“And where is that?” Cole wittily replied.
“You don’t fuck with Half-Pint and we don’t fuck with you,” Austin chimed in, treading near his face.
Cole smiled with a nod. “Can’t we all just get along?”
Now it was my turn to smile. “We will as long as you know where you stand. Don’t fuck with her and there won’t be any problems.”
“Huh,” he breathed out, narrowing his eyes at me and striding toward me till we were inches apart. “And what if she fucks with me? What then?” he whispered to close to my face.
“You son of a bitch.” I shoved the shit out of him before the last word even left my mouth and his back slammed into the fence. “Want to try that again?” I threatened, while lunging at him but Dylan and Jacob grabbed my arms.
He put his hands up in the air, laughing. “Now this is what I call a fucking welcome,” he yelled out in a high-pitched voice. “By all means boys. Duly noted, I’ll make sure to not fuck,” he paused, emphasizing the word with wide eyes, “with Alexandra.” He clapped his hands together, moving away. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some waves to catch, and I’ll be sure not steal any of those either.” And with that he turned and left.
“At least he has balls, I’ll give him that,” Austin boasted.
I roughly flung my arms out of Dylan and Jacobs holds. “Fuck him,” I called out loud enough so he heard me.
“Relax,” Dylan coaxed. “I’d rather her be hanging out with someone like him than a goddamn pussy who can’t protect her.”
My face scowled and my blood fumed. “Are you for real?” I hissed.
“He’s right,” Austin stated. “Let it go. He knows what’s up. We said our peace. Get your shit together and cool off.”
I shook my head at all of them, seething. “Un-fucking-believable.” I turned and left, not bothering to hear any more of the bullshit spewing from their mouths.
I staggered around endlessly for a few hours and then ended up in the only place I ever felt complete.
It was still fairly early by the time my shift ended. Lucas wasn’t parked out in front of the restaurant like usual, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed. I headed to the only place I knew I would find him.
He lay against the pillows while he threw a tennis ball at the wall in front of him. His stare remained at the task at hand as I walked inside and sat on the blankets beside him, facing him. Dream On by Aerosmith played on the radio. Neither of us said a word, and I swear it felt like hours had gone by. I tried to remain patient. Soundlessly taking in the words of the music around me. It seemed fitting.
I couldn’t take it anymore, my frustration getting the best of me. “You’re not going to say anything?” I asked, breaking the deadly silence that consumed my very being.
“What would you like me to say, Alexandra,” he replied with his stare intently placed on throwing the stupid ball.
“An apology maybe?”
“I’m not going to apologize for protecting you,” he simply stated once again throwing the damn ball back at the wall.
“That’s not fair.”
He shrugged not paying me any mind. “I never said life was fair.”
I scoffed as my head shook, baffled. “It’s so easy for you.”
“And what would that be? The fact that I have to watch you grow up, knowing that it’s only a matter of time before you really start growing up,” he harshly rasped while he angled his head on the wall. Throwing the ball much harder now.
“Bo,” I whispered my head bowing, hoping that this conversation wasn’t going where I thought it would. “I don’t know what you want me to say. I don’t know what you want me to do,” I spoke honestly.
Everything was so confusing. So overwhelming. I wanted to go back when we were just kids and nothing else mattered but playing and laughing. Enjoying spending every second together, before emotions and feelings took over and nothing made sense anymore.
Before we started growing up.
“It doesn’t matter what I want. It’s what you want,” he alleged, his voice broken and torn.
That was what made me look up at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know.”
“Remind me then,” I challenged.
“You just want to hear me say the words, Half-Pint, and I’m not going to because then I would have to lock you in this house. And we both know that’s not going to happen.”
I sighed, “Bo, I’ve accepted that you’ve grown up. I accept everything you do and I’m still your brown eyed girl.”
He threw the ball a few more times, contemplating what to say, I was sure. It echoed through the room, mirroring my tolerance for his next words to me.
“That’s exactly it. I fuck, Half-Pint.”
It fell from his lips so easily, making me loudly gasp, surprised as hell. He’s never had the audacity to admit that to me, and for some reason I had the feeling that he was aware that I already knew. He would have never spoken to me like that otherwise.
“I don’t care about anyone other than you,” he followed, still throwing the damn ball against the wall. Which now mirrored my heart. I hated everything he shared because I knew he meant it and all it did was add to the pile of confusion.
For us…
For me…
“You’re not like that. I know it and you do too. So when the time comes, you won’t be my brown eyed girl anymore. You’ll be his, and that’s the truth between us.”
I sat there blindsided with a parted mouth, taking in every word as if he recited poetry. It flowed through my mind making its way to my heart where he would forever be engrained.
“You’re a good girl, Alexandra. That’s what makes you my Half-Pint. You’re the calm to my storm. It’s always been that way,” he paused to let his words sink in. “You’re my refuge.”
Tears fell from my eyes, down the sides of my face, and into a puddle where his emotions now lay beside mine. I couldn’t stop the tears, and for the first time I didn’t want to.
So I said the only thing that I knew to be true. “I love you, Bo,” I wept my voice breaking.
He hit his head against the wall, the ball no longer flowed through the air, but it was tightly gripped in the palm of his hand. His eyes shut like what I just expressed caused him pain. It only made me cry harder.
Then the ball unexpectedly hurled through the air, hitting the wall so hard it broke through the drywall. He immediately stood and was over to the door in three strides, opening it and stopping right before he stepped out onto the deck.
With a bowed head and soft voice he said, “I love you, too.” And then he was gone.
Only adding to the times…
That he walked away from me.
Lucas always comforted me. With his arms, his words, his expressions, even when he was hurting me. He was as much my refuge as I was his. I lay there for the rest of the evening, staring at the hole in the wall and letting the music lull me.
Waiting.
I heard the door open and close. I felt his presence as he sat beside me gently lifting my head into his lap. I closed my eyes while he lovingly stroked my hair.
Softly humming…
My Brown Eyed Girl.
I watched him walk in from the corner of my eye. It had been a few days since I first saw him. He sat out on the deck, and I made my way out there, tray in hand. I placed it on the table, and he smiled the same dimply grin that made my belly flutter and my palms sweaty.
“The boys didn’t scare you off, huh?” I joked with a hint of amusement in my voice and a hand firmly positioned at my hip.
“I like to live life on the edge.” He leaned back in his chair as he looked up at me with a slight glimmer in his gaze. “You’re too pretty to stay away from.”