Page 2 of The Jock
“Get the fuck out, Colby!” Taylor flung himself into his bed and grabbed for the blankets. Wrapping himself up like a burrito, he buried his face.
Colby stood still for a minute. An array of makeup was scattered across Taylor’s dresser, surrounding a mirror propped up there. Taylor had looked different in the split second Colby saw him before he dove for cover. He looked shinier—and what the hell was he wearing? Were those nylons?
“I said get out!” Taylor yelled again, this time a shoe flying at Colby. “Get out, get out, get out. Get. Out!”
Another shoe was launched at Colby and it would’ve hit his face, but he deflected it. The shoe flew into the mirror instead, and the sound of it shattering broke Colby out of his stupor. He found himself suddenly angry at Taylor for his reaction. It wasn’t rational, but Colby was tired and he hated that he’d upset his brother. Lashing out at him therefore made even less sense, but sibling interactions seldom did.
“That’s seven years of bad luck. Stay the hell out of my apartment.” Colby slammed Taylor’s bedroom door shut. He stomped down the hallway and made it halfway up the stairs before he exhaled and returned to Taylor’s kitchen.
“Stupid fucking plants. I should throw you in the blender. Or a river. Fuck sake.”
Colby collected the plants and took them home. He googled what type of trees they were and how to care for them. He ordered a grow light online because he wasn’t sure if the sun came from the right direction for the trees. Or if that mattered.
Hours later, he sat on the floor of his living room, nursing a beer and staring at all the text messages that Taylor hadn’t returned. Clearly Colby wasn’t meant to see that. It was obviously something Taylor wasn’t ready to share, or maybe he never wanted to share it.
Colby raked his hand through his hair and tugged on it before dropping his hand back into his lap. He took another long drink of his beer. It was clear to Colby that he’d fucked up where Taylor was concerned and even though he’d apologized via text, Taylor wasn’t yet receptive to hearing anything Colby had to say.
Or at least he wasn’t ready to talk. He was reading Colby’s messages. He had the little grey checkmark to prove it. Colby had to find a way to earn Taylor’s forgiveness, but he couldn’t if Taylor wasn’t even talking to him.
Colby waited until Sunday to try and smooth things over with Taylor, but when he arrived at the diner, his younger brother was still in a snit about the whole thing. Taylor was at the range, grilling up a variety of breakfast foods, but his usual sunny demeanor was nowhere to be seen.
“Not here, Colby.” Taylor’s jaw was set and he refused to so much as glance his way.
Colby crossed his arms over his chest. He’d sent no less than a dozen apologies and explanations to Taylor over the past couple of days but had only received silence in return, and Colby was getting tired of it.
“I said I was sorry, okay. It’s not a big deal, Taylor.” From the corner of his eye, he saw his older brother Jonah enter. “Let’s ask Jonah if he thinks it’s a big deal. I bet he doesn’t.”
Taylor whirled on Colby, pointing his metal spatula at him. “Don’t you dare. You’ve already—God—I fucking hate you sometimes.” Taylor threw the spatula down on the stove and stormed out the back door.
“Well, fuck.” Colby took his hat off and ran his fingers through his hair. “I have to go fix that. Can you man the stove, Jonah?” Colby asked, but he didn’t wait for an answer before following Taylor outside.
The back door of the restaurant slammed shut and Colby glanced around, quickly locating Taylor.
“I wish you’d accept my apology, Taylor. I didn’t mean to see any of that, but you know I don’t fucking care what you do.”
“Ugh, you don’t even get it. I don’t want to talk about this with you. And you won’t leave it alone.” Taylor threw his hands up in the air.
“Maybe I would if you’d stop being mad at me.” Colby hated having people mad at him. He didn’t want to describe himself as a people pleaser, and mostly he wasn’t. Unless it was his brothers.
“Maybe I would stop being mad if you left me the hell alone.” Taylor stomped back into the kitchen and Colby followed, hot on his heels.
“I said I was sorry, Taylor. Jesus. Don’t be such a baby.”
“You’re such a jerk, Colby. Stay out of my face.” Taylor stepped into Jonah’s space and took the spatula from him. “Thanks, Jonah.”
Jonah stepped away from the stove. “You’re not welcome. Neither one of you are. Fuck you both. I wanted one day. One fucking minute where my shit mattered. I even texted that I was coming to breakfast and had something to tell everyone. But no one cares. And most of the time, I don’t care that you ignore me. But I just wanted ten fucking minutes today to tell you that I’m in love with Spencer and we’re really fucking happy, and I comehere and you two have to act like little bitches all the time. It’s always about Colby and Taylor because they’re the youngest and they need the most. And when we were kids, that was fine.”
Colby realized too late that Jonah was upset and before he could say anything, Jonah fled the restaurant. Hanging his head in shame, he took his hat off and snapped it against his leg to vent some of his frustration before putting it back on his head.
“Fuck.” Taylor whispered. “He’s really mad.”
“Yeah, looks like I fucked this up too. Go me.”
“Don’t be stupid, Colby.” Taylor said softly. Usually his voice would have more bite to it when he said shit like that to Colby. “Maybe I should get over what happened. I’m embarrassed.”
“I’m sorry I embarrassed you. For what it’s worth, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”
Taylor nodded, but didn’t say anything else. He turned back to the range and went back to cooking. Colby quickly washed up and grabbed another spatula and gave him a hand flipping and frying.
