Page 75 of Your Fault

Noah looked over at me, as if asking for help, but I was as clueless as she was, and we were both waiting to see how Lion would react.

“Jenna, I’m sorry. Listen…”

“No!” she roared, stepping back. “Don’t you dare ask me for forgiveness! You swore to me this was over. I’ve been putting upwith your shit all summer and waiting for you to change, for you to just do the right thing for once! And now I’m over it!”

I walked over, not knowing what to do. I understood Jenna, but I saw Lion’s side of it, too.

Lion looked lost, desperate, and he reached out to touch her. He looked stunned when she jerked away. “Jenna, I’m just trying to give you all you deserve… I’ve been saving up, you know…”

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Jenna stepped forward again and shoved him as hard as she could, sobbing now. “I don’t give a shit about money! You’re the one I’m in love with! Do you not get that? You, not your stupid money!”

Lion grabbed her by the wrists to stop her from pounding on his chest.

“You let them arrest me… The old you would never have left me alone. I was everything to you…”

“You still are, Jenna, I love you,” he said, trying to get her to look at him.

Jenna shook her head, then looked up, and we knew something bad was coming next.

“You have no idea what it is to love someone.” She tugged her hands free from Lion’s grip and walked away from him. “I’m not going to let you drag me down with you.”

“Jenna…” Lion sounded broken. This was going to crush him.

“I want to go home,” Jenna said to Noah, who walked over and hugged her as I approached Lion.

“Dude,” I said to Lion, “I’ll get them both home. You just try and chill, okay?”

Lion seemed almost not to see me as Noah helped Jenna into the back seat.

“Take the bike,” I said, tossing the keys to Luca, who had woken up and gotten out of the car in the meantime and was watching the scene without emotion. He caught them in midair.“And take care of your brother,” I added before getting into the driver’s seat.

I’d have liked to stay with Lion, but I knew the best thing I could do just then was get the girls to safety and pray they’d see things differently the next day. Noah said she wanted to stay at Jenna’s house, and when I kissed her goodbye, she felt cold and distant. I’d gotten a clear warning about what could happen if we weren’t careful. Noah was surely thinking the same thing.

I was afraid my friend and I had crossed a line, one we hadn’t even known existed before that night.

I spent the next two days with Lion. He looked like hell, drunk and in need of a shower, as he lay around on his sofa at home. His apartment stank like weed and grime and looked like a dump. Luca couldn’t have been happier, though, and with his brother down in the dumps, he had the run of the place. His four years in the pen had done nothing to correct his bad habits, and I was worried about the influence he might have on Lion.

“You need to wash up, bro, you stink,” I told Lion, bagging up all the trash lying on the sofa and the end table. I was getting pissed. It wasn’t my job to clean up their shit, but I did it because I knew he needed help.

“Leave me alone, dude. I just want to drink and forget about all this.”

I dropped the bag, furious. “Lion, it’s been two fucking days, okay? I’m not telling you to just get over it, but at least get off the fucking couch.”

“Jenna’s all fucked up, and it’s my fault. I wasn’t good enough for her. Fucking rich people, man. How’s a guy from the hood like me supposed to make a girl like her happy?”

“You gotta be a fool to hook up with an oilman’s daughter…”Great, now Luca was giving his two cents. Lion tossed an empty beer can at his head.

I had to do something about that relationship. Lion had his problems, but he needed Jenna; she made him whole.

“If you think Jenna’s laid out on her bed crying over you, you’re wrong,” I said, washing my hands. Lion sat up then and looked over at me. “She’s on the beach with Noah. This is supposed to be their last day out with their old classmates before they take off for college.”

“She’s out with those dickheads from that fancy-ass school?”

I raised my eyebrows.

“Don’t look at me like that. You’re different, the rest of those people blow,” he said, getting up and going to the bathroom. “Give me five minutes.”

I dropped the bag on the floor and smiled at Luca. At least