Page 56 of Every Broken Promise
“I don’t know, those girls you hang out with?”
She let out a humorless laugh.
“You’re the only real friend I have, Ty. Most girls who talk to me only do it in hope that it brings them closer to you. The other half knows hanging out with me means they get to hang out with Adam and his friends.”
“I’m sure that’s not true,” I tried to assure her.
“It is what it is,” she said it nonchalantly. “I mean, it doesn’t matter, I still have you. I don’t know what I’ll do when you get a girlfriend.”
My heart accelerated at that word. It somehow felt wrong coming from her lips.
“Why would that matter? No one will ever come between our friendship.”
Astrid stayed quiet for a few seconds, and I would give anything to know what she was thinking about.
“Most girls won’t be okay with you having a girl best friend, Ty,” she said softly.
“If anyone has a problem with you, they have a problem with me,” I stated confidently. “I promise never to let anyone come between us.”
“Same for me,” she assured me. “I’m going to go eat. Pick me up at eight?”
“Yeah…and, Astrid, you’re not going to wear that skirt, right? It’s going to get cold later.”
Astrid had worn skirts to school before, but not only did this one hug her body, it was a few inches shorter than the ones she usually wore. I caught a couple of my friends staring at her legs, and I had to keep biting my tongue all day before I told them to look elsewhere. I had no right to tell her how to dress. No right to tell anyone to look away either.
If JD went tonight, there was going to be a round two.
“I wouldn’t mind tapping that tight little ass.”
By the time JD had said those words, I had enough, and the most fucked-up thing was that I was imagining the same thing they all were.
TWENTY-TWO
A slow poundingwoke me up. It was like a soft beating of a drum that pestered me until I rose from my sleep. It seemed to be coming from upstairs. I was the only one still living with my dad, and that was because I didn’t want to leave him alone.
Ezekiel moved out a bit after I graduated high school. Sabby’s grandad was too old to do the upkeep on his house and sold it to Ezekiel at a low price.
Adam moved out to the apartments that were on the edge of town. He wanted a private place where he could be a manwhore and my dad wouldn’t lecture him.
Since I was the youngest, I was left to take care of my dad. After high school, we remodeled our basement into my room since it had its own entrance. That way I could have privacy.
When I walked upstairs, I heard the thumping and it seemed to be coming from my childhood room. I headed to the window and opened it, annoyed at whoever was here.
“What the fuc?—”
The words died on my lips when I saw who the person responsible for the noise was. The anger I had felt instantly vanished.
I would have never imagined Astrid would have come knocking at my door after all the unease that was accumulating between us, but like hell if I would be sending her away. She was on the other side of the window glaring at me, and I wanted to smile, but I was afraid that would make her go away. Her hair was down and a little messy from the wind. Her eyes were a bit glossy, and her lips a lovely rosy shade.
“Astrid.” I whispered her name, scared that if I said it louder she might disappear on me.
“You’re a liar,” she said, sounding a little too animated for this time of night.
I looked at her face, but then my eyes trailed down to her outfit, and I bit my lip. On my birthday she had been wearing a skirt. By now I knew that nothing good ever came whenever she was in one. Since she came back, I looked at her and I still saw Astrid—my best friend—but then I would blink, and I saw this new version of her.
Astrid had always been sunshine to me. She was bright and warm, something I wanted to bask in, but now she was something more. She burned brighter, to the point she scorched, and for her I wouldn’t mind getting burned.
She had grown confident in her own skin. And a part of me felt sick at the fact that she could not do that when she had been next to me.
