Thick & Thin (Chubby Girl Chronicles Book 3)

by Tabatha Vargo

  My eyes went to Colton’s, daring him to say a word. He grinned, laying his hand over hers against his chest.

  “Just two rowdy boys with too much testosterone and beer,” he answered.

  He smirked at me again, pushing a tiny droplet of blood from the corner of his thin lips.

  Colton and I had been close our freshman year, but over the years, his true colors had begun to show. He was shady and out for himself. He lied a ton, and something about him made me feel like girls wouldn’t be safe alone with him. The only reason I even dealt with him because he was on the team, and Coach had made me promise to keep it clean.

  Well, football was over. I no longer had to play the nice guy when it came to Colton.

  “I think you’ve had enough,” Jenny said, her brows pulled low in aggravation.

  She wasn’t stupid. She knew something was up.

  When I didn’t respond, she pinched her lips and put a hand on her hip.

  “We’re leaving, Josh. Give me your keys.”

  She was the only person in the world with balls big enough to talk to me that way, except for my dad. Although, now that I was taller than him, even he was careful with his words. Not that I would ever raise a hand to my pop. I was raised better than that.

  I nodded, surprising everyone around us when I reached into my back pocket and pulled out my keys. She lifted her hand palm up, and I dropped my keys into her hand.

  “What can I say?” I shrugged as though everything was no big deal. “I do what she says because she can probably kick my ass,” I joked, lightening the mood.

  The small group that had formed around us laughed.

  All except Colton, who glared at me when I followed Jenny past him and out the door and into the parking lot.

  Once I climbed into the passenger’s side of my truck, I put on my seat belt and closed my eyes. Hopefully, I didn’t pass out before we got to my place.

  5

  Jenny

  I wasn’t sure why Colton and Josh were fighting, but I had always known Josh wasn’t Colton’s biggest fan. He had told me before that Colton gave him a bad feeling, and I understood what he meant. Every time I was alone with Colton, he made me feel itchy. It was as if I needed more clothes on even though I wore more clothes than your average girl. I couldn’t imagine how I would feel if I were like Brandy and the rest of the girls at school who loved to leave nothing to the imagination.

  Thankfully, once I broke the two of them up, Josh was easy to handle. He’d had way too much to drink. The red glaze in his eyes and the lean in his step gave him away. Which meant it was time to get him home.

  Once we were in the truck and headed out of the city, he closed his eyes and got quiet. I couldn’t tell if he was passed out or not, but I didn’t bother turning on the radio just in case he was trying to sleep it off.

  With the driver’s side window down just enough to let in a bit of the cool night air, I drove with my right arm resting on the steering wheel as I took in the familiar backroads to Josh’s house. Once I dropped him off, I would go home and get some sleep. It had been a long day, and I was exhausted.

  I took advantage of him sleeping, looking over at Josh when I could and taking in his lax features. Soon, we would be apart—touching base over the phone and Skyping when we had time. It was going to be hell.

  He shifted in his seat, his face turning my way, and the softness of his relaxed mouth called to me. I felt dirty for even thinking it, but I wanted to kiss him.

  Just one kiss.

  It would get me through, but then again, it could ruin things completely. I was sure it would ruin the friendship we had. And while I dreamed of a single kiss from Josh, I wasn’t willing to toss away a lifetime of friendship for it.

  Stopping at the final stop sign before we got to his house, I paused longer than necessary. The roads were mostly empty, and no one was behind us. Watching him sleep, I breathed the moment in, marking my memory with his face. His smile. His eyes. Everything that made him the most beautiful human being I knew inside and out.

  His dark lashes rested against his high cheekbones. His lips were parted, his hot breath rushing over his plump bottom lip with every breath he took and released. His large hand was resting atop his flat stomach, hidden behind his T-shirt. Jeans covered his long legs, rips and tears in the knees letting a peek of his hairy leg show.

  I loved him so deeply in so many ways.

