Chapter 5
Crimson
We were on day two of our trip in Michigan and the wedding festivities were ending at a campground site in the middle of a National Park. I couldn’t believe Ant expected us, or me, to sleep in a damn tent with sleeping bags. This shit was irritating, and it was something I never saw myself doing. Like never. There were too many TV shows where people were getting knocked off from being somewhere they shouldn’t be, and this is one of those places. It was a little past six o’clock in the evening and folks were setting up their tents for the night. The more I thought about my surroundings, the more I wanted to give Ant a piece of my mind.
And to add to my frustration, Brynn had avoided me like the plague. After we arrived at the winery, she got lost in the crowd and focused most of her attention on Ant and Rob. She even occupied her time with getting to know Ant’s fiancée well. Watching her now across the way, chatting it up with old college friends, made me jealous. How dare she kick me to the curb like yesterday’s news? I thought we were better than this.
A crackling sound to my right had me jerking my neck in a damn three-hundred-and-sixty-degree circle.
What the fuck was that?I thought.
Spotting Ant coming from behind a tree, I stepped in his path. “Bruh, why do you have all our black asses out here in the wilderness? Don’t you know we can get eaten by a damn bear or a peacock,” I fussed.
He chuckled. “Shut the hell up, fool. There’s no peacocks in the wild. I told you to bring bug spray and clothes you don’t mind sleeping in for a night.”
“Look, I’m scared of those gigantic birds with colorful feathers. Them things look like they can peck you to death.”
He shook his head. “That’s the least of your problems.” He cocked an eyebrow. “What about that damn interview Jordan did on your ass? What’re you going to do about that?”
Groaning, I shook my head and widened my eyes at him. “Bruuuuh, I don’t know,” I said, rubbing my head. “That shit just came out of left field. I didn’t think she would go on national TV and talk crap about me.”
“Dude, that’s publicity for her, but she’s killing your sales. How many clients have you lost so far?” he asked with a scowl.
Rubbing the back of my neck, I recalled the phone call I’d gotten from Poncho the other day telling me to bring up the news on my phone. It’s crazy how bitter people got when a relationship ended. I’d never been that dude who grumbled over the things I couldn’t control.
“Poncho called today and said I was at six vendors who had decided not to buy my product anymore,” I told Ant.
“Shiiiit.” Ant frowned. “Who in the hell would’ve thought she’d be that well liked that she could stop people from shopping with you?”
“Exactly,” I stated, throwing my hands in the air.
Ant narrowed his eyes. “I told you if you needed to go back to the city to take care of things I understand.”
Shaking my head, I acknowledged, “There’s nothing I can do about it, Ant. Going back to Chicago will just fuel the fires with the reporters trying to follow me around and get my side of the story.”
Ant nodded as Rob stepped to his left.
“What the hell y’all over here talking about?” he asked, while spraying the OFF repellent on his legs, arms, neck, and even his goddamned face.
“Damn, bruh, did you get your dick, too?” Ant asked as I hooted out loud and bowed over, slapping my leg.
Rob threw up a middle finger and moved to his back to spray the repellent there as well. As my laughter subsided, Ant revealed to Rob, “We were trying to figure out how to save his farm from losing clients after that damn interview Jordan did.”
Rob shrugged. “I don’t know why you dated her anyway, Crim. For one, she’s a celebrity. For two, she’s a celebrity ….”
“Get to the damn point,” I told him with frustration.
“Anndd,” Rob smirked, “she’s a meat eater. I don’t know how y’all two date women who eat meat. Yuck.”
“This nigga,” Ant stated with a smile while pointing at Rob. “Anything else, health freak?”
“I’m just saying, anyone who pollutes their body with animals is known to pop off.”
I side-eyed Rob. Ten years ago, he decided to become a vegetarian, and ever since then he’d been preaching to us about the effects of meat and what it did to your brain, body, and let him tell it, it predicted your mood as well.
“Anyways,” I said to change the subject back to my pressing issue at hand, “I don’t know what to do.” My phone dinged with a message notification, and I yanked it from my jean pocket to see a text message from Poncho stating we lost three more vendors.
“Fuck,” I yelped.
“What is it?” Ant asked, stepping forward.
“That’s nine vendors now,” I shouted.
“Damn, bro.” Rob slapped my shoulder. “What you need …” He paused.
“What?” I asked, eagerly awaiting to hear what he had to say, which was rare for me.
“You need to get Brynn to feature your cultivation center as her 4/20 column at her paper.”
“Ahhh, that shit ain’t happening,” Ant shouted with a shake of his head.
“Y’all haven’t made up yet?” Rob asked.
“She don’t want to have anything to do with him,” Ant chimed in.
“Do you even know why she’s mad at you?” Ant asked with a curious gaze. “Because when I asked her over the years, she’d always tell me to leave it alone and she didn’t want to talk about it.”
“Yep, that’s what she told me, too,” Rob quipped.
“I do and I don’t,” I revealed. “But before this trip is over, I’ll get the answers I’m seeking. She can’t avoid me forever.”
“Who’s avoiding who?” Brynn voice echoed from behind me.
“Uh, nobody avoiding nobody,” Rob said with a stupid smirk on his face.
She eyed me and Ant with a narrowed gaze before she asked, “Who wants to hit this?”
She stuck out her arm, revealing the lit joint.
“I need that shit.” I motioned to grab it first. After taking several puffs, I handed it to Ant who did the same.
It was just like old times again with all of us back together. This was how we all met, sharing and bonding over our love for weed. It’d gotten us through some tough times in our life. Especially our college years when we had to pull all-nighters to study for a test.
