Page 30 of Reviving Kendall

He looks proud for a moment, then confused, “What’s a twunt?”

My face turns red. There’s no way I’m going to explain that it’s a mix between twat and cunt, since I refuse to say either word. Goose has apparently put them together, because he’s fighting a smile. “It’s just a new age insult.”

He shrugs and ambles his way to the bedroom, mumbling about kids these days. Stopping his door, he looks at me over his shoulder, “Proud of you for sticking up for her, Pea.”

My sad smile follows him the rest of the way in the room, and then I turn to Goose to ask, “What are you doing here?”

The grin he throws me could rival any of the other guys any day of the week, “Now that’s not very hospitable of you.”

I fold my arms across my chest, “You could have at least called first. I don’t like anyone coming in here, because he’s not feeling too well.”

“Ok, one,” he starts, “I did call. Not even an hour after you sent the text. And for two, he was feeling well enough to grill me on my intentions for about thirty minutes before he woke you up.”

My mouth drops open in horror, “You’re kidding. I’m so freaking sorry.”

He half shrugs and sends me another grin, “It’s ok. I was expecting it before I came over, because you weren’t answering your phone.”

“Yeah, that’s another thing,” I say. “He doesn’t need to be moving around too much. It’s hard for him to breathe right now.”

“I’m truly sorry,” he repents. “I’ll make sure that I follow all the rules next time.”

Next time? He plans on repeating this?

“Thank you,” I say nicely. “Now what are you doing here.”

He throws his head back and laughs and it brings a smile to my face.

“This weekend sucked balls, so I just wanted to see if you’d like to hang out for a little while,” he admits.

I take a second to think on it. I’m off work and if he leaves right now, the only thing I’m going to do is go back to sleep. “Only if there’s a promise of food,” I say causing him to laugh again.

“I’m sure we can find something to whip up here,” he says, then notices my reaction, “Or we can go to my house. The folks are out of town, so it’s pretty quiet around there.”

My hands motion to my clothes, “Ok, but give me a few minutes to change.”

He does that crazy bowing thing again and I roll my eyes at him when he smiles up at me. I walk back towards my room and I’m almost there when I realize that he’s followed me down the hall. He’s scanning the pictures on the wall. Somehow that seems more personal to me than him seeing me half naked.

“This was your Nana?” he asks softly.

When I move to stand next to him, he shifts, and our arms brush against each other. I ignore the tingles that jolt down into my fingertips, “Yep. That’s her and Gramps right before I came to live with them.” I point to one of the smaller ones next to it, “That was my first birthday with them.”

His eyebrows crease, “Why do you look so sad?”

I smile as the memory washes over me, “Because I had just finished crying. I’d never had a real birthday before, so Nana wanted it to be perfect, and she forgot the candles for the cake. You would have thought it was the end of the world with the way that she cried. Something not a lot of people know about me is that I’m a sympathy crier. It set me off, and of course that made her cry even harder. Gramps probably thought we were insane that day, but he was a good sport about it.”

“I feel for him just hearing the story,” he says with a fake shudder.

I elbow his arm, “I’m going to get dressed. Be right back.”

One arm is propping up the other on his chest as he admires the rest of the photos, “Mmm hmm.”

I roll my eyes again and go to find some clothes. I need to do laundry since I was a fucking bum all weekend, and haven’t done any in about four days. That’s about the extent of my pants. I’m down to my least favorite pair that’s shoved in the back of my drawer. Oh well, beggars can’t be choosers. I throw them on and search for a decent shirt without any holes. I find a school shirt from when we had to buy them for gym. It doesn’t have any holes, because I wasn’t stupid enough to wear it outside of school.

Just as I strip my Metallica shirt off, I hear a small half choking half coughing sound behind me. I turn to find Goose standing there with his eyes wandering my exposed body.

It puts chill bumps on the surface of my skin, “Do you mind?”

“Not at all,” he smiles.

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