Rival Love

by Natalie Decker

  “Are you kidding me? I was your girlfriend! Two years, Kevin!” She shoves him. “For the past three months you’ve been hooking up with Mia?” She shakes her head and he reaches for her.

  I rush over to them and without realizing what I plan on doing, I clamp my hand over his and push him away from her. The quarterback to Harris Academy eyes me up and laughs. “What the fuck, Sky? You call me a cheater? Then what’s this?”

  I press my fingers into Kevin’s chest. “Don’t talk to her!” I hear her gasp and then she hisses my name. This is my form of repaying her for dinner last night, but I’m not about to mention it. She tugs on my shoulder.

  “Please…Caleb.”

  Kevin snorts. “Morgan.” He cranes his head over my left shoulder and laughs. “Really, Sky? Can’t have me, so you go after this wannabe quarterback.”

  I’m just about to make a reply to his comment but Skylar beats me to it. “You couldn’t have this, so you got with Mia. Really, Kevin? She gives more rides than a school bus.”

  He points his finger at her and yells, “Exactly! Dating you, Sky, is like dating a goddamn nun. Two years, and the best I got out of it was a hand job.”

  I wait for Skylar to say something but she only sobs into my back. If she wasn’t a Bulldog, I’d comfort her. Kevin smiles. “Have fun with little Miss Tease, Morgan.”

  He heads back to the coffee shop. I turn and examine Skylar. Her makeup is all runny and her nose sounds like a dripping faucet. Her eyes won’t meet mine. I’m at a loss for what I should do now—hug her, say something like, “Well, I’m going to go,” or just leave?

  She scuffs her foot against the sidewalk and mumbles, “I didn’t need your help, just so you know.” She tilts her head slightly back. “But thank you.” She wipes a few tears and sniffles. “I still hate you for the shower thing.”

  I offer her a smile. “Fine by me. I’ll see you later.”

  ***

  Chilling in Lance’s basement, all I can think about is how I defended a Bulldog. What the hell is wrong with me? The tears, that has to be it. “Dude! What are you doing? You’re supposed to take out the snipers while I cover the ground area,” Lance yells while Derrick moves in front of the TV with a bag of chips and a Coke in his hand. “Move it, Bro! We can’t see!”

  “I’m getting there.” Derrick plops down next to me. The smell of barbeque lingers in the bag making my stomach grumble. He elbows me in the side and whispers, “So is Liv going to call me soon?”

  “Who’s Liv?” Lance asks.

  Shooting Derrick a glare, I sigh. “She’s…no one.”

  “Bullshit! She’s apparently this super hot chick that is living with Cabs here.”

  Dead! So dead! I knew better than to bring Derrick over yesterday. Lance sets his controller down on the coffee table. “Wait, so your uncle’s girlfriend has a hot daughter and you failed to mention this to any of us why? And why did Big Mouth get to hang out with her first? We’ve been bros since first grade.”

  I rise from the couch. “It’s not like that. Erin invited him in for dinner ‘cause she’s overly friendly like that. And the girl is hot but a total nightmare. She’s…bitchy. She’s super smart, and it’s annoying because she throws it in your face.”

  Lance runs a hand through his red hair and laughs. “Sounds like you’ve got yourself a true challenge, Morgan. Most girls fall for your charms, but this one sounds like she’s not going to go down so easily.”

  Derrick chimes in, “I think she’s into this gun show right over here.”

  Lance and I both turn our heads in the direction of Derrick, who’s flexing his right arm. I shake my head and say, “You wish. She’s not into you.”

  Derrick drops his arm, digs through the chip bag, and shrugs. “Her loss then.”

  “You going to try and hit it?” Lance asks.

  God no! I’m never going to tap that, and apparently neither is anyone else until she’s married to them. Which isn’t a bad thing. Most of the girls would have already given it up, especially after two years of dating. I simply shake my head and pull out my cell. “I’ve got to help out around the house so I gotta get back. See you guys at Heather’s party?”

  “We’ll come pick you up,” Lance calls out, as I’m halfway up the steps.

  “Don’t bother. Meet you there.”

