Page 6 of Pretend I’m Yours
“He’s not officially discharged yet. Supposed to be here sometime next week,” I shrugged. “Not that there’s a lot for him to look forward to when he gets here.”
“Not with an attitude like that, he doesn’t!” Matt laughed. “You should get him amped! Tell him about all the things there are to do here, including women!”
All the boys around the table started laughing and I shook my head, the same placid smile etched on my face. It was becoming a fixed point. There wasn’t any real emotion behind it, but it seemed to satisfy those around me to keep the pestering questions about my well-being down.
“Speaking of women,” Trey now chimed in. “when are you going to get back in the game? I would think after all this time you’d be more than ready to get someone in bed with you!”
“Or anything in bed with you for that matter!” Pete said uproariously. I ignored the pain that shot through my heart at the comment, and took a long drink of the beer, draining the entire glass in a single drag. My friends cheered me on, and I slammed the glass down on the table a little too hard.
“That’s the spirit!” Matt was clearly elated at the sight. “That’s more like the old Drake we know!”
“Except I’ve never got to see this man in action,” Brad said. “He was tied down from the middle of high school and never got the chance to get out and see what the world really has to offer.”
“Oh,” I spoke up at last. “I’ve seen what the world has to offer, and I can tell you there is a hell of a lot more going on out there than what you see in this damn town.”
“Yet you came back to it,” Brad replied condescendingly. I felt the tension rising in my chest. My hands balled into fists then relaxed, then balled up again. I wanted to throw a punch right into his smug face. He hadn’t had to deal with much hardship in life, and we all knew it.
Brad was yet another rich kid who grew up with the world being given to him hand over fist. He didn’t know what it was like to see death. And he sure as hell had never experienced true heartbreak.
To him, women were a game. He liked to woo them, get them in bed, and never call them again. Well, unless they were really good, or rich. Then they might get their numbers saved in his phone in the event he decided he wanted another round.
Nothing serious, nothing meaningful. I never understood his take on life. But, seeing him here, surrounded by the boys and with beer in his hand, catching the eye of more than one woman who passed by the table, I had to admit, there was a charisma about him I’d never noticed before.
“Now, now, gentlemen, there’s no need to get riled up,” Pete said as he grabbed the pitcher. “Why don’t we draw straws to see who has to go get us a refill?”
“Or why don’t you just get off your lazy ass and do it?” Matt asked. “I think you’re the only one who hasn’t been up to the counter yet.”
“Drake hasn’t,” Pete said defensively.
“I just got here!” I retorted.
“Fine, if that’s how all you girls want to act, then I’ll go up there and get the beer,” Pete said as he reluctantly rose from his seat.
“If you’re smart, you’ll get more than one so we don’t have to keep running up there every ten minutes,” Trey called out.
“Are you the one who’s going to be paying for that?” Pete shot back over his shoulder. He shook his head as he turned away and we all laughed. We could just imagine the things he was mumbling under his breath as he made his way through the crowd to the swamped bar.
“I’ll get up and get it next time,” I offered. “Save him the trouble.”
“I think we should make him do it again, just to see if he will,” Brad said with a laugh. Matt and Trey both agreed, but I just shrugged. I wanted to have fun with these guys. It had been years since we’d all been out together. Whenever I’d been home on leave, I did what I could to see them, but with conflicting schedules and me wanting to spend as much time as I could with Anna Marie, it had proven difficult.
“You’re a good guy, Drake, you know that?” Trey laughed. Pete returned with his hands loaded down, and we made way for him to put the drinks on the table.
“Now that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Matt teased. “Did you have to hold your Mommy’s hand?”
“Shut up!” Pete snapped. “If you had seen what I just saw, then you all would wish that you had been the ones to get the beer.”
