“I don’t know, but I hope it was worth it,” Deven says, only angering me more.
I disregard them both and go straight to my bed to sleep the rest of the day.
When I wake up, it’s going on seven p.m. I climb out of bed and head for the bathroom. After a good, long shower, I go in search for some food. Deven is still on the couch, but Brad is in the kitchen. I grab a cold bottle of water and a box of donuts as I sit at the table.
Brad comes and sits across from me. “So, tell me about the girl,” he says, like there’s some juicy gossip there.
“What girl?” I ask, stuffing a mini donut into my mouth.
“The girl you went out with last night. The one who got you fucking hammered and the one you with stayed all night. Come on, I need the details here, man.”
I know he won’t ease off me until I give him something, so I make something up. “She was just this girl I ran into in town. We sat at the bar and had a few drinks. We danced and then had a few more drinks. Then she took me back to her place, where we had a lot more drinks.”
He laughs loud. “That’s my boy. You going to see her again?”
I shake my head. “No, I doubt it. Things won’t work with us. There’s too much shit between us,” I answer, thinking only of Deven.
“That’s a shame,” he says, hanging his head. “Why not?”
“She has this brother, a guy I knew growing up. I think he fucking hates me or something. Anyway, for us to be together, we’d have to go through him. He would flip his shit if he found out we were together last night.”
He shakes his head. “That’s too bad, man.”
I nod.
“But I guess I can say I understand where he’s coming from, you know? If it was my sister and I hated this guy as much as you say, there’s no way I’d let him touch my sister.” Brad states.
“And what if you didn’t hate him? What if, I don’t know, he was an old friend? Then what?”
He looks at me and thinks it over. “I don’t know. It’s hard to picture any of my friends being with my sister. I mean, that would be like you and Deven getting together. It’d just be fucking weird, man. I mean, she’s like your sister too. Don’t you think?”
I nod. “Yeah, that would be fucking weird,” I lie, not wanting to give him any more clues about what Deven and I have been up to.
Brad ends up leaving to run some weekend errands, leaving me and Deven alone. She walks into the kitchen with her arms crossed. “Is all that true?”
I frown as I look up at her. “Is all what true?”
“The things you said to Brad. Did you meet up with some girl and shack up with her last night?”
“What’s it to you?” I ask, getting angry. I mean, I’m in all this pain because of her. She made me love her and then she ripped it all away because I can’t give her every little thing she wants. If she loves me as much as I love her, shouldn’t she be more patient? Give me, us, all of this a little bit of time?
She scoffs. “You know why I’m asking, Hudson. Just because some things were said last night doesn’t mean that I don’t care. I do care. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t want to stay your little secret.”
“I was your secret too. Don’t forget that,” I point out. “You’re acting like I was just ashamed to be seen with you. You know that isn’t true!” I can’t help the way my voice rises.
Her hands fall to her hips and she lets out a long, drawn out breath. “See, this is why we wouldn’t work. We have nothing in common. If we’re not fucking, we’re fighting.”
I smirk up at her. “I know how to stop the fighting,” I tease, even though anger is still pumping though me.
She rolls her eyes and leaves the kitchen.
Two weeks pass by unbelievably slowly. I actually get to start full-time at the fire department, and as happy as that makes me, it’s all overshadowed by the loss of having Deven in my bed and in my arms. Living together and not talking has become the norm for us. The only plus side is that now