Page 37 of My Scorned Best Friend

The receptionist smiles at me. “He’s ready.”

She buzzes me in, and I meet my dad where I do every time I’m able to pick him up—in the room where there’s a recliner set up for him to receive treatment.

I love my dad. After my mom died, he turned into my everything. To watch him lose muscle mass because of being sick and not working all the time doing the physical labor his contracting job requires is hard to witness.

“What’s up?” I say with a smile.

He gives me a sideways glance, and the nurse comes over to finish unhooking him from the IV. “I heard the radio. Nikki did quite the segment.”

I can’t help but roll my eyes. “Didn’t she? I heard it on the way over.”

“I hope you took my advice. If you’re making Scandals of Sunrise, then I worry maybe you didn’t hear me when you called me all those months ago.” He moves to stand, and the nurse and I offer a hand, but he shoos us away to get up by himself.

I smile at the nurse as she says, “See you next time, Mr. Greene.”

He grumbles something and I go to help him, but he walks ahead of me.

“Thank you,” I say to the nurse.

“Oh, your dad is our favorite,” she whispers. “Always so entertaining. Good luck.” She looks at me as if she knows the whole sordid story of Clara and me.

“Yeah… okay.”

I follow my dad down past the reception area, where he grabs a Dum Dum as if he’s a little kid who just got a reward for getting his shots.

Holding up the Dum Dum after unwrapping it, he shakes his head. “I put poison in my body, and this is what I get? I’m a grown man. They can’t spring for Blow Pops with the amount of money I’m paying them?”

I press the elevator button and it arrives in no time, then the two of us get in.

“I’ll get you a bag of Blow Pops,” I tell him.

“I don’t want a bag of Blow Pops, it’s the principle of the thing.”

The elevator reaches the ground floor, and I lead my dad to my truck in the parking lot.

When I start the truck, my dad shifts to face me. “So, tell me, X, do you honestly love her as more than a friend?”

His eyes, so similar to my own, pierce into me. He might be the only one I can be honest with, but I’m not sure I’m ready to lay it all out there. I’m not sure I’m ready to admit to myself what I’ve felt brewing for a while.

When I don’t answer, he says, “Take me to your mom’s grave.” When I stay still in my seat, he continues. “Son, put it in drive and take us to the cemetery.”

“Okay,” I say, my voice cracking.

12

“WISH ME LUCK, MOM.”

Xavier

I stop the truck when we reach my mom’s gravesite, except that instead of being here on our own, I’m four cars back because my siblings are standing up at my mom’s grave.

“Did you ambush me?” I glare over at my father.

“You all share the same pain. Only the four of you can really understand what that’s like and why it can be hard to move forward.”

“I’ve moved forward. I’m not Cade.”

My dad sighs. “I hate to break it to you, son, but you haven’t.” He opens the door and exits my truck.

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