  I loved him so hard it hurt and took my breath away.

  He was everything.

  I reached across the bench seat, ready to run my fingers over the facial hair he hadn’t shaved. It wasn’t very thick, but Josh wasn’t a hairy guy like a lot of the guys in our class. My fingers lingered over his lips, his hot breath tickling my fingertips, but just before I touched his skin, a loud honk sounded behind us, and I jerked my hand away.

  When I looked through the rearview mirror, a set of headlights blazed into my eyes. Checking both ways, I pulled away from the stop sign and continued to Josh’s house, feeling foolish.

  What if he had woken up to find me almost caressing his face?

  I couldn’t allow myself a moment of weakness like that again.

  Soon, I was pulling into Josh’s horseshoe driveway. Half wagon wheels separated the beginning of the drive from the two ditches on each side. The one-story farmhouse Josh grew up in wasn’t as run-down as our place. While my father was a bit of an alcoholic, spending most of his days beneath the hood of a car in the garage and more worried about an afternoon fishing after work, Mr. and Mrs. Black put everything into their farm. The grounds were clean and organized, fences never broken, the barn always painted.

  The inside of the house was just as clean and organized. How Mrs. Black managed it while working alongside her husband on the farm, I would never know, but you could see the woman’s touch to their home.

  Meanwhile, the only woman living in my house was me, and even I could admit I didn’t have any homemaker skills. Maybe if I had been raised by a woman?

  The lights inside were out, but they always left the porch light on for Josh. Pulling up to the house, I put his truck in park and cut the engine. If his mom hadn’t made him promise he would come home, I would have just taken him to my place to crash on our couch, but promises were promises, and I wasn’t about to make him break one to his momma.

  “Josh, wake up,” I said, pushing his shoulder to shake him. “We’re here.”

  He didn’t wake, but he turned his head against the back of the seat as if it were a pillow and he was trying to get comfortable.

  “Hey.” I smacked his arm. “Wake up, dipshit. We’re at your house.”

  “Chill,” he muttered, his voice slurring.

  He turned away from me, snuggling into the passenger’s side door like he was in his bed.

  I sighed.

  There was no way I was going to be able to carry his heavy ass into the house, and I wasn’t about to wake his daddy.

  Unbuckling my seat belt, I moved across the bench seat until I was right beside him.

  “Josh, you need to wake up and go inside. I need to get home, and you promised your momma you were coming home tonight.”

  Again, he flipped sides, turning my way. Except this time, I was close, and he pulled me into his arms and snuggled into the side of my neck.

  “Shhh, just sleep,” he mumbled.

  He was drunk and mostly passed out.

  No way did he know what he was doing.

  Still, I paused, enjoying a second or two of being in his arms.

  He breathed into my neck, rustling the hairs that had fallen out of my ponytail and making them tickle the side of my face. I closed my eyes and swallowed a moan. He needed to let me go, and I needed to go home before I embarrassed myself.

  “Josh,” I said, my voice cracked.

  “Jenny,” he mumbled against the side of my neck. “My sweet Jenny.”

  My body went stiff, a tightness forming in the bottom of my stomach making me feel a spark betw
een my thighs. A wave of chills went across my body, leaving goose bumps behind.

  I was seconds away from combusting, and the second his soft lips skimmed the skin just beneath my ear, I did.

  I gasped, and a moan rumbled from the back of my throat that seemed to echo into the quiet cab of his truck. He didn’t stop, his hot mouth opening and closing against my flesh as he sucked it between his lips and kissed my neck.

  “I love the way you smell,” he whispered. “The way you taste.” He trailed his lips along my jawline until he nipped my chin.

  I closed my eyes, knowing I should stop, but feeling weaker than I ever had in my entire life. He kissed my chin before moving up and placing a small kiss to the side of my mouth. I had to stop him. He was drunk. He didn’t know what he was doing, and if I let this continue and he woke up tomorrow remembering, things would change. I couldn’t let that happen. Things were already changing between us with school ending, and I didn’t want to make it worse.

