Page 76 of Tank
“What?!”
“I can’t tell you everything, hell I don’t even know everything to tell, but this needs to stay between us for now. I think that’s why Dya left me. She didn’t think she’d be good enough for him and she was unsure about fitting into my life considering he was still alive.”
“Shit. Fuck. Man, I’m sorry,” he said in his usual flat tone but I could see the shock written all over his face. “Damn, I know you really fucking care about her. I thought it’d finally happened for you.”
“What can I say? Luck is just not on my side, ever.” I shook my head doing my best to laugh off how my life had turned out. “This girl with the kid?” I asked to get him back on track.
“Yeah, she’s…I don’t know. She’s scared of something, I can tell that much, but she’s also strong as fuck. Damn, stubborn bitch, not giving me anything and acting like us hanging around don’t bother her. Hell, she even cooked Brand and me dinner last night. Was some good shit, too.”
“You’ll figure it out.”
“Jessica broke up with me while you were out,” he said and his lips twisted in a way like he was trying to figure out something.
His statement didn’t mean much. They seemed to break up and get back together more than there were months in a year.
“Yeah, and give it another week and you’ll be back together.” I huffed out a laugh.
I knew their relationship was odd on its best day. Did he care about her? Yeah, I truly believed that. But did he love her and her him? No, that wasn’t there. It was something else that kept them going back, but it wasn’t my place to talk about.
“No,” he said and took a drag of his smoke. “Her words were pretty final and she’s kept her distance since. It kinda feels right though. I think she wants more out of life, more than what we could ever have together.”
He was trying to tell me something else but I don’t think even he was aware of what that was. He was in his head and he had to figure shit out for himself. That wasn’t to say that I wouldn’t be there to lend an ear when he needed. But it was clear that he wasn’t to the point where he was asking for advice so I didn’t say anything else on the subject.
“I’m stayin’ here if you need me,” I offered.
“Yeah, thanks.” He dropped his smoke and crushed it with his sneaker.
Then he did the weirdest shit, he fanned his hand in front of him like it would somehow make the smoke stench go away. Like it would make him smell less stinky. I choked my chuckle back because I was pretty sure he wasn’t even aware what he was doing.
“I’ll talk later. Secrets safe with me. I’m glad for it though, he’s a good kid,” he said like nothing out of the ordinary had just happened, then he walked away, climbed on his bike, and rode off.
