“Hey, stranger. It’s been a while.” She is the last person I want to deal with right now after Marcus filled me in on one of their more recent conversations.
“Hey, Heather. Your mom home? I talked to her about one of the puppies.”
“No, but she told me you were coming by. I can help you out if you want.” I roll my eyes. No, I don’t want her help. I want nothing to do with her, but I don’t have time to come back again.
“Yea, I guess.”
I follow behind her as she gives me a tour of the house. She shows me the living room with a fire in the fireplace, her bedroom with twinkle lights strung across the ceiling, and finally leads me down a long hallway to the back of the house. I hear the sound of yapping puppies muffled behind a closed door.
She opens the door and stands in the doorway blocking my way. I don’t have time for her little games.
“Here they are. Mom said you could pick whichever one you wanted. Or you could skip the puppies and have me instead.” She slides a finger under the loose fabric between the buttons on my shirt.
“I’m just here for the puppy, Heather.”
“Too bad. We could have a lot of fun together.” She sticks out her bottom lip in a pouting manner. “You know, like old times.”
“I’ve changed. I’m with Presley.”
“So? She doesn’t need to know.” Instantly she presses her body against mine, her lips suction to my neck as if she’s going in for a kill. I try to push her off gently, the last thing I want is to hurt her and have her saying I attacked her. She’s just crazy enough to spin a story to intentionally hurt Presley.
“Heather, stop!” I push harder against her, and she steps back, smiling at me this time.
“Take whichever one you want and leave the money on the table.” She storms off down the hall. “Jerk!”
I look at my watch and notice Heather’s little stunt has drastically cut my time short. Luckily I had already seen pictures of the puppies and I knew which one I wanted. I pick him up and scratch behind his ears. He’s a happy little white cotton ball of fluff, and I envision Presley’s face when she pulls him out of the box. “Your momma’s gonna love you as much as she loves me. Yes, she is.” He licks my face, and I’ve almost forgotten about whatever the hell it was Heather was trying to accomplish. On my way out, I set the money on the kitchen table and book it home to stash the ball of fluff riding in the back seat.
*****
I finish my test early, turning in my exam to Mr. Jameson and go to find Robert. He usually has baseball during this period, so I head down to the field house. But with it being finals week, I’m not sure what Coach has them doing. I walk in and find the place empty. Coach rounds the corner, so I decide to ask him.
“Hey, Coach. Is Brice back there?”
“Haven’t seen him. I canceled all practices this week. Sorry Presley but have a good Christmas.”
“Oh. Okay. Thanks. You too.”
On my way back up to the school, I catch Marcus headed towards the parking lot.
“Hey, have you seen Brice?”
“Umm, I think I saw him leave about an hour ago. I thought you were with him.”
“No. I had my algebra final.”
“Oh, well, I’m sure he’ll be back soon.” Robert didn’t mention anything about leaving campus, but then again, it’s not like I expect him to check in with me and let me know everything he does. He said he would be here when I got done with my final. I’m sure he wasn’t expecting me to get done as early as I did.
“I’m sure you’re right. Thanks.” I make my way back into school, and Olivia stops me on her way out.
“Hey, girl. Everything alright?”
“Huh? Yea. Fine.”
“You sure? What’s going on?”
“I’m sure it’s nothing. Marcus said Brice left an hour or so ago.
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about it. He probably wasn’t feeling well. He looked a little weird at lunch.”
“Yea. You’re right. Well, guess I better go catch the bus. Merry Christmas, Liv.”
“Merry Christmas to you too.”
As I’m making my way over to the busses, I see Robert walking towards me. His clothes look disheveled, and his hair is a tousled mess.
“Hey, beautiful! How’d your test go?” His arms are open wide, and I allow myself to be wrapped in them. He picks me up, and I bury my face in his neck. He doesn’t smell like my man. Instead, he smells like cheap perfume and vanilla body spray. I wrinkle my nose and furrow my brows. “I’m sure you did great. Don’t beat yourself up over it.” He thinks my reaction is towards my test and not the fact he smells like a dime-store hooker.
“I thought you went home. I couldn’t find you and Liv said you looked out of it, at lunch.”
He looks flustered as he shifts his body weight. “Umm yeah. I ran to the store to grab some medicine. Truck’s nice and warm already. Let’s get you inside. It’s freezing out here.” He rubs his hands together and blows into them. It’s a balmy forty degrees at best. I would hardly classify it as freezing, but I follow him to the truck and climb inside. The smell of cheap perfume hits me again and I think I’m going to be sick. I look at Robert, the tears fighting against my throat, and that’s when I see it.
“Who the fuck is she?”
“What? Who is who? Presley, what are you talking about?”
“Don’t play games with me, Robert! YOU smell like cheap perfume. YOUR truck smells like cheap perfume, and you have a giant fucking hickey on YOUR neck!” Reaching across the center console, I pull down his shirt collar as he looks in the rear-view mirror.
“Fuck,” he says out loud.
“Is this because I haven’t slept with you yet. I can't believe you would do this to me!”
“Presley, it’s not what it looks like. It was all Heather—”
“Heather!” There’s no containing my rage, “you’re fucking Heather?”