  He leaned back, his eyes still closed, before he leaned in to kiss me. But just before his lips brushed mine, I pressed my palm against his chest, stopping him.

  “No,” I whispered.

  I wanted to say more, but my ability to speak had been sucked away from me. If I could have spoken, I would have explained that it was wrong to let him kiss me because he was drunk. I would have told him I wanted it, but only when he was sober and sure of what he was doing.

  He opened his eyes; they were glazed as they moved over my face. Then he slid away from me, opened the passenger’s side door, and slid from the bench seat and out of the truck. He tripped a little, catching himself on the door.

  “Is everything okay?” I asked. “I mean, are you okay?”

  Gripping the door, he chuckled and shook his head. “I’m so drunk.”

  “Do you want me to walk you to the door?” I asked, moving to get out of the truck and help him.

  But before I could get out, he slammed the truck door and shook his head.

  “No. Don’t follow me or I’ll …” He chuckled to himself and shook his head again. “Nevermind.”

  Then he turned and walked away from the truck and onto the front porch. I stayed seated, watching as he fiddled with the front door, the porch light shining down on him and the insects flying around him.

  He opened the front door and closed it behind him, and I waited until I saw his bedroom light turn on and then turn off before I cranked his truck and drove myself home.

  6

  Josh

  I fucked up.

  The second she pushed me away and said the word no, I knew I screwed up my friendship with Jenny. I wasn’t sure what had come over me, but between Colton being a dick and the beer swimming through my system, I couldn’t stop myself.

  One minute, I was sleeping, feeling the bumps of the road and the turns when she took them, and the next minute, she was in my arms, and her soft, sweet-smelling skin was against my lips.

  When I hit the pillow, I prayed when I woke, I wouldn’t remember that moment in the truck. I prayed Jenny would forget about it, as well. But when the sun came blazing into my window, making my headache pound even harder, the first thing I thought about was the feel of her skin against my mouth and the sound she made when I kissed her neck.

  Lying in bed and staring at the beadboard ceiling, I replayed the moment in my head.

  Every movement.

  Every gasp of her breath.

  Every sound.

  It wasn’t even a kiss on the lips, and already, it was the best sexual moment of my life.

  How was that possible?

  My phone beeped from my bedside table, and I reached for it. Jenny’s name bounced across the top before I unlocked it and read her message.

  Gummy Bear: Are you awake yet?

  I let the text sit for a second or two, trying to figure out how to apologize for something I wasn’t sorry for.

  Me: Yeah.

  Gummy Bear: Good. Your truck is safe in my driveaway.

  Shit.

  I would have to go by there. I wasn’t ready for that yet, but she would know something was up if I didn’t go pick up my baby right away. Also, it wasn’t like I could go over, snag my truck, and leave. That would make it obvious, too. Which meant I would be facing Jenny much sooner than I wanted to.

  Me: Ok. Be there in a bit.

  The hot shower I took lasted longer than usual. Standing under the spray, I prayed to feel normal again, but my stomach wouldn’t settle, and my headache was out of hand. Once I was done with my shower, I went into the kitchen to get an aspirin and a glass of water.

  I stood at the sink, staring out the window at our family farm while I swallowed the pill and hoped it would start working as soon as possible.

  “You look like shit,” my older sister Genie said when she came into the kitchen.

  “Thanks.”

  “Have fun last night?”

  I shrugged instead of answering. It hurt to talk.

  “Jenny drop you off and take your truck to her place?”

  I nodded, feeling the dagger dig deeper into my brain with each move of my head.

  “I’ll take you to pick up your truck. I gotta run to Walmart anyway.”

  “Is Jimmy working today?” I asked.

  Jimmy was my sister’s husband. They had only been married a year when Jimmy lost his job, and they had to move back in with us. Since then, he had gotten an even better job, and Genie and Jimmy spent most of their afternoons house shopping.

