Page 28 of Your Side of the Offense

“Shit.”

He’s starting with this shit again.

“Fuckin dickhead.” Jaden spits.

“Where the fuck is she going with that clown?” Caleb murmurs.

“Probably…the park,” Jaden says absentmindedly and both me and Caleb stop to look at him as he continues walking. “Like fuck I know. I’m here with you.” He shrugs in annoyance.

I hope he isn’t bringing a fucking girl to our house that isn’t Summer.

“I will kill him.” Jaden glares.

“We will kill him,” I say.

We come up to the house and the girl basically runs out, we don’t even get to ask her anything.

“And then?” Jaden says.

We meet the asshole ascending the stairs, a beer dangling on his right and topless.

“What the fuck, asshole?” Jaden snarls at him.

He doesn’t turn, just goes upstairs and we follow him.

He shuts the door in our face, but we enter anyways.

As I’m about to go off, I notice it, he is trembling. His left hand is in a fist. He tips his head and drinks the beer in one go. Did he have some panic and not go through with it?

Caleb pulls a blunt from his pocket and takes the single couch.

“Dude, what’s wrong with you?” Jaden asks.

Harvey doesn’t answer, just stares out the window.

“What did you do with that girl?” I ask, approaching him slowly. Whatever it was it was brief, but we still need to know. We need to know also why the fuck he thought doing that in front of Summer was a bright idea.

“Nothing, you know I last longer than a minute. Relax,” he says.

“No homo,” Jaden adds and we all chuckle. Jaden is the ‘no homo’ police of the group. It’s weird as shit because it’s like he’s always on the lookout for sexually suggestive sentences.

We all relax a little. But not enough.

Silence falls on the room for a few moments.

“Where is she?” he asks, voice barely audible. I feel and hear his pain and my anger at him deflates a little more. He’s hurting, he just has weird ways with relationships.

Harvey is a complicated person. His fucked-up relationship with his parents doesn’t help either. Neglected and emotionally abused as a child makes one lacking in the healthy coping mechanism department. He’s got a few complexes, sometimes acting in contrast with what he feels.

Like this afternoon, he wants Summer to listen to him, but he lashes out at the first sign of her rejection and instead of trying to get on his knees, he’ll get even or do worse and escalate the situation.

The first to burn a bridge because he wants everyone to believe he’s untouchable and can make it on his own. He and Summer were very close.

We all were, but he opened up most to her, sharing things he’s never even shared with us. It’s been a lot for him.

Not counting that he was drugged in the first place and didn’t choose what happened. In a way, I think he feels rejected by her on a deeper level than we can realize.

“She left,” Jaden answers, getting closer.

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