Excuse me. Did he just… Yeah. He did.“Sure?” I still held the bat and moved to the side, letting him pass, and he didn’t say a single word. Not a fucking one. “Tanner, are you okay?”
“Yes, Kenzie. I’m tired, I pulled a muscle, and want my own fucking bed.” He spoke with an underlying tone of annoyance. As though I irritated him by talking to him. It was hard not to admire his back muscles straining against his shirt, but a bundle of dread formed in my chest.
“Uh, okay. Yeah, I’m sure you do. I didn’t know you got hurt, what happened?” I moved up three steps, hoping to comfort him or see what else had happened. This version of him was so different from the one I’d chatted with before he left, or the one I’d exchanged texts with the entire time.
He sighed, dropped his bags outside his bedroom door and gave me a withering look, as though I was a groupie trying to get his attention. “I don’t want to do this. Let me sleep.”
The only thing I could do was nod. It felt like a slap to the face. “S-sure.”
Then he went into his bedroom, shutting the door, and keeping me entirely in the dark about what just happened. I must’ve stared a little too long, because Zade walked up the stairs and burst out laughing.
“Dude, were you gunna try and fight us with a bat or what?”
“Yeah, I was!” I yelled, picking up the bat and pretending to swing at his handsome face. “None of you fuckers told me you were coming back tonight. I thought I was getting kidnapped or something.”
Zade groaned and hollered over his shoulder. “You didn’t text your sister? Aaron. Come on, man. We scared the shit out of her.”
My brother joined us at our middle-of-the-night meeting and grimaced. “I’m so sorry, Kenzie. I didn’t even think—thought you’d be able to sleep through it.”
“I was until something crashed?”
“That was me,” Zade said, shrugging. “I ran into the counter and knocked over all the dishes on it. Oops.”
“Well, assholes, you scared the hell out of me for dumb reasons. You’re getting me breakfast in the morning. I don’t care who.” I pointed at both their chests and stomped up the stairs. My pulse calmed down enough for me to get back into bed, but my mind was spinning. Sure, I’d expected my brother to give me a heads-up they got back early. He hadn’t, so I was annoyed. But it didn’t hurt, or feel like an intentional decision to keep me out of the loop.
Tanner’s did though, and I didn’t know why. I chewed on my lip, hating the uncertainty and how it played tricks on my mind.Did I say something? Did he change his mind about me? Is our fling over?
God, that pressure in my chest came back with thinking about ending our fling. It was always in my mind that our contract—my list—was solid, and we would abide by that for the rest of the summer. It would suck when it ended, but notthiskind of suck. It would be an expected kind of awful, one I could prepare for mentally and emotionally. This, though… Something had to have happened for him to dismiss me.
I’ve hung out with him for three weeks. Why do I expect anything at all?
With negative and confusing thoughts, I drifted back into a shitty sleep in the hope of everything going back to normal the next day.
* * * *
Some people viewed being stubborn as a bad thing. I did not. It was something I was proud of and could remember all the way back to being a young kid where my parents wouldn’t let me leave the kitchen table until I’d eaten all my vegetables. One time, the battle had gone on until ten p.m. and they’d given in. Again, I was proud of that. This same stubbornness plagued me as I bit into my chorizo burrito with extra hot sauce that Zade and Aaron had gone out to get me as an apology. Tanner hadn’t acknowledged me, or anyone in the house, and I battled with what to do.
Confront him or ignore him?
Tease him or piss him off?
All the above, please.
“So, Kenzie, what did you do when we were gone?” Aaron asked, biting into his own breakfast burrito as we sat around the kitchen table. It was a small, not sturdy table, and Zade’s large legs took up space from me, so I had to sit with both knees tucked to my chest.
“Worked three days, got all my homework done, hung out with Greta and Callie. They showed me the best dessert places and I met some of the football guys.”
“The three of you went to hang withfootballguys?” Zade asked, suddenly alert for nine a.m. after getting home so late. “Like, a party?”
“Okay, first of all, calm down.” I laughed at his crazy expression and waited a little longer than necessary to answer. They were rattled at the mere thought of their women talking to other dudes and that was dumb. I took another bite, a long sip of coffee and when Zade narrowed his eyes, I responded. “It was during my shift Saturday, you nutcase. They had a table in my section that was too large. Greta and I had to share it. They knew all about you guys. Seems they think they’re cooler.”
“Ugh, don’t fucking start. I hate football,” Aaron said, getting up after finishing his food. “Don’t get involved with them.”
“Because…?”
“They party hard.”
“So do you.”
