Page 85 of The Love of My Next Life
He chuckles again and raises his soda to his mouth, just as his friend sits in the hard plastic chair next to him. His name is Joe. He’s Trent’s best man. I’d never met him before today.
“The kid’s right,” Joe says. “Bowling is lame. I thought we’d get strippers.”
“Yeah, Trent.” I nod eagerly. “Where are the strippers?”
Trent shrugs, then stands and walks to the little machine thing that spits the bowling balls out after they go down the lane.
“I like bowling,” he says, then proceeds to throw a strike.
I don’t think there’s a single thing this fucker can’t do.
“You just don’t want to be hungover tomorrow,” I say to Trent as I walk up to take my turn. He nods.
“That too.”
My ball goes into the gutter. My score in this game is pathetic. I turn around and glare at Trent and Joe as they laugh at my shitty bowling skills. This bachelor party sucks.
I want to smoke a joint and sketch on the roof, not throw a bunch of gutter balls at Franklin Bowling Alley with Trent and his old as fuck military buddy. I want to wander through the house and hope like hell I get a glimpse of Lennon that isn’t across the dinner table and tainted with fake smiles and forced pleasantries.
She’s transferred out of our free period and quit the rec center.
If I’d have known she was going to do either, I would have done it first. I hate that she’s given up two things she loves because she can’t stand being around me. She won’t talk to me except to appease our parents. She won’t look at me until she has to. She won’t show me a shred of emotion, and I’m losing my patience with her.
I’ve given her space and time. I’ve been respectful. But if I have to be on the receiving end of one of Lennon’s fake as shit nice girl smiles one more time, I’m going to explode. The fire in her hazel eyes is dormant. I want to see her jaw tighten, her fists clench. Fuck, anything except this polite, placating bullshit.
“—for tomorrow?”
I glance up and find Joe and Trent staring at me expectantly.
“Huh?”
“Have you decided if you’re bringing a date,” Trent repeats slowly. “For the wedding tomorrow.”
“Oh.” I throw myself into my chair and shake my head no. “Nah.”
“You sure? Claire and Lennon will have dates,” he says, and I bristle. “You could invite one of your friends instead?”
“Nah,” I say again. “I’m good.”
I take a drink of my soda. There’s going to be roughly twenty people at the wedding tomorrow. One of those people will be Eric. I’m actually really proud of how I handled the news, considering I watched it all go down at the dinner table.
Claire hinted that she wanted to bring a date. Mom and Trent said it was fine. Claire told Lennon that she should bring Eric. Lennon declined. Mom and Trent agreed with Claire. Lennon caved.
The whole thing was awkward and infuriating, and the fact that no one picked up on Lennon’s screaming discomfort still pisses me off. Almost as much as the fact that she agreed to bring Eric fucking Masters as her date to our parents’ wedding.
I drink the rest of my soda and pretend there’s liquor in it.
If I don’t get to smoke a joint soon, I’m gonna lose my fucking mind.
The thing is, I really like Trent. I like this Joe guy, too. I don’t entirely hate bowling. But I am anxious as fuck about tomorrow. I have to sit through a wedding ceremony and a formal luncheon while Lennon is dressed like a goddess and hanging on the arm of her no-neck football dick date. And I have to behave. I can’t touch her or talk to her or even look at her in any way that could suggest anything other than brotherly affection or else I risk ruining my mom’s special day.
“You wanna do another game or head out after this?” Joe asks Trent, and I hold my breath. Trent glances at me and then barks out a laugh that makes my lips twitch up at the corners. I roll my eyes.
“We can head out,” Trent says. He throws his arm around my shoulders and gives me one of those side-hug, back-pat things before dropping his arm and taking a step back. “I think Macon here has been tortured enough.”
I can’t hold back my grin. It’s such adadmove.
Or at least, it feels like a dad move.