  Chapter 9

  Skylar

  Opening the door to Brian’s spare room, I expect it to be vacant. Instead, I find my mother bent over one of my boxes near the bed. Her dark blond curls are pulled back into a ponytail, while the muscles in her biceps flex. She lifts a box with a grunt, and grumbles, “Child should have had at least one of these unpacked.”

  “Mom! What are you doing?”

  She screams and lets go of the box at the same time. “Liv! You scared me half to death! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

  I narrow my eyes while looking about the room. “Oh please, you’re super healthy. I can’t believe you’d go behind my back and unpack my stuff. What part of ‘I don’t want to be here’ did you not understand?”

  She glares at me with her hands settling on her hips. “And I told you this is our new home. I’m sorry it doesn’t suit you. I’m sorry you don’t understand but eventually, I hope you will.”

  “Yeah, well…maybe I want to move in with Dad.” I don’t mean it. Moving in with my dad is always a sore spot with my mother and me and there’s a good reason for that.

  When I was seven, Dad brought a little girl home with him. She was six, and her name was Lidia. Now, seven-year-old me thought Lidia was the sister my mom kept telling me the stork might bring someday. Turns out she was my little sister, but she definitely wasn’t the one my mom was musing about. And she wasn’t welcomed either. That’s the same night my parents yelled so much I hid in my closet and words like “affair,” “betrayal,” and “bastard” were thrown around. I didn’t know much of what was going, but I did know that my life was never going to be the same.

  A frown forms on Mom’s face. She stares at me with watery eyes and sighs. “You don’t mean that. Do you?”

  I don’t. I still talk to and see my dad—when he has time for me. His new family keeps him busy as well as his job at Columbia University. Plus, it’s just flat-out awkward being around Lidia and her mom, knowing he chose them over me and Mom.

  “I’ve had a bad day.”

  My mother’s face softens a little as she closes the space between us and pulls me into a hug. Without wanting to, I break down into a snotty, choked-filled cry. “He just…admitted to cheating on me.” Normally, if this were one of my friends, I’d have added, “all because I wouldn’t sleep with him!” But they haven’t answered my calls so I’m not bawling my eyes out to them right this second.

  This is my mother, who firmly believes I am not a virgin. The same woman who insisted I get on birth control after a year of dating that stupid, bastard Kevin, even after I told her how that was unnecessary. If we die, and our memories are somehow reincarnated into a new life, that is one argument I hope I never have to relive!

  She pets my head and rocks me as if I were a toddler with a boo-boo. I turn my head slightly in the nook of her shoulder and notice my door is open. It’s too late to care if Caleb hears or sees me like this. I’ve already made a mess of myself in his presence today.

  “Want to go get some ice cream and talk about it?” my mother offers, pulling me away from my current thoughts.

  “Can we go anywhere to get the ice cream?” Please, oh please, anywhere but here.

  She nods. “Sure. But when we come back you’re unpacking the rest of these boxes. I want to be able to run a vacuum in this room.” And just like that, the small feeling of victory left.

  ***

  Sunday morning, my phone buzzes against the palm of my hand. Squinting at the screen, I answer, “Hello?”

  “Sky? Hey, um…it’s Sam.”

  Moving against my sheets, I sit up a little straighter and say, “Sam, oh my God, I�
��ve had like the worse few days ever! It’s so good to hear your voice.”

  There’s a long pause. “Sam?”

  “I heard about your breakup. I also heard you’re dating some Bobcat now?”

  I tighten my grip on my phone and growl, “What? Is that what Kevin told you?”

  “It doesn’t matter who told me.” This is Sam’s way of not getting involved. Or at least that’s how she puts it. She sucks in a breath. “Look, it doesn’t matter if you’re dating them or not, I mean you are one of them now. And that’s the reason we’re calling.”

  I feel like all the air has been sucked right out of me. “I’m not one of anything!”

  “Sky. This is hard for us too, but come Monday, it’s official. You’ll be a Bobcat. If any of us were in your shoes, we’d be ticked off at our behavior. But you’ve gotta see this from our view.”

