Page 27 of Mountain Pine
Corrine slides her the ointment. “Honey, you can’t just beat up everyone in town for looking at Taylor the wrong way. You’re going to end up getting arrested one day.”
“Looking at her is one thing. But if you grab her and say nasty shit to her face? Naw…” I stare straight at Corrine. “I can’t let it slide. It’s not in me.”
I have no idea how to read the expression on her face when she looks over at Taylor. Then she gets up and starts making dinner. Maybe she’s mad that I cussed. Maybe she didn’t realize what a twatbag Wayne is. Who knows.
“Your knuckles are a mess.” Taylor’s agitated. I don’t care. Wayne Silver had this beat down coming. He’d been warned repeatedly. And when I saw him grab her arm and talk nasty to her against the lockers today, I lost my shit.
Nick held me back.
Dean told me to wait until after school.
Bennett made sure I got five solid minutes with that asshole off school property.
Teamwork makes the dream work.
“Put this salve on after every time you wash your hands and also before bed, okay?” She slides a tiny tin over to me.
“Okay.”
It smells awful. Feels greasy. I don’t like it.
But Taylor keeps giving me mixed signals with her eyes and I think it’s pity and frustration but I’m also delusional enough to add admiration to it too, so I’ll take this stinky greasy stuff and slather it anywhere she tells me because it’ll make her happy.
I love making her happy.
“You staying for dinner, Con?” Corrine asks as she cuts up some broccoli.
“No, ma’am. I gotta go to Nick’s to study for a biology test we got tomorrow.”
“You’re always so busy,” she chuckles. But she doesn’t say it like it’s a bad thing. She says it like it’s good.
“I can’t ever stay still,” I admit while shrugging. “It isn’t in me.”
Taylor snorts and rolls her eyes. Grabbing the first aid kit off the table, she gets up and I’m finally able to remove the bag of peas from my lap.
“Put that on your head,” Corrine orders while jabbing a knife in the air at me. “Now.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I turn to ask Taylor if she wants to meet me and Nick after dinner, but she’s already halfway up the steps and then I hear her bedroom door slam shut.
See? I’m glad I beat Wayne Silver up. He hurt her feelings more than she let on. I’m never going to let shit like that slide.
It just isn’t in me…
Once again, my mind races in circles around the past. I’ve been in love with my best friend since before I understood what love was. By senior year of high school, I was obsessed. Over-protective. Over-bearing. We’ve always been inseparable and the nightshe tried to kiss me scared the piss out of me. I took it personally because she means more to me than I’ll ever mean to her. I’m just her friend. Herbro. But that kiss wasn’t as big of a deal as I’ve always made it out to be. It was just a trend.
If I’d kissed her back, nothing would have changed because she’s only ever seen me as one of the guys she’s grown up with. We’ve all been disgusting around each other. Had the flu together. Got wasted and yacked in the bushes together. Partied too hard, laughed too loud, cried too long together. We’ve suffered and thrived and chilled.
We’re a unit.
If I tried to make us more, make us different, it would destroy everything we’ve built.
I wasn’t willing to risk it then.
I don’t think I can risk it now either.
But fuck me sideways, her face that night when I pushed her away? I think I hurt her feelings. That’s what really burns my ass hairs. The look on her face that night has haunted me ever since. For just a fraction of a hair of a millisecond, I saw hurt in her eyes, and I wanted to beat the shit out of myself for it. I think I’ve been doing just that ever since.
