“Yeah, sounds funny. I know. I was there, but it wasn’t my idea.”
“So this girl and Banner…”
“He’s all into her. He’s ready to talk about marriage and babies and all the happily-ever-after bullshit. But she’s… not a great person. Not the person he thought she was. She pretended to be with him. Halfway through prom, she broke it off. Got caught getting it on with a guy in a shark costume on the football field.” He stared at his beer. “Yeah. It’s fucked up.”
“I don’t like this story,” Sam said, crossing her arms across her chest.
“Tanner was a wreck,” Mach said, deep in thought.
She didn’t correct him about the name. Didn’t seem like the time.
“He didn’t blame her. I fucking blamed her. But he blamed the other guy. We had a foster dad who gave a shit, and when Tanner took off after prom, Dan sat him down and explained all the reasons he shouldn’t go. Then he started a band for us. Dan’s a mechanic and he taught Tanner and me to fix cars. Just in case we ever needed a trade. But he saw that love of music in Tanner, and he turned it to a rag-tag band. That’s how I got started with music. Turned out, I didn’t hate it.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Sam asked, since it was definitely not the thing someone usually shared with a guy’s new… what was she? Girlfriend? Girl. Friend? Make-out buddy?
“After prom, Catiana reached out to me. Asked me to help patch things up. That she’d made a big mistake. But Tanner couldn’t talk to a pretty girl without getting embarrassed. Without losing his words.” He tipped his beer to his lips. “She wrecked him, so I told her to take a hike. Did what I could to protect my brother.”
He probably pretended to be someone else…
“You came along, and I hate that you’ve got the pressure, but you have the power to fuck him up as much as Catiana.” Mach leveled her with a stare. “I’m asking you don’t do it.”
That was… that was a lot. Heavy even. And it felt like that type of sharing required something back from her.
But she didn’t really have anything to give. Except. Well, there was the one thing—
“I’m Sami Jo.” As the words passed her lips, she wished she could stuff them back inside.
Mach paused, then he reeled back like someone had punched him.
“The fuck?” He stared at her. Grabbed his phone and turned on the flashlight, pointing it at her.
“Please don’t take my picture,” she said, swallowing a whole lump because she misread this. This was bad.
“Holy shit.” Mach set his phone aside. “I won’t do that. I’m not a dude in a shark suit.”
“I don’t want to hurt him,” Sam assured. “At all. You should know that I’ve got a lot of baggage, too.”
“Don’t fuck a shark on the football field in front of him? Yeah?” Mach asked. “That’s what I was going for, but I did not expect this.”
“I swear I won’t do that. The football field thing.” Because ew… and ew. “Can younottell anybody about my alter ego?”
He held out his pinky.
“What’s that?” She asked.
“Pinky swear. Can’t break the bond of a pinky swear. You won’t fuck a shark, and I won’t tell a soul.” He glanced at his outstretched pinky.
She linked her pinky with his as though it were a solemn oath between the two of them. “Tanner knows. About me.”
“Figured as much.” He tilted the bottle up to his lips. “But that’s not my business because I know nothing.”
“Okay.” Good, all settled.
“Catiana showed up tonight,” he said.
This time, it was her turn to reel backward.
“That’s why I’m tellin’ you this,” Mach said. “He says it’s not fucking with him, ’cause he’s got you. But I know him better than that, ya know?”
