I stop by the bar long enough to order a drink and greet some familiar faces. Then I find Leo and Ollie in their usual booth.
“There she is,” Leo grins, raising his beer in salute as I slide in and sit down across from them. “We thought you might have bailed on us.”
“Sorry I’m late,” I smile. “Did I miss anything?”
Ollie slides a basket of fries toward me. “These are fresh. We ordered for you.”
I roll my eyes. “Didn’t we just eat?” Despite my question, I grab a fry. “God, I forgot how salty and greasy they make their food here,” I wheeze.
Leo nods solemnly. “The day The Rusty Tap changes its fry recipe is the day I renounce my citizenship and move to Canada.”
“Dramatic much?” Ollie teases, bumping his shoulder against Leo’s.
“You want to marry into this family,” my brother reminds him. “So the joke’s on you.”
My eyes widen. “What!?” I screech. “You two are engaged?”
Ollie rolls his eyes. “No, we’re not. Your brother’s an ass.”
Leo grins. “I haven’t said yes or no yet.” Lowering his tone, he leans closer to me. “Gotta make him work for it.”
“Jesus H. Christ in a hamster wheel,” I exclaim. “I’m so sorry, Ollie. Just know that Leowasraised better than that.”
As I take a sip of my drink, I hear a voice I don’t think I’ll ever forget. I look around, trying to locate the owner. And there he is. Rick Hartwell aka the bully of Franklin Ridge High School.
“You okay?” Ollie asks, catching me looking around.
“Fine. Never better,” I reply absentmindedly.
I open my mouth to suggest we go somewhere else, or maybe that we cut the night short, but I’m not fast enough.
“Fuck,” Leo curses, looking straight at Rick.
My hand reaches into my pocket, subconsciously closing around my old trusty pocket knife.
Seeing the fucker doesn’t just hit me like a physical blow; it psychologically transports me back in time. I’m sixteen again, running across the school parking lot toward a circle of jeering boys.
I hear Leo’s cry from fifty yards away and know immediately what’s happening.
The sound of fists hitting flesh. Leo’s glasses skittering across the asphalt, one lens cracking as a boot comes down nearby. The laughter of the baseball team as they take turns shoving him, calling him names I can’t repeat without tasting bile.
“You fucking faggot.”
“Disgusting homo.”
The sudden silence when I shove through the circle of boys, blade glinting in the afternoon sun. “Touch him again,” I snarl, voice deadly calm despite the hurricane raging inside me, “and I will cut your fucking throats while you sleep.”
At first, they laugh. But that stops the second I make a slicing motion toward Rick when he reaches for my brother.
“I warned you,” I hiss, smirking as the knife slices across his skin.
If it hadn’t been for some wimp who told their parents, I would totally have gotten away with it. But two days later, I was hauled into the principal’s office with my parents.
Luckily for me, my parents practiced what they preached. When I told them the boys had been bullying Leo for being gay, they rained hell down on the high school until my record wasexpunged and Leo received apologies from every student and faculty member.
What can I say, my parents are pretty badass.
“Fuck this,” Leo seethes. “I’m not wasting time on that jerk. Let’s go somewhere else.”