  “Isn’t he always?”

  I nodded.

  Ten minutes later, I found myself in the passenger side of my sister’s SUV, feeling like I was seconds away from puking my guts up. I wasn’t sure if it was my hangover or Genie’s driving, but either way, I was happy when we pulled into Jenny’s driveway.

  Her brother and his little girl, Emma, were out front. Emma was chasing after a butterfly, and Devin was leaning over the hood of a red Mustang.

  When he heard my car door shut, he looked up. “She’s inside.” He nodded toward the front door.

  Genie waved and pulled away, leaving me behind.

  The screen door creaked and then snapped back into place behind me with a loud slam. Jenny was sitting on the couch watching a movie and looked up when the door slammed.

  “Hey,” she said, grabbing the remote and turning the movie off.

  “Hey.”

  “You look like shit.”

  “I feel like shit.”

  She stood from the couch, and I followed her into the kitchen.

  Leaning against the counter, I stood quietly while she moved around the space, cleaning and putting away a peanut butter and jelly mess I assumed Emma had left behind.

  The silence between us was deafening, pressing against my nerves and making me feel itchy.

  “About last night …” I started, feeling awkward around Jenny for the first time in our friendship. “I’m sorry. I was drunk, and I didn’t know what I was doing.”

  “It was nothing. Don’t even stress it,” she said, tossing the dish towel onto the counter. “Are we still going fishing today?”

  I got whiplash from her sudden change in subject, and the idea that the moment in my truck didn’t affect her the way it affected me stung a little.

  “Nah. Not today. I feel like shit.”

  She grinned. “That’s what you get. Here,” she said, going to the refrigerator and pulling out one of her dad’s beers. “Drink this.”

  I gagged. “Hell, no. I’m good.”

  She laughed. “I’m serious. If you drink it, you’ll feel better. Then maybe you’ll stop being a pussy, and we can go do some fishing.”

  I smiled.

  My girl liked to fish.

  She popped the can open and held it out. I took it, pinched my nose so the smell wouldn’t make me gag, and I downed it.

  As usual, Jenny was right. Thirty minutes later, I felt like a new man, and we were in my truck on the way to the river to fish. It was th
e last quiet Saturday we were going to have for a while. Our final week of high school was upon us, followed by graduation, and celebrations. Then the following week, I was leaving for basic.

  I sucked up the moment, taking in the beauty of the backroads and the river when I pulled up to our fishing spot.

  “Dibs on the blue pole,” she said, marking her territory as we opened the truck doors and climbed out.

  She swore the blue fishing pole was lucky, but I didn’t believe in luck.

  “You do realize there’s nothing special about that pole, right?” I said, nodding at the pole in her hand.

  She stood next to the truck with the blue fishing pole in one hand and the tackle box in the other.

  “Shh! It might hear you,” she joked.

  I chuckled, loving how playful she was.

  She adjusted her favorite hat, an old trucker hat she had found in my truck, on her head and started toward the bank. My eyes trailed over the back of her racerback tank top before falling to her ass. Her shorts were so short, the cotton from inside her pockets were poking through on the bottom. Her flip-flops smacked against the ground as she walked away, her calf muscles popping out with each step.

  I shook my head, knowing she was going to be the end of me.

  We fished for an hour, enjoying the peace and quiet, before she caught her first fish. It was a large catfish, and once she hooked him and reeled him in, I pulled out my phone and caught a picture of her holding him up by the mouth after she had freed him from the hook.

  “Should I throw him back, or do you think your momma will want to fry him up?”

  “Definitely put him in the cooler. Momma was talking about some catfish stew not too long ago.”

  She got another bite as soon as her bobber settled on top of the water. Maybe she was right about the blue pole being lucky because my bobber hadn’t moved.

  She struggled to reel her catch in, her pole bowing with the weight of her catch. I set my pole to the side and moved to stand beside her.

  “You got it?” I asked, hesitant to help her.