“Hey, Son. Since you’re here, mind handing me that work light over there?”
I reach to pick up the light, but it slips from my hand and drops to the floor with a crash. I bend over to pick it up and my legs give out like dead weights. I drop to the floor, hands over my face.
“Son, are you ok?”
I shake my head.
“Talk to me. What’s going on?”
I shake my head again.
My dad squats down next to me, rubbing his large, grease-stained hand up and down my back, helpless in knowing what to do for me, how to comfort me. He doesn’t know my life just exploded apart. My best friend betrayed me in the most awful way. The girl I love to the depths of my being has been taken from me, stolen. I haven’t cried since I was four years old when I fell off my bike for the first time. But the anger, deception, and hurt eviscerating every pore of my body has me broken.
“Dad,” I choke out, turning to grip his shirt. And I cry.
Several minutes pass. My dad continues to rub his hand on my back trying his best to soothe me when I feel another presence arrive.
“Hey, man. Thought I might find you here,” Julien says, tone sober.
My dad says nothing, only gives a short head jerk at Julien and quietly gets up and leaves the garage bay to give us some privacy.
I rub my hands over my face a few times.
“Did you know?” My anger is like tinder, ready to combust with the tiniest of flame.
“No, man. I had no clue until several hours ago after he got home.”
“What do you meanafterhe got home?” Julien shrinks back a bit. Then it hits me and that ember of anger flares to life again.
“You’re fucking kidding me! That’s where he ran off to last night? He ran straight to Elizabeth’s? He went to her right after I poured my goddamn heart out to him!Motherfucker!”I jump up and pace angrily around the garage.
“Ry, it’s a difficult situation for everyone.”
Julien, always the peacekeeper.
“Like hell it is. I’m the one who manned up. I’m the one who put it all on the line. I didn’t go sneaking around his back, your back,” I jab my finger at him. “I put my friendships with you first. What he did... he’s a fucking coward.”
“Hey, I’m not going to stand here and justify what he did. I agree with you. What he did is wrong. I told him that. But what’s done is done. Elizabeth chose him last night. She chose, Ryder, and if you want to keep her in your life, if you want to keep me in your life, if you want to someday rebuild any type of relationship with Jay, you’re gonna have to accept it and learn to deal with it.”
“What choice did Elizabeth make, huh? She was only given half the information. She didn’t know how I felt, how I feel. If she knew, she may have chosen differently.”
I start walking out of the garage bay, planning on going back to Elizabeth’s house and telling her everything, but I'm stopped by Julien pulling me back.
“Ry. Just take a minute and think about things before flying off. She might not have heard the words coming from your mouth last night, but she knows. She knows you love her. Deep down she knows, and she loves you too. But she also loves Jayson. She loves me.”
I scowl at him.
“Look,” he continues, “I hate what Jay did. We actually got into a fight about it,” he smirks and that’s when I notice his cut lip that has scabbed over. “But I also listened to him explain everything to me. Ry, man, he is torn up about it all. He knows he fucked up, but he panicked. All he could think about was her leaving him, her not being in his life anymore because she would be with you, and he freaked out. You remember how he reacted last night. He was scared out of his freaking mind.”
My dad walks back in with an ice pack and hands it to me.
“I noticed your hands. Put this on them before they start to cramp and swell. I expect a full explanation later.” He walks back out, leaving me and Julien to finish our conversation.
“Think about Elizabeth. Do you love her enough to let her go, let her be happy? Do you think your love for her is strong enough for you to do that and still support her and be her friend? To be able to forgive Jayson for his weakness in loving her too?”
Julien cuffs my back and touches his forehead to mine before leaving me alone to think about the things he just said.
Elizabeth
