“Yeah?” Holt laughs at me through squinted eyes. “What’s Annie to you? Is she your little bitch?”
Something in me stills. “What the hell’s gotten into you? Don’t talk about her like that.” I try to push past them, but Bryson stops me cold.
“What does Olivia Cameron mean to you?”
My heart stops. I don’t bother taking my next breath. Shit.
I hold my hands up. “What do you think you know?”
Bryson gives my shoulders a hard shove until I’m pressed into the tree again. I glance up at the sky as if it were Benji himself. I’m not sure why, but I wish he were here. Not to double-team the Edwards brothers, but to help me to get the twisted truth out.
“What do wethinkwe know?” Bryson spits the words over my face. “We had a nice long chat with your ex-girlfriend—but she’s not really your ex is she? I mean she’s having your kid, so things aren’t that far in the past—are they?”
I swallow hard trying to process what comes next. Shit. I should have told Annie last night. I should have told her weeks ago.
“Let me tell her.” I don’t even bother trying to make them understand what’s happening between Olivia and me. There’s too much hate in their eyes, and I’m starting to understand why.
“No can do, buddy.” Holt looks as if he’s about to draw back and deck me, instead he closes his eyes and shakes his head. “So Annie doesn’t know.” He doesn’t hide his disappointment. “Shit. This is big, Blake. I thought for sure she knew and was hiding it.” He looks to Bryson for a second. “That’s what I get for defending you. Look, this isn’t little stuff that you can slip under the bridge. Olivia says she’s having this kid in just a few weeks. When were you planning on telling my sister?” His voice rises through the forest. It threads right through the branches as it spikes to the sky. I hope to God Benji is listening in—watching how fast my life has managed to unravel itself. A selfish part of me would really like for him to take part in this shit storm. “What were you going to do? Take her on a date to the hospital one night? Oh, by the way, Annie? See that kid? That’s mine.”
The rage in his eyes, both their eyes, makes me feel lower than worm shit.
“No.” I shake my head, my voice barely audible. “I was going to tell her today.”
“Bullshit!” Bryson gives me another hard shove. “You’re a fucking conman—a player who’s stringing Annie along for the ride. Dude, did you touch her? Why are you messing around with her? Can’t you see that Annie is special? She’s different.”
“Annie is special.” A rage brews in me because, all of a sudden, I want to knock their block heads together. “And not in the way you’re implying.”
I glance away for a moment, and one of them growls at me.
“Annie isn’t the fragile flower you pretend she is.” The words come out with a mean edge. “She’s a beautiful, grown, intelligent woman.” I lean back into the tree and watch as my breath plumes out with the fog. “I’ve really fucked things up, haven’t I?”
“Yes, you have.” Holt gives me a light sock to the arm. “Just when I was starting to like you.”
“And now?”
“And now you stay the hell away from my sister.”
Bryson pulls Holt back as they turn to leave. “Tell your band they can thank you for ending their run at the Black Bear. Tell them we’re sorry—but, as for you, the only thing we’re sorry about is the fact you met Annie. She doesn’t have room in her life for a pile of shit your size.”
They take off in the direction of Annie’s English class and sit on the steps outside the building like a couple of watchdogs. Then it hits me with the clarity that comes on a cold night when you realize that morning is on its way and there’s nothing you can do about it. I thought my life had fractured for the very last time when my brother died, I was wrong. There would be no coming back from this.
“Now what.” I look to the sky and wait for an answer.
But it doesn’t come.
Rock and Roll with the Punches
Annie
Tristan is animatedas the class wraps up. I let him know Kaya would be in town next week for Thanksgiving and that she’s dying to meet him. True as God. Wouldn’t that be weird if they turned out to be soul mates? I guess it would be amazing. Maybe then Kaya would transfer to Whitney. I know Marley would get along great with her as well.
We’ll double date.I sign just before I stuff my things back into my book bag.It’ll be fun.I’ve always wanted to do things like double date with Kaya, and, now, Tristan, of all people, will make that possible. Who knows, maybe it’s destiny. Maybe he traveled all the way from France to meet his Mrs. Right, and that person just so happens to be my bestie. Maybe they’ll really hit it off, and Kaya will move back to North Carolina where we can reconstitute our shopping-fu as she called it. Kaya and I knew how to hit the sales rack like nobody’s business. I sure miss those gossip-filled shopping sprees. Those were exhilarating times. Blake is everything to me, but he can’t replace Kaya and her panache for late night trips to the sales rack. I doubt he’d want to. Speaking of Blake—I’d better hurry up. I bet he’s been accosted by six different girls by now.
Double dating sounds good.Tristan keeps his eyes on the door.Hey, do you know those guys? They keep looking in this direction.
Half the class has already cleared out, and it’s not until the bustle of bodies drain that I spot Bryson and Holt at the mouth of the room.
A horrible feeling grips me.Those are my brothers.I speed toward the exit with Tristan by my side.
