Page 48 of Fight Or Flight

Eric

Befriend the girl living in your house, Danny said. It’ll be good, he said. Tell her about her dad. It will make you feel better, he said. Then a couple of days ago when I told him I wasn’t sure any of that was a good idea since I was crazy attracted to her, he told me to just go with it. See what happens, he said. There’s no crime in being attracted to her. Sure, buddy. Tell that to my fucking arms that just magically slipped around her in the middle of the night and held her tight. I don’t know who was more spooked this morning, Brooklyn, me, or my fucking dick.

But we got past it.

I unraveled my arms from her tiny body, and she slipped out of my bed like it was the most normal fucking thing ever.

Sure, she fell going up the stairs, but what’s a minor slipup?

I went to school and tried not to dwell on how empty my arms felt. I pretended like I wasn’t staring at the clock, counting the hours until I could go home and see her pretty face again. And when Danny told me there was a party tonight, I told him I’d be there—because as content as I was playing board games and watching movies with Brooklyn and Joss; the aftermath scared the living crap out of me.

I wanted her in my bed.

I wanted to purge all the girls that came before her from my mind. Hell, I wanted to rewrite my first time, and that thought led me to wonder if I’d be rewriting her first time too. When you start wondering if the girl you’re infatuated with is a virgin, you got problems. Sick, sick, fucking problems.

So a party was a fabulous idea.

It got me out of the house and away from Brooklyn.

My mom was all for it.

Dad, not so much.

And Joss, well, she fucked up everything by asking me to take Brooklyn to the party with me. I couldn’t say no to her and if I’m being honest, every part of my being leaped at the chance. I was all talk. I didn’t want to be away from Brooklyn. Not even for a little bit. I wanted to take her to the party. I wanted to introduce her to my friends. I wanted…well… I just wanted to be with her. It’s that simple.

It’s been a half hour since I asked Brooklyn if she was ready to go, and I’m still sitting here waiting for her to finish getting dressed. Someone needs to tell the girl we’re going to a party on the beach and not the spring formal. That she’s perfect just the way she is.

I vote for that person to be my dad. Maybe then he’ll stop pacing in front of me. The guy is making me nervous…and dizzy. So friggin’ dizzy.

Suddenly his feet come to a halt, and he turns to glare at me. With his finger pointed at me, he opens and closes his mouth. Just when you think he can’t get any crazier, he surprises you.

“Are you okay?” I ask curiously, noting the vein in his forehead is bulging just like Grandpa’s does whenever he’s about to lose his shit on one of the guys from the club.

“I want you home by eleven o’clock,” he orders. “No drinking either and keep your dick in your pants.”

Whoa. First of all, my dad isn’t usually the strict one out of my parents. Second, I don’t remember the last time I was given a curfew. Third, who said anything about drinking and fourth, why is he suddenly worried about my dick? The guy bought me a box of condoms for my fourteenth birthday.

“Um…”

“Don’t um me. I’ve been where you’re at boy and I know how it ends.”

“It’s a party,” I argue.

I’ve been to dozens of them and he’s never been this bent out of shape.

“Yeah, sure. It may start as a party. Innocent fun between two cubs, but then you’re screwing each other’s brains out against a brick wall and BAM! The next thing you know, there’s a pea.”

“A pea?”

What the hell is he talking about?

“A baby!”

Oh, this is a new level of crazy.

“No one’s having a baby.”

“Yeah, I said that too, but here you are,” he hisses, dragging his fingers through his hair. Then he narrows his eyes. “I see the way you look at her. I used to look at your mom the same way. Hell, I still do.”

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