Page 79 of Beneath the Helmet
He shoves me under his arm, proudly displaying me as his. I find something incredibly interesting to look at on the floor, unable to meet my father’s gaze. I’m not sure if Ben notices my reaction, but he begins to speak again as if to save me from speaking myself.
“It was unexpected and new, but we did have plans to tell y’all this weekend.”
Lies, but I’m grateful for his cover story. We had no plans to tell my parents that I was aware of.
“I see,” my father says in a stony tone.
“Well, congratulations!” my mom says brightly.
I look up, surprised to see a kind expression on her face as she leans in and hugs us both. I hug her back speechless, peeking at my father over her shoulder.
Yikes.
He, on the other hand, is fiercely scowling at me. I’ve never seen that look in his eyes before. They’re cold and empty and resemble nothing I’ve ever known from my father. I shift my gaze away, too scared to continue looking at him. What’s he going to do? What’s he going to say? I really hope he doesn’t make a scene.
Mom releases us after a too long hug and resumes talking with Ben’s parents.
“Did you all want to come over to the farm later for celebrations now that we’ve officially got two grads onour hands?” Koa says excitedly, his eyes brimming with pride.
“No,” my dad says sternly, stunning everyone into silence. “Charlotte will be coming home with us. We have some things we need to discuss.”
Tears well up as I chew anxiously on the inside of my cheek. This is so embarrassing. Ben squeezes my shoulder, pulling me into him tighter.
“Charlotte! Oh my gosh—hi!”
Shirley runs up to me from behind my father and gives me a hug, interrupting the horrible situation he just created. Thank God. I have no idea if he was about to rip me away from everyone and yell at me or jump Ben.
I slap on a smile the best I can and hug her back. “Hi Shirley, congratulations.”
“You too!” She steps back and takes me by the hand, leading me away. “I’m just gonna borrow her for a quick sec,” she shouts to everyone.
Her hair, pinned up with curls flowing around her shoulders, bounces as she pulls me toward the stand. She looks so happy.
“Girl! Are you and Ben dating? I saw you two holding hands, and he’s like all over you! What happened to your thing with Jared?”
Rage overwhelms me at the mention of Jared. “Jared’s an asshole. Stay away from him Shirl.” I take a deep breath and relax my tone, reminding myself she’s not the one I’m mad at. “But yes, Ben and I are together.”
“Eeek!” She bounces on her toes excitedly.
“How’d it happen? Oh my gosh, you have to tell meeverything. And also, what did Jared do that made you change your mind about him? What’d he do to make you so angry? Why do I have to stay away from him?”
I frown, debating how much to divulge in the public setting. I don’t want to start any drama. Graduation day’s really not turning into a great day. All I want is to hole up with Ben in a bedroom, mess around and go to sleep.
“I don’t really want to talk about Jared right now, Shirley. All you need to know is that he should not be around women. Promise you won’t try to date him anymore?”
Her expression turns serious. “Yeah. Yeah, of course. He rejected me at his party anyways and I hit it off with his cousin, so I gave up on him that night. Plus, you never talk bad about people so to warn me about him means he must really be shitty on the inside. But hey, at least you got a biker now, eh? Even though it’s not the biker boy on Xypher, next best thing is a biker that you know.Right?” She elbows me and winks, wearing a playful smirk.
Wow, I haven’t thought about Xypher or the biker boy since I tried bringing it up to Ben last Sunday. Masturbating to him feels like a fever dream from another lifetime.
“Yeah, I guess.” I awkwardly rub my left arm. “Hey, you should do some investigating and see if you can get ahold of the biker boy and date him before the summer’s over.”
“Girl, believe me, I’ve tried. I’ve DM’d him so many times but never got a response. He’s not very interactive with his fans.”
I can’t believe she actually reached out to him. I can’t believe he actually reached out to me and threatened to find me and take me. If she knew, she’d probably flip; or be extremely jealous that I had both Jared and the biker boy after me. Probably best not to tell her that minute detail.
The desire to discover who he is, is long gone, replaced by my deep love and new infatuation for Ben. Small bits of guilt still linger from not telling Ben about him, but it’s not like I didn’t try. Each time I start to bring up the conversation, Ben interrupts me and refuses to listen. So, I gave up.
“Well, you’ll find someone. But honestly, you should forget about boys. Just enjoy the summer and live it up! Boys make everything too complicated anyways.”