  Her blow is coming but I interrupt it. “Don’t do this to me, Sam. We’ve been friends since kindergarten. We’re blood sisters!” Yes, I did that with them—pricked my finger and joined it with theirs. We were oblivious to disease at six. “My boyfriend of two years told me he’s been sleeping with ‘The Sonar Mia’ for three months!” I nicknamed her that because she hones in on anything male within a hundred-yard radius. Sam snaps her gum into the receiver. She’s not listening to me. “This has been the worse month of my life, please, I’m begging you, Sam, you and Mikia are all I have,” I whisper.

  “Then come home, Sky. I know you like taking dangerous risks and all but this is your life. ‘Cause you know Bulldogs and Bobcats aren’t friends.”

  The final string keeping my composure together breaks. My temper rises like a heat wave. I push myself off the bed and pace the space between the door and the bed. “What are you saying then? I can’t call you? Our friendship means nothing to you because of what my mother is making me do?” I’m so livid I could drive my fist straight through a wall.

  “This is hard for us too you know.”

  I snort in disgust. “It sounds like it’s been so effing difficult for you two. Monday, you get to be in a familiar place, sit with our group, and then Mikia will want to stalk JJ, while you are arm in arm with Mark. You two won’t be losing friends, or getting jumped on Monday! Your perfect lives will be intact while mine basically falls apart.” This shouldn’t be happening to me. I’m not one of those stuck-up, I only talk to people who are just like me kind of girls. I say hi to everyone, even the nerds. My popularity isn’t a priority. People like Amy Doyle should be punished for being a super bitch to everyone. But me? I don’t deserve this. “Sam…if our friendship means anything to you, don’t do this. I’ve got nothing here but a death wish. I’ve had your back ever since Brownies!”

  I hear her exhale into the receiver. “You’re like my sister, but let’s face it, we can’t hang out.” Sam stops talking and Mikia starts speaking. “You’re not the neutral party in all of this. Shit Sky, if anything, you’re a threat to us now. You know us. Our weaknesses. We can’t just keep hanging out with you if you’re attending that school tomorrow.”

  “What am I supposed to do, run away? I can’t believe you don’t trust me anymore.”

  “We’ve gotta go. Oh, and Sky?”

  “What?” I huff.

  “Be careful.”

  Chapter 10

  Caleb

  Stumbling into the kitchen, I eye the refrigerator. “Went to market, and then off to some other places. Need you kids to do these things. Thanks!” I read the list and snort, “The hell with this!” I grab an orange juice and some frozen breakfast meal with Skylar’s name on it. Ha! She thought this would stop me from eating her stuff? Sad kid.

  Making my way to the microwave, I pop in the frozen meal and heat it up. Besides the microwave buzzing, the house is too quiet for my taste. Heading to the living room, I glance out the window. Skylar’s car is still here, so why’s it so quiet?

  I rush back upstairs and pound on her door. “Rise and shine, dog. We’ve got a list of chores to do.”

  “Whatever! I’ll do them later.”

  “Nooooo! We’re going to do them now. I’ve got other shit to do today.”

  She opens up her door and glares at me. “I don’t care about your effing plans. I’ll do my chores when I feel like it, so step off!” She tries to slam the door in my face but I nudge my foot between the door and the doorframe. “Move. Your. Foot,” she growls.

  I shake my head. “Nah. I think it’s good right here.”

  “Please. Leave me alone.”

  “No can do, Fletch. Erin gave us a list, and she seems to want it done before they get back. So come on. Let’s just get the list over with and you can come back up here in your Batcave and pout, or whatever it is you do.”

  She folds her arms. “I don’t pout.” Pushing past me, she heads down the stairs. Her nose lifts a little and then her eyes grow wide. “Is that…?”

  Stifling back a laugh, I hurry down the steps and try beating her to the kitchen, but she’s already there. Her hand reaches and opens the microwave, but I slam it shut and smile at her. “Move!”

  “That’s not very ladylike of you, Fletch.”

  She folds her hands over her chest and scowls. “Stop doing that!”

  “Doing what exactly? That’s a vague command.”

  Her face turns a few shades of red and her eyebrows furrow. She shoots her arms above her head and screams. “You’re the most annoying person I have ever encountered. Do you ever just stop being a total ass, or are you always like this?”

