“Please, share with the class, asshole.” I wave for him to continue.
"Well," he swaggers toward me. "I'd start by explaining the maniacal intensity you had there when we were talking. How about that, huh?"
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I deadpan.
“Of course." He says with an eye roll. “You don’t have a clue why you wanted to take my head off just a moment ago? Right. Everything was super cool. Super chill.” His hands are on his hips, and he reminds me of a housewife chewing out her husband for coming home late. “You’re gonna destroy her. You know how you are with women, and she’s Freya’s friend. She’s my friend.” He shakes his head. “You’ll get her out of your system with a fuck, but where will it leaveher?”
“I’m not planning on doing anything with her.” My hackles rise. “It was a moment of weakness, that’s all,” I wave at him and force a smile on my face.
He slowly walks as if trying to cage a wild animal. “Dude, I always suspected that you had the hots for her, but not at that level. You were ready to kill me, and for what? For comforting her when everyone’s been shitting on her?”
I feel a wave of shame shooting up my neck at his words, but I look him deep in the eyes anyway, hoping he’ll understand the gravity of my words. “I won’t hurt her.”
“Do you want me to remind you?” He raises an eyebrow. “All you’ve done is hurt her.”
“I haven’t felt… that… yet for anybody. You know I've been a little… obsessed with her. I mean, I know it's not really healthy, but I can’t change the way I feel.” I lift a shoulder.
His sigh is audible and heavy. “Fuck. What are you gonna do?”
I glance in the direction Kayla has disappeared. “See how I can fix this major fuck up.”
“This?” He points his finger between us.
“No,” it’s my turn to sigh. “The years that I treated her like shit.”
“Good luck with that,” His chuckle is dark, and I feel like he might know more than I do. In fact, I’m sure he does. Kayla spends a lot of time with Freya. Alex must know some extra info, and he better share it with me. "But seriously, though," he grabs the front of my shirt into his fist, "don't fuck it up more than you already have. You hurt her, and we repeat those bleachers. Are we clear on that?" He pulls me closer.
The bleachers. Where he punched me for talking shit to our new teacher at school. She was so young. Fresh out of college and thrown into the snake pit that was our high school. I didn't make her life easy, and at one point, Alex had had enough.
And there's nothing more I want right now than to punch him in the face, but I also respect him at the same time: he's trying to protect her because God knows, nobody else does. I sure as fuck never did; I just kept adding to her misery. She doesn’t have it easy. Just look at her living condition, for fucks sake. She lives in a trailer. One might think that when she got on her feet, she would have gotten herself a decent place. Sure, it looks super clean, and I might even say cozy, but it's still a trailer. During winter in Maine, at the bottom of the mountain where she lives alone.
Fuck, I need to check if anything needs maintaining in there. Did her heating even work the past winter? It was cold. I had to unfreeze my car lock almost every single morning because it constantly got stuck.
Where does she get her water from? She's tiny. How does she manage to get the tank up? Does somebody come to help her? It must be somebody big to get that shit up there. Fuck! Who helps her? Is it Mark? Because that dude’s been sniffing around her for a few weeks, I’ve noticed. And that strange feeling I had while I was there? Like someone was watching me. Was it someone who lives nearby and iscloseto her?
“Dam’, man. That look,” Alex begins laughing like a maniac. “You got itbad. I’m not even sure who I should be scared more for, Kayla oryou.” He’s laughing so hard he has to bend over, resting his hands on his knees. When he’s finally done, he wipes the tears from his eyes and speaks. "For real, though, don't mess it up."
“Why are you so concerned all of a sudden?” I fold my arms and narrow my eyes at him.
"I look out for you. Both of you. You did the same for me… us…." he's referring to when I warned him about messing with Freya. But I didn't do anything special, just simply told him to pull his head out of his ass when it kept getting stuck every time Freya was around. “I’m just returning the favor.”
ChapterNineteen
KAYLA
I park in front of Alex’s house but don’t leave my car. I don’t want to. I need to figure out what happened back at the diner.
I'm mulling over every single thing I said, he said, Alex said, I did, they did, how they moved their hands, where Justin was looking when I waved my pinky on my left hand… driving myself crazy with overanalyzing every single detail.
A gentle knock on the driver’s side window makes me jump, accidentally pressing down on the horn. Nice, now everyone knows I’m here, and by everyone, I mean Freya and her bears.
Freya’s warm smile sets me at ease, and I roll down the window.
She shivers and pulls a fluffy throw over her shoulders. “Wanna come in?” She nods toward the house with an understanding smile. “I made some tea.”
"Yeah," I say quietly and finally exit the car. She pulls me under the throw and kisses my cheek—I must really look miserable because we don't usually partake in this girly stuff; we're tough chicks, that's it.
The couch is done up with a few extra pillows and a comforter. Freya notices my gaze and says, “Alex called and told me you might be up for a girls' night in. Or out if you prefer." She raises a brow. "He's having boys' night." My head whips toward her, and she laughs. "Don't worry, he and Justin really need some bro time; it was long overdue." She waves at the couch, "I was hoping you'd be sleeping in the bed, but just in case, I got the couch ready here.”
