One and Done - S. Briones Lim Page 0,19

the words tumbled out of my mouth quite easily. “My dad’s getting remarried. I didn’t even know he was dating somebody.”

She attempted to keep a straight face but miserably failed. Her bottom lip jutted forward and her eyebrows rose. “Oh, Jesse…I’m so sorry.”

“Why?” I snorted. “It’s not like he was ever coming back, right?”

“I know, but…”

“But what?”

She shrugged. “You may deny it, but I know there’s always been a small part of you that wished he would.”

“Nope,” I replied, exaggerating the ‘p’ sound.

“Yeah, I believe you.” She waved me off.

I groaned and banged the back of my head softly against the shit-stained wall. “He also asked me to be his best man. I mean, what the fuck?”

“Well, you have to admit that was a bit nice.”

“I don’t have to admit anything, and it wasn’t nice. He just wants me to commit to going, which I am not going to do.” My blood began to boil, and though I knew I was taking my anger out on her, I couldn’t help myself. It was as if every negative emotion I had tried so hard to push away had suddenly returned with a vengeance. My dad had an uncanny ability to fuck up my life whether he was near me or not.

“Why wouldn’t you?”

I stared at her as if she had just told me that Elvis had returned to sing at the Old Opry. “The question is, ‘why would I want to’?”

Rocky opened her mouth to answer, but her voice came out deeper than expected. It took me a moment to realize the voice didn’t belong to her.

“Hey, you kids! What are you doing up there?” Heavy footsteps bounded toward us. Having had multiple brushes with the law, I knew exactly who those footsteps belonged to.

“Crap!” I jumped to my feet, underestimating the height of the concrete ceiling and bashing my head into it. “Ow!”

“Are you okay?” Rocky gasped, carefully making her way down the ramp.

“Don’t worry about me! Just run!”

Now, if I were alone I would have been up and gone already. There would have been no way the pig would have caught me. Unfortunately, Rocky wasn’t as stealthy as I could be. I watched in a panic as her foot caught into a tiny hole right where the sidewalk met the grass. She toppled to the ground, skinning her knees and hands in the process.

“Shit! Rocky, get up and run!” I yelped.

There was no running, however. The cop, who looked not much more than five years older than the both of us, appeared at her side, grabbing onto her arm. His cap was turned to the side, exposing his disheveled hair and sweat-stained face. Yup, if I were alone I so would have been able to outrun him. Jesse Tyler and the law did not have a good rap sheet.

He carefully pulled Rocky up and helped her to her feet. Glancing toward the ramp, he shot me a look of warning. “You better freeze, kiddo. You’re in big trouble.”

“Jesse, you can still run away,” Rocky hissed.

There was no way I was leaving her, and perhaps the cop could sense it too. He quietly eyed Rocky’s blood-stained jeans and shook his head solemnly.

“Are we going to jail?” Rocky whimpered.

Oh! How my heart broke at the look of fear on her face. Immediately I regretted every decision I made that morning—going to the bypass, letting Rocky tag along, skipping school…waking up.

The cop’s stone cold face crumbled instantly. His eyebrows furrowed at the sight of Rocky’s look of horror. In a calm tone, he clucked, “Come on, let’s get you two back to school. We’ll call your parents there and get you cleaned up.”

My eyebrows furrowed together. “We’re really getting off that easily?”

“Jesse!” Rocky snapped warningly.

My frown deepened. There had to be a catch. “With all due respect, I’m not used to being treated like this by…”

“By a cop?” He finished for me.

I nodded. “Why are you being so nice?”

His laugh was strained. “Believe me, kid, in my experience, dealing with parents is way worse than jail.”

***

“Rocky, how could you do this?” Mr. Rossi’s voice boomed loudly, rattling the glass windows that separated Mr. Elliott’s office from the main lobby. Rocky and her parents had been inside for almost twenty minutes, and let’s just say it was far from a peaceful meeting.

I clenched my fists together and shut my eyes, trying desperately to keep myself from barging through the closed door. Rocky shouldn’t be in this mess. She didn’t deserve any of it.