  I shrug and pop open the microwave. Pulling out the breakfast meal, the scent of sizzling bacon clouds most of my thoughts but I answer her. “I can be nice, but that’s for losers.”

  “Can’t believe you think you’re going to eat my breakfast in front of me.” This feels like a challenge. I’m not one to turn away from a good challenge, so like a sucker I bait her on by picking up a piece of bacon. Her eyes grow wide as I lift it to my mouth. “Do it and I swear I will crush your manhood!”

  “I’ll punch you in your tits.” I bite into the bacon. The taste of sweet hickory and fatty pork flavors my taste buds. “Mmmm…sooo…Ahhhhh.” My victory comes to a halt as soon as her foot connects with my boys. My stomach instantly tightens and lodges up in my throat. The lower regions of my body flood with sharp bursts of pain. The food I ingested is quickly coming back up as I kneel before a laughing Skylar. She snatches the rest of the breakfast from me and leaves me curled up in a ball on the kitchen floor.

  Note to self: Never rub things in her face again, especially when she places a threat on your junk. God, I hate her.

  ***

  The kitchen is now clean, and I glance down at what’s next on my list. Bathroom? This must be a mistake. Everyone knows this is not a guy’s job. “Why am I cleaning the bathroom?”

  Skylar pokes her head into the kitchen and smiles. “Because I’ve used the bathroom after you and if you didn’t know, it’s disgusting.” Her eyes narrow a little. “And if you think for one minute I’m cleaning your pee stains off the seat and floor, you’re dumber than I thought.”

  Rolling my eyes, I head to the supply closet for the cleaners. Pulling on the light switch cord, the tiny room illuminates, revealing a mop, broom, dustpan, and a bucket filled with all kinds of cleaners. I gather up the bucket along with a roll of paper towels and a sponge and leave the closet.

  “Can you hand me a rag?” Skylar asks when I start to close the closet door.

  “Does it look like I’m your maid? Get it yourself!” She glares at me. I almost laugh at her sour-faced expression, but decide I’d be wise not to, especially after how she acted earlier. My balls are still recovering from her kick.

  Heading out of the kitchen with my cleaning supplies, something slaps the back of my head, and I turn to see a roll of paper towels tumbling across the floor. Skylar laughs. “That’s for refusing to leave me alone and making me clean with you.”

  Oh, she wants to play this game, does she? Fine
by me. I take my bucket up the stairs and then return to the kitchen. Hunting through the cabinets, I finally find the Saran Wrap and head back to the bathroom.

  Once I’m done cleaning the entire bathroom, I start to unravel the cling wrap. Stretching it across the edges, I pull it taut and smooth out any wrinkles. Two minutes later, my prank is set in motion, now all I have to do is wait.

  Returning all my cleaning supplies to the closet, along with the Saran Wrap, I enter the living room and plop on the couch. Skylar eyes me from the far corner of the room. “How many things did you clean?”

  “I did my list. Now be quiet, the game’s on.”

  “Really, you like the Reds? How pathetic.”

  “No. I like baseball in general. Go spray a plant or something.”

  She makes her way toward the 55-inch flat screen and bends over. “Come on, Fletch! Get the hell out of the way.” God this girl is beyond irritating. She continues to clean slowly in front of the TV as if it were some sort of teasing dance. I’m trying my damnedest not to be turned on but Jesus that’s kind of hard to do. With each bend, her skimpy shorts show off a bit of her underwear that happens to be hot pink lace. I shift uncomfortably on the couch as she flips her hair back and starts to straighten. She walks over to the coffee table. I still can’t see shit on the TV either. Her body dips, and so does her shirt, giving me a full view of her breasts. It’s my undoing. I can’t take anymore of this. “You practicing for your future profession?”

  Skylar straightens with a blush forming across her tan skin. “I hope someone takes out your kneecaps.”

  I stand. Towering over her five-foot-nothing frame, I growl, “Don’t you ever wish something like that on me.” If something were to happen to my body, I’d be stuck in community college. Stuck in this small town. Stuck in this hellhole where everyone knows me, and they would talk about what a promising future I had, like they do my uncle. I’ll be damned if that happens to me.