Chapter 33
Magnolia
“Shit,” I said as I watched Sloan walk outside to my car to get my phone.
I was feeling a bit betrayed by my body because, after him getting all protective over me had it tingling absolutely everywhere. Mix that with all the help and absolute adoration he was showing Peaches and her puppies, and I was an absolute pile of fucking goo.
Clearing my throat, regretting not only agreeing to this evening, but initiating it, I walked over to the employee break room to grab some paper plates for the pizza Sloan had deposited in the kitchen.
The smell of melty cheese and all my favorite toppings had me squealing in delight. Zio’s.
It was a local pizza parlor that had been around forever, and to be honest, I had completely forgotten about it until I smelled it. It used to be my favorite .
I had a lot of memories with Sloan eating this pizza, so maybe that’s why I had chosen to forget it. Whenever I was grumpy or in a bad mood, he would order this pizza; whenever I was stressed about a test or my mom, he’d order this pizza.
“I see that Zio’s still makes you happy.”
“You have no idea.” I opened the first pizza box and groaned at the sight. It had sausage, mushrooms, green peppers, and onions. It was my favorite pizza of all…and Sloan’s, too.
“Good call on getting two, though; I’m starving.”
Sloan slid a plate to me and then moved the box from the top of the other one and opened it. Inside lay a travesty of a pizza: pepperoni, jalapeno, and pineapple.
I frowned. “What’s this?”
“My pizza.” Sloan shrugged
“Do you no longer like this kind?”
“No, I really don’t like green peppers, and mushrooms taste like wet boogers.”
I looked at him like he had two heads. “But…this is the pizza you always got us.”
“I always got it for you ,” he said while shoveling in a slice of his.
“I don’t understand.”
“My allowance only covered one pizza from Zio’s—that place was expensive for a kid.” He laughed. “But now I’m a grown up and can afford two pizzas.”
My mind was spinning. What?
“I don’t…I don’t understand.”
Sloan sighed, almost as if embarrassed that he had said anything in the first place. “You loved Zio’s, and it made you happy…”
“So you ate the wet booger mushrooms?” I couldn’t help the smile on my face.
He smiled back at me. “So I ate the mushrooms.”
Damnit, the tingles are back.
Being a glutton for punishment, I couldn’t help but ask, “Why didn’t you tell me you didn’t like mushrooms or green peppers?”
Without hesitation, he answered, “Because I knew you’d insist on getting something we both liked, and I liked how happy it made you. Plus, who can’t use more vegetables in their diet?”
I knew he was trying to make a joke out of this , but for some reason , this really struck a chord with me. This was the Sloan I had tried to forget . And maybe that’s what made everything so much worse ; Sloan was always a good guy, a good friend. He helped his neighbors, mowed grass for the elderly, and helped his parents .
“Why her, Sloan?” I whispered, looking at my pizza that suddenly felt like more than just pizza.
“You want the short answer or the long answer, Magnolia?” The way his deep voice said my name had me looking at him. My eyes met his, and I saw the regret, pain, and the almost reluctance to hear my answer.
“Short, then maybe the long version?” I answered by doing my best to be honest with how I was feeling. If I could handle the short version, then maybe I would be okay hearing the long version—it had been almost a decade since we last really knew each other.
“Okay, short version. Boy meets girl, they become best friends. Boy starts realizing things he shouldn’t about his best friend, like the way her ass looks in the jeans she wore to a pep rally one day.”
“I remember those jeans! I remember that day! Robbie Falkens hit on me that day.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at the memory, even though Sloan was basically growling through his teeth at the mention of it.
I was standing in the bleachers, waiting for the gym teacher to signal the start of the cheerleaders before they introduced the football team. Even though it was the start of the season, it was colder than I was expecting, and while I had worn jeans and a sweater, I didn’t bring gloves. I was rubbing my hands together, waiting for this to be over with when…
“Hey, Magnolia, are you excited about this school year?”
A quick glance to my left showed me it was Robbie Falkens, the class clown, standing beside me, grinning.
I shot him an unamused look. “I’d be happier if they made these things optional instead of mandatory.”
That got a rather loud and unnecessary laugh out of Robbie, and I turned to face him and ask him what he wanted when, before I could protest or move, he crushed his lips to mine.
I was frozen, stunned, until a large body came between us, and I instantly felt it was Sloan,
“What the fuck, dude?” Sloan growled in Robbie’s face.
Robbie held his hands up in surrender. “Hey, she didn’t say no!”
But Sloan was having none of it. “I heard the whole conversation, and in no way did she invite you to kiss her.”
“Dude, you need to chill out…” Before the last word barely left his mouth, Sloan reared back his right hand and socked him right in the nose. The crunching sound was deafening, and then the shouting started, and everything after that was a bit of a blur. I was so worried that Sloan was going to be expelled.
“You never did tell me how you barely got in trouble for that.”
“That little prick… I informed the school that he kissed you without consent, and if I was getting expelled or in trouble, then so should he. His parents panicked about it going on his permanent record and having to switch schools in such a small area, so they figured it best the subject was dropped.”
“I feel like we got off topic here.” I feel like we’re treading on dangerous territory.
“Right, sorry. Okay, so, boy meets girl, they become best friends. Boy starts realizing things he shouldn’t about his best friend, like the way her ass looks in the jeans she wore to a pep rally one day…”
He turned to raise his eyebrows at me, as if waiting for me to interject again. I couldn’t help but smile and stay silent, so he continued, “He realizes he has all these feelings for someone he should not be having feelings for. He gives in to the first girl who showed him attention, dated her because he was young and dumb, misplacing a lot of feelings. Best friend leaves, he sinks into a depression, stays with the wrong girl for the wrong reasons, grows up, wises up, realizes his mistakes and some hard truths he tried to bury. He does his best to move on…and now, here we are”
His eyes met mine again, and I saw shame, and a little shockingly, what looked like some self -hatred.
Keeping eye contact, I murmured, “Now I think I want to hear the long version.”