“No! God No!”
As I reach for the door handle, I look down into the side door pocket, today just keeps getting better. “Oh, really?” I say, holding up a neon pink lace thong and throwing it at him. “Well, these definitely don’t belong to me!” I get out and slam the door shut. I hear him scream her name through the closed windows, but I don’t turn around.
My bus is about to pull out as I make my way over to it, I pound my hand on the closed door, startling the driver enough for her to stop, open the door, and let me inside. She looks at me as I make my way to my usual seat, slumping as far down as I can scrunch before I break and let the tears fall.
Chapter Fifteen
I drive straight to Presley’s house. I know I’ll make it there before her bus and I’ll be damned if I allow her to run away from me. This is all a huge misunderstanding, but I’m also kind of pissed she would even consider me cheating on her. Maybe these few minutes apart will actually do us both some good. Give us a chance to clear our heads and calm our tempers. God, the temper on her is electric, and I’m a damn bug begging to be burned by its light.
I can already imagine what make up sex with her would be like. Come on. Snap out of it. Focus. And Jesus Christ, do something with the raging boner you have right now. I watch out the rear window, waiting for her bus to pull up behind me, letting her out. White puppy hair covers the back seat, maybe it was a good thing she rode the bus home. I have no idea how I would have explained that.
Her bus stops, and she gets out. “Presley!” I call out to her from the truck. Eyes forward, she doesn’t look back. “Presley, get in the truck!” She continues her onward march, never looking back, I ease my truck up next to her and I see her wipe her eyes. Knowing I’m the reason for those tears is gut-wrenching. “Presley, baby, please get in the truck.”
“Leave me alone, Robert. Go back to your skank!”
God, she knows how to push my buttons. “Nothing is going on between Heather and me. I can't stand her.” She stops and looks at me and then to the house. “Come on, Presley. Please get i
n the truck and let me explain.” She starts moving towards the house again.
“I said, leave me alone, Robert.”
“And I said no. I’ve picked your ass up once before and put you in this truck; don’t think I won't do it again, Princess.” I throw the truck in park and kick my door open as she sprints the rest of the way to the house and through the front door. Almost instantaneously Gramps appears on the front porch, arms folded across his chest, his stance is wide and stable. He’s bearing an expression that would send even the Grim Reaper back to where he came from.
“I think it’s time you left, boy.” Presley’s head peeks out behind Gramp’s foreboding shoulders as soon as he speaks.
“Please, sir. I need to explain everything.”
“Not now. Now go on home.”
Her eyes are pained as I watch her close the door on me. I have never known defeat in this manner. “I’m not leaving until I talk to her.”
“Suit yourself. But you do not come into this house until she says.”
“Fine!” I walk back to my truck, bring it up to the house and cut the engine. Staring at the closed front door, I grab my jacket, hat, and gloves, preparing myself to sit out in the cold for as long as this takes. I mean, how long could the woman possibly stay angry?
*****
There’s a gentle knock on my door. I roll my eyes at the person on the other side of it and go back to holding the pillow that smells like him. “Go away, Robert!” I say through sniffled tears and mumbled breath. The door creeks open, and as I’m about to lash out at him, Gram sticks her head inside my room.
“It’s me, sweetie. Wanna tell me what all the yelling was about out there?” I sigh back into my pillow and try my damndest to keep the tears from escaping. “Come on. There isn’t anything you could tell me I haven’t heard before.”
“He smelled like some cheap whore when I hugged him after school. His truck had the same disgusting scent in it, replacing any trace of my presence in there, he has a hickey on his neck the size of a strawberry, and there was a cheap thong in his truck.”
“Anything else?”
“Excuse me, what else could there be?”
“Oh, my dear…” she chuckles as she sits down next to me, her hand rubbing small circles on my back as she tries to soothe me. “What did Robert say?”
“That it was all a big misunderstanding.”
“And what was his explanation for it all?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t exactly let him explain anything. I took off.”
“Honey, you can't keep running when things get hard. It’s not what your momma has done, and it’s not what I did when I was younger. We are fiercely loyal, almost to a fault, but we stand up for ourselves and for our men and we fight tooth and nail for the truth. We don’t accept wishy-washy answers, and we will take a bitch out.”
I laugh at the fact Grams had given me permission to kick Heather’s ass, and not just Heather, but any woman who dares to take Robert away from me.
I sit up and rest my head on her shoulder.
“Don’t you think he deserves to tell his side of the story?”
I know what the answer should be, but I’m not ready to give in to him yet.
“Honey, I’m gonna tell you something my grandmother told me when I was about your age. Men, as much as we love them, well, they’re stupid creatures. But if you find one who is willing to put you above all things, well, you don’t let him go, you fight for him, and honey, that boy out there loves you more than life itself. Things won't always be perfect. There will be hard times, but those hard times strengthen you not only as an individual but also as a couple.”
I know she’s right, but admitting I’m wrong, isn’t something I want to do right now. I want to be justified in my feelings. I want him to feel the heart-wrenching agony I felt, and I want to crush Heather’s fucking face in. I mumble a thank-you to her as she pats my leg on her way off the bed.
