the bed, and we both sit down. “But I’m guessing that’s all we can do.”
“Fuck, no. We can fool around. I’m fine.” Even just sitting still, though, I can hear his voice is strained with the pain of his injury.
“Yeah. No, you’re not.” I rub his shoulders with my hands, and he leans into it. “What did you say to the goat to piss him off?”
I swear I can feel him roll his eyes, but I just continue with the massage. “I didn’t say anything. I was trying to put him in his new fence, and he’s an asshole.”
I chuckle. “Farming isn’t for the weak.”
“No shit,” he laughs, but I can hear something else there too. Something darker.
“What’s wrong with Travis?” I didn’t feel the usual jealousy when I saw them together today. I don’t really know why. Maybe because things with Jameson have kind of shifted or maybe because of the agony I saw on Travis’s face today. I don’t really know, but it wasn’t jealousy I felt.
“He got some bad news.”
“Like, he’s sick?” I ask and wonder if maybe I’ve been watching too many Lifetime movies lately. I can’t help it, they’re my weakness. I live for the drama in that shit.
“No.” He turns to look at me over his shoulder. “He applied for a scholarship and didn’t get it.”
My eyes widen in surprise. “He didn’t?” He’s the smartest guy in our class by far. “Why not?”
He shrugs, and I still feel the tension in his shoulders. My massage isn’t doing a damn thing to help. “I don’t know. He said he’s Kensley smart, not rest of the world smart. But I know he is. If anyone deserves to go to college, it’s him.”
“He really wanted that? To go to college?”
He nods and pulls my hands off his shoulders, both of us settling on my bed on our backs, with our heads resting on the pillows. “Yeah. He did. He wants out of here. To be free.”
My chest pings with an ache I’ve tried to push away for so long. Free. “Yeah. I get that.”
He looks up at me, setting his head on my chest, but not moving his torso much. “Do you want to go to college?”
I snort at that, the thought so fucking ridiculous. “Yeah, right. I barely managed a 2.0 GPA in high school. It’d be worse in college.”
“A community college around here would kill to have you on their football team, Dixon. You could go if you wanted to.”
I study his face for a moment, seeing the seriousness there.
Does he want me to go? Or does he want to go?
Would he want us to go together? I don’t know.
I can’t read him. “Yeah, for football season. Then they’d kick my ass to the curb as soon as I failed every single class.
” College isn’t for me, and I know that.
“I’ll probably go into landscaping or something like Kingston. ”
He works around here, and I’m sure he makes a decent living.
Oakley’s dad has his own business and makes a killing.
“Yeah, that wouldn’t be bad.” His hand trails over my stomach.
I don’t have a shirt on, thinking I was going to get lucky, but then my boyfriend had to go and get into a fight with a goat.
My entire body stiffens at the thought. Boyfriend. Is that what he is?
“Are you my boyfriend?” I blurt out and feel his entire body tense too. Fucking stupid, Dixon. Jesus Christ. Keep your mouth shut for once. “Never mind. That was stupid.” I quickly try to backpedal, but then I see the grin on his face.
“Holy shit. I think I am.”
My eyes light up. “Yeah?”
He nods. “Yeah.”
I like the sound of that more than I should. “Who fucking knew?” He chuckles, but then winces, and damn it, he really is hurt. I sit up. “Let me see.”
“You wanna kiss it and make it all better?”
“If you can’t even laugh without it hurting, I’m guessing you don’t want my lips on you, but sure.”
“I always want your lips on me, just for your information,” he says, but I ignore him and lift his shirt, seeing his side is dark purple and looks gnarly.
“Jesus fuck, Jameson. You need to go to the hospital.”
He waves me off, yanking his shirt back down and pulling me into his side. “I’m fine. Trust me, I’ve had much worse. This is just part of it.”
I don’t like it at all. “You really should get it checked out.”
“I’m fine. Really. Last year I nearly broke my damn hand, working in the barn. It healed in a week. Never went to the doctor.”
“You’re a stubborn asshole,” I say but nuzzle into him like a needy cat.
“That’s me. But really, I’m fine. Nothing’s broken. It’s just a bruise, and luckily, it missed most of my ribs.”
I decide to stop arguing with him. I know he’s tough, but he’s also pretty damn smart. If he needed to go to the doctor, I think he would. “Do you want to go to college?”
He laughs at that, shaking his head. “Nah. Don’t need to.”
“Because it’s farming for you.”
He nods, not saying anything. He doesn’t have to. It’s his legacy, whether he wants it or not.
“Maybe we can go together. Just run off to college. Play on the team. Get a little house off campus.”
He grins, looking up at the ceiling and lets his eyes drift closed. I think he’s letting that fantasy take over, like I am for the moment. “Yeah. Maybe. Throw parties every Friday.”
“Games will be on Saturday in college. Can’t party the night before a game.”
He chuckles and then winces again but keeps talking. “True. Fine. Party Saturday night into every Sunday.”
“Yeah. That would be cool. But not a big city like Camden. A small one that has a community college, so we don’t lose ourselves in that big city mess,” I joke, and he smiles, his eyes still closed.
“Yeah. That sounds good.”
It really does. We both know it’ll never happen.
We aren’t going to college, and soon, high school will be over.
And he’ll be done with me.