Officially Over It - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,54

not sure how many Hershey Kisses equals happiness, but so far, it’s not 27.

-Text from Reggie to Nathan

Nathan

Later that night, I walked in the door unsurprised to find Reggie with her ass planted in my chair, wearing my sweatshirt, drinking my beer.

“You heard?” I asked curiously.

She nodded. “I heard.”

“How?” I wondered.

She pointed to the house next door. “Hastings. She was outside when I got home and was talking about stuff that she heard on the police scanner. Apparently, Sammy tuned in a radio for her that’ll allow her to listen to everything.” She paused. “Can I have one of those?”

I just shook my head and walked to the couch to collapse next to her.

“Are your parents on the way?” I wondered.

“Yep.” She looked at me. “I almost called and canceled.”

I groaned. “They would’ve just come over here. My dad has some news. My mom wants to rip me a new one. And I’m fairly sure that your dad has already called and reamed my dad out for something he had no control over.”

She snickered and handed me the beer, which I promptly downed in a matter of seconds.

I handed the empty back to her and stood up.

“Let me go change,” I said. “Then we can go.”

I walked into the bedroom and headed for my closet, desperate to get the fuck out of my wet clothes that I’d been in for the last two hours.

I heard the clink of glass on glass as she threw the bottle into the trashcan, and wondered how many of my beers she’d had tonight.

“So tell me exactly what happened,” she ordered.

I looked at her just as I got my wet t-shirt off over my head and flung it in the direction of the hamper.

“Darius’ brother, Sylvan, decided to try his hand at making meth. Only, he didn’t do anywhere near as good of a job. He caught the apartment on fire, and knew he was going to get his ass into trouble. So he then decided to barricade himself and his two-year-old son in the apartment that you vacated.” I paused. “He’s so going to jail.”

“That doesn’t explain why you’re wet,” she pointed out.

I crinkled my nose in disgust. “The toddler decided to go running out the door and through the parking lot toward the fire trucks that he thought were cool as shit. I caught him right when he would’ve taken a face full of pressurized water from one of the pumpers.”

“Oh, fuck.” She shook her head. “That would’ve been really, really bad.”

I’d seen it happening before Sylvan had even let the kid go.

Luckily, everything had worked out.

Unluckily, I got wet in the process and had to deal with it for the next three hours.

Needless to say, my balls were now chafed and my head was pounding. The very last thing I wanted to do was go out.

Especially with my girl standing in front of me in black leggings, my sweatshirt, and super warm, basic bitch UGG boots that made her feet look three sizes bigger than they were.

I wanted to wrap her up in my arms, fall into the bed, and stay exactly that way until morning.

Sadly, my parents didn’t care that I’d had a day.

What they cared about were answers.

Their spider senses must’ve been twitching because instead of calling to tell us where to meet them for dinner, they showed up at my house with Reggie’s parents in tow.

And I hadn’t even put a shirt on yet when they all barged into my house as if they owned the place.

“All right, Nathan,” my mother said. “It’s time to tell me what in the hell is going on. I’ve given you the time Wolf said you might need. But I just can’t deal with it anymore. My head’s spinning all sorts of scenarios here, and I’ve decided that I can’t wait any longer. I need details.” Her eyes moved to Reggie. “Especially details on what the hell is going on with you two.”

Reggie looked at me and then grinned. “Well, it all started with a pact.”

That wasn’t exactly a lie.

When Reggie and I were young kids, one of my good friends had asked me if I ever thought I was going to get married one day.

I’d looked over at Reggie and said, “I’ll marry her.”

I’d said it in such a way that it sounded like I was giving Reggie a gift.

And, it wasn’t until much later, that I realized that it was the opposite. Reggie was the gift.

I was the curse.

“So I have