“You know that boy is sitting on the front steps waiting for you.”
I jump off my bed and look out the window as best I can and see what resembles a broken man. The snow has begun to fall again, and he’s sitting in the midst of it right there on the front step. Gram was right when she said men were stupid, there’s a covered porch and a bench he could take shelter on instead of sitting on the cold concrete getting wet. “Why is he out there?”
“Your grandpa won't let him in the house until you say so.” I laugh at how protective Gramps is over me. One of the benefits of being the only grandchild, I assume.
Looking back out the window, I call down the hall, “Gramps, he can come inside now, but only as far as the living room. I’m not ready to see him yet.”
“Will do, peanut.” I hear the front door crack open and the sound of boots stomping off on the front porch before closing my door again.
“Thanks, Gram.”
She kisses my head and heads to the door. “Don’t give up on him, but don’t let your pride push him away either. No one wins in that situation.” She nods and leaves me alone to contemplate her final words.
*****
The lock on the front door clicks open, and I look back to see a slightly less intimidating Gramps standing in the doorway.
“She said you can come in.”
Thank God for a softening heart. I was beginning to freeze out there. Sure there were warmer places to sit, on the bench, or hell even in my truck with the heater on, but that would that have been a weak move. I make my way inside and Gramps motions towards the living room.
“You’re only allowed this far.”
“Thank-you, sir.”
“Boy, you must have really messed up,” he growls at me with agitated breath.
“Sir if only I could expl…”
“Save it for her. Just know the women in this family are about as hard-headed as they come.”
The front door swings open, and Olivia rushes in.
“Liv—can you just expl…”
She stops me mid-sentence holding her hand up. “I’m here for Presley. Not you.”
*****
“Hey, Liv. Thanks for coming over. What was the big news you had to tell me in person?”
“Trey asked me out!” she squeals, all giddy, as she jumps up and down in place.
“What! I’m so happy for you guys. Do you know where he’s taking you?” My excitement for her is through the roof. She deserves this moment of joy, and I don’t want to let Robert and my problems interfere with what she and Trey are beginning.
“No clue, and thanks, but umm, why is Brice sitting in your living room looking depressed and like he’s been run over by a semi—multiple times. Is everything okay between you two?” She sits down on the bed and takes my hands in hers. “You can talk to me. I promise not to judge, unless you want me, then just call me Judgy McJugerson.”
I laugh a little; she always knows how to lighten the mood. “I don’t know what to think or who to believe. He has a hickey on his neck from Heather, and her thong was in his truck.”
“Oh, hell, no! Forget being all judgy, I’ve been waiting for the day I could murder her and not feel sorry about it. Pres, she’s a dirty little tramp; she’s slept with half the teachers in our school. You know he would never touch her, right?”
“I’m beginning to realize that.” I take a deep breath and fall back against my bed, spread out like a starfish.
“Presley, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. Brice is completely infatuated with you. In fact, Trey’s told me when it’s just the two of them, he can't stop talking about you. It’s one of the reasons he asked me out. He sees how happy Brice is with you, and he didn’t want to wonder what would have happened if he never asked me out. You two are seriously couple perfection.”
*****
Liv’s been in Presley’s room for almost an hour now, and I feel as if I’m the problem student waiting outside of the principal’s office. The front door opens again, and Trey walks into the house.
&nbs
p; “Hey, man. What’s up? Where’s Liv at?”
I motion my head towards Presley’s room, and he starts walking down the hall, getting about halfway before turning back to me.
“Aren’t you coming?”
I take a deep breath, running my fingers through my hair. “I can’t.”
He looks at me as if I’ve lost my mind, but proceeds towards Presley’s room, closing the door behind him. Is it weird the thought of another guy in her room sets my entire body on fire? Sure, I trust him, and he’s not the kind of guy who would go after someone’s girl, and Liv is in there, maybe it’s nothing, but then again perhaps they’re all in there having a laugh at my expense.
*****
There’s another knock on my door, and Olivia jumps off the bed to answer it.
“Really Liv, I’m not ready to talk to him yet.”
“It’s not Brice. I texted Trey on my way over here and asked him to pick me up. I didn’t know about the Brice – Heather thing until you told me. I can stay if you want me to.”
She opens the door a crack and Trey steps in. I see the twinkle in his eye, the one reserved only for Liv. The way his hand immediately reaches out to touch her, almost as if he’s unaware he’s doing it. I want to be wrapped in Robert’s arms; I want to see my twinkle in his eyes instead of the uncertainty currently there now.
Confused, Trey asks, “Hey, you know Brice is here, right?”
“Yea.”
“And he’s out there sitting on the couch.”
“Yea.”
“Okay. Just makin’ sure. Seems odd we’re in here and he’s out there. Are you okay? I’ll kick his ass if I need to.”
I chuckle because that may be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to try and cheer me up.
“Trey, we all know in a fight between you and Brice, he could kick your ass without blinking an eye.” Liv has never been one to mince words, she calls things the way she sees them.
“Hey, now!”
“But I think it was a sweet offer, baby. It was all a big misunderstanding, and everything will be fine once you kick Heather out of our group.”
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