Page 48 of Refusing Kendall

“Goddamnit, Kendall!” I hear behind me.

Somehow luck is on my side, and I make it all the way to my car without Teagan catching up to me. Who knows? Maybe he was never chasing me to begin with. That thought turns me into a blubbering mess. It becomes hard to see the road through my tears, so I turn down a back way that leads to a little walking park. I fight the urge to keep balling my eyes out, at least until I park and shut off the car, that is. I give myself thirty minutes to lose my fucking mind, crying until my eyes are puffy, and there’s nothing left but anger. A red-hot rage feels like it’s boiling my blood. Shit may be bad right now, but not bad enough to turn to other people. There’s a rational voice in the back of my head telling me he didn’t look like he was kissing her back. Then, like a complete psycho, I begin to argue out loud with that voice, “That may be the case, but he didn’t exactly push her away, either. Some part of him wanted it to happen.”

Tears threaten to spill over again at that thought, but I let the rage melt them away. I crank the car and make my drive home. When I get there, the Jeep is parked out front, so that means that Lucas and possibly Goose are here. Probably for the best, because I may need someone to hold me back from punching Teagan in the throat.

“Hey, baby,” Lucas says as I come through the door. “Where’s T?” He gets a good look at my face when I step into the kitchen and a look of confusion crosses his, “What’s wrong?”

Goose stands propped against the counter, and he crosses his arms over his chest with a defiant look when I glance at him. I want to yell at him that’s it’s okay to pretend not to care. His face is red, and one cheek is swollen right underneath an already blackened eye. I want to feel bad for him, but it’s impossible, seeing as how he more than likely brought it on himself. Still, I’m not a cold-hearted bitch.

I ignore Lucas and walk over to the freezer. Grabbing a bag of frozen peas, I smack Goose in the face with them as I walk over to the sink. He doesn’t thank me, and I don’t give a good goddamn at this point. My heart skips a beat when the front door opens. Closing my eyes, I try to prepare myself for what’s coming next.

“Kendall?” Teagan cautions.

Just hearing his voice and the tone he uses, like he’s speaking to a crazy person, brings my fury roaring back to the surface. Turning to face him, I see that he’s standing in the threshold between the kitchen and study. Maverick stands behind him to the left with a stern face and an arched eyebrow. I wonder for a second if Teagan filled him in on the way home, or if that look is for me, before T starts talking again.

“Let me explain,” he starts. My pose matches the one Goose still holds as I lean back against the counter and cross my arms over my chest. It’s obvious that the other three are watching curiously with their eyes flicking between us, but they’ll figure it out soon enough.

I barely contain the anger simmering on the surface of my voice, “What’s there to talk about, Teagan?”

Both of Mav’s eyebrows are now sitting high on his forehead, and Lucas’ mouth drops open. I’ve been upset with them before, but it hasn’t been in a really long time, and was nowhere close to this magnitude. They must now realize that the shit is about to hit the fan.

“Look,” he tries, “I don’t know what happened. One second, we’re sitting there talking about her brother, and the next thing I know…”

Tilting my head to the side, I finish his statement for him, “And the next thing all of us know, you’re kissing her.”

“WHAT?” Lucas yells as Goose lets the bag of peas slip through his fingers and fall with a wet plop to the floor. Mav’s face behind T shows shock for a split second before he covers it with a blank mask.

“It’s not like that,” Teagan says, talking to all of us. “I didn’t fucking do anything. She’s the one that came on to me.”

I have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep that memory out of my head, “Yeah, but its not like you were stopping her, either. If I hadn’t interrupted when I did, there’s no telling what you’d have done.”

His voice goes up and echoes around the room, “She grabbed me by the fucking hair for one, and for two, how was I supposed to know that you were the one picking me up today?”

That sends a sinking feeling into my gut like someone just dropped a ten pound anchor in there. What would he have done if I hadn’t showed up? Would he even bothered to have told me? My hand closes around the first thing within reach, which just so happens to be one of the recipe books on the counter. I chuck it as hard as I can towards his head, “WHAT DOES IT MATTER WHO PICKED YOU UP? YOU STILL FUCKING KISSED HER!”

He and Mav both duck out of the way, and the book hits the wall with a thud.

“Are you fucking crazy?” he yells back at me. “Don’t be like this, sweets. Please let me explain.”

I shake my head, “No need, Teagan. I get it, and don’t fucking call me that anymore.”

His face hardens, and his lips turn up into a sarcastic smile, “Are you serious, right now? Isn’t this something like the pot calling the kettle black? Not even talking about the weird shit that the five of us have, or had, now, thanks to this asshole.” He points at Goose with his thumb, whose head lifts as his lips go into a hard line. Then continues, “I seem to recall that dickhead Billy kissing you last year, and we didn’t throw a fucking bitch fit about it.”

Rational me agrees with him, but my anger is controlling me right now.

“That was different,” Lucas pipes up.

Teagan throws him a nasty look, “I wasn’t talking to you, dude. Stay the fuck out of this.”

“Don’t talk to him like that,” I say, jumping in to defend Lucas. “He’s not the one running around kissing other people.”

He slams a fist down on the counter, “Can you curb that high school jealousy for five minutes, so we can have an adult conversation?”

Lucas knocks a stool over rushing around the island to get to him. Teagan turns to catch him full on, taking Lucas’ shoulder into his stomach. They hit the floor hard, rolling a few times and each throwing punches at the other before Goose limps over, and together with Mav yank them off each other. Lucas’ nose is bleeding, and Teagan has a split right through his bottom lip, leaking blood down his chin.

“So, this is what’s is come to, huh? Brother fighting brother. Looks like Mav was right all along,” Teagan snarls.

I jerk back like I was the one hit. My insides turn to fucking mush as Mav’s words from last year repeat inside my head. He did tell them that this would happen. It’s crazy how fast shit changes and yet, others stay just the same. Lucas was the only one who semi stood up for me then, too.

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