over everyone else’s.” She let out a rough laugh and put a shaking hand to her chest. “You have fan pages dedicated to you on pretty much every social media site.”
I arched an eyebrow at her. “Excuse me?”
She sighed again and shook her head. “Never mind. Look, I signed a lease. I put down the deposit, and even though you may have posted that you prefer a male roommate, the Fair Housing Act prevents landlords from discriminating against renting to someone based on gender.” She huffed an annoyed little breath and finally met my gaze. I’d forgotten that she could be a handful when she really dug her heels in about something. She’d had to be tough to hang with me and survive my seriously chaotic and toxic family. As annoying as it was in the moment, I was secretly glad to see she still had bits and pieces of her steel spine intact. I was worried my family, especially my half brother, were going to break her when I left her behind.
I grinned at her, but it wasn’t nice. It was with lots of teeth and just enough threat to have her take a step backward.
“There are stalking laws that protect victims from having to share space with predators as well. You already admitted you came here because of me, that you’ve been tracking me on social media. I’m sure you know I’m pre-law, Ollie. Do you really want to go head-to-head with me? How often did that work out for you back in the day?” I cocked my head and regarded her coolly. If anyone knew just how ugly my temper could get, it was her. “There are plenty of other places for rent in this town. Something tells me you knew there wouldn’t be a warm reception when you tracked me down, so you manipulated things so I couldn’t turn you away exactly like you knew I would.”
Vernon threw up his hands in obvious bewilderment at the situation. “Why do I feel like you two are suddenly speaking a foreign language? This seems like a private matter. Harlen and I are going to let you figure this out. We’ll be in the kitchen.” He spun on his heel and marched toward the glowering football player.
Normally it took a whole offensive line to move Harlen, but when we were home, he willingly let Vernon drag him around like he was an overgrown puppy. It was pretty cute and would totally ruin Harlen’s tough-guy image if the truth ever got out.
Once we were alone, Ollie and I faced off like two opponents gearing up for an epic battle.
It used to be us against the world, and something felt incredibly wrong about it suddenly being us against each other.
She made a sound and clenched the hand resting on her chest as if she were trying to hold onto her heart. When she spoke, her words were shaky.
“You look good, Huck. Very grown up.”
Where she hadn’t changed much physically over the years, I sure as hell had.
I was always a runt and had been a little chubby when I was younger. It had taken years to finally grow into my larger-than-life personality and for my outward appearance to match all the attitude I was hauling around. I wasn’t as tall or muscular as Harlen. But he still had to put a decent amount of effort to take me to the ground whenever our tempers turned to exchanging blows. Having a professional athlete as a best friend was good for keeping one in shape. Even on the days all I wanted to do was watch Netflix and drink beer, Harlen usually managed to get my ass in gear and drag me to do some kind of physical activity. My baby fat melted away once I hit my late teens, leaving behind a face full of sharp, angular features, and making my unusual light eyes stand out even more. My hair hung out somewhere between brown and black and could look darker or lighter depending on the day and lighting. I kept it fairly short and trendy. I put a lot more effort into my appearance when I got out into the world on my own. I’d learned that being attractive was just another tool one could use for survival.
I looked good.
I knew it.
And so did Ollie, if the look in her eyes was anything to go by. Soft appreciation for my obvious glow-up was the only sign of life I’d seen in