The joint came back around my way again and I took another drag, watching Rob and Ant pick up Brynn and swing her in the air like they did back in our college days. She fought and scrummed for them to free her.
When they placed her back on her feet, she cussed them out, which caused me to laugh uncontrollably. Oh yeah, we were all feeling the effects of the herb now.
“Y’all assholes,” Brynn screamed at Ant and Rob. “We are not in college no more, and y’all can’t swing me around like that … jerks. I’m a grown ass woman.”
Brynn fussing fell on deaf ears, because Rob and Ant were rearing back on their tennis shoes laughing. Rob’s eyes had glossed over with a mist, and Ant’s eyes had turned to a solid red. This was when I knew their asses were high as fuck.
“Forget it,” Brynn mumbled and stormed off toward her tent.
Feeling tired myself, I took another puff and then passed the joint to Rob. “Hey, I’ll see y’all fools in the morning for the hike.”
They just kept laughing and started hugging each, speaking words that I couldn’t quite make out. Waving my hand at them, I flicked the flashlight that had been in my back pocket on and made my way back to my half standing tent.
I thought I’d followed the directions on the pamphlet, but somewhere along the way I screwed something up. Oh well, I thought as I unzipped the opening and flopped down inside facing the lopsided tent ceiling. I left a crack in the opening to let a breeze in.
Resting my arms behind my head, I pondered over maybe asking Brynn to make Cromwell Cultivation Center her 4/20 spotlight. Over the years, I’d followed her columns. Whichever marijuana business she’d chosen to sample as a spotlight would boom in sales. That’s what I needed to get back on top after the stunt Jordan had pulled.
I closed my eyes. The last thing I needed her to think was that I was using her to bring my business back to life. I loved her.
Wait. What the heck I just say?I sat forward and stared out at a few people who were sitting around a fire they had made. Truth be told, I’d had those feelings since I first met Brynn, but she made it clear that she wasn’t interested in none of us, so I never made a move.
After she shot Ant down numerous times, I knew she didn’t want me. So, I accepted the next best thing from her … friendship. Over time, me being attracted to her grew to love. I’d turned down so many girls in college, waiting on Brynn to give me some type of sign or a damn signal to let me know she saw me in the same way, but she never said anything.
So, when her roommate made a move on me, I went for it. She would always hang around Brynn. Sometimes, I wished she’d take her ass home. Even when I had my step shows, she was always front and center cheering me on.
Groaning, I realized I needed to talk to Brynn. That was the only way I was going to get her to see things my way. She’d been avoiding me for far too long and tonight I’d get answers.
Picking up the flashlight from my sleeping bed, I peeked my head out of the opening and glanced around. There weren’t too many people out wandering about. Most folks had turned in for the night. Brynn’s tent was only across the way from mine, but I didn’t want anyone to see me walk over to keep down rumors.
“Shit.” I rubbed my beard. I had enough of that going on in my life right now.
So, I bent down and ran behind my tent, like James Bond on a stakeout. Taking wide steps behind each tent, I ducked down farther to make sure I went unseen. By the time I made it to Brynn’s tent, I was fully disguised as I had pulled my black hoodie over my head.
“B,” I whispered, towering over the front of her tent and glancing behind me to make sure no one was watching me.
“B,” I said a little louder and started tapping on the fabric.
She unzipped the tent partially with a scowl on her face.
“What?” she asked with a messy ponytail pulled up in the top of her head.
I smiled remembering how she used to look back in her early twenties when she would spend a night at my apartment. God, I thought, I’ll never get to see her in her element again.
“Can we talk?”
She shook her head. “It’s late, Crim. Let’s talk tomorrow.”
“Nah, this can’t wait,” I told her. “I’ve waited fifteen years to get this off my chest and I have to do it now.”
She blew out a breath. “Fine, come on, because I know your ass won’t let this go unless I hear you out.”
She stepped aside, and I crawled in next to her and zipped the tent back up.
“Talk,” she snapped.
“Well, damn. Hold up,” I said, trying to gather my thoughts.
She laid down on her side facing me with a hand propped to her head.
Feeling weird under her gaze, I told her, “Me sleeping with your roommate was a mistake. I kind of didn’t know she was off-limits, but why didn’t you talk to me about it? You just picked up your stuff and took off. I don’t get it, B. It doesn’t make sense to me, how that one thing I did could ruin a friendship like that.” I snapped my fingers.
She closed her eyes briefly, and when she opened them back up, I saw something in them that I hadn’t seen before … Pain.
“You wouldn’t understand, Crim.”
My heart dropped to see her on the brink, so I told her, “Try me, B” I laid down next to her. “You remember I’ve always been a great listener.”
The half of smile she gave me didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“I miss this, don’t you?”
“I can’t do this, Crim.”
She began to sit up, and I gripped her arm. “Wait. Talk to me, B. Why can’t you talk to me now?”
“Because you hurt me, Crim.”
“How?” I asked. When she didn’t respond, I pushed more for an answer. “Tell me.”
She reached for her vape pen. She only did this when she was super stressed about something. “She knew, Crim. She knew how I felt about you.”
“Huh?” I asked, trying to keep up.
“My roommate, because God knows I vowed to never utter her name again.”
Everything started to make sense when I asked in a low timbre, “How do you feel about me?”
She took a drag of her pen, rolled her finger around a loose string hanging from her sleeping bag. I brought my head down to meet her gaze.
She lifted her eyes and stated, “It has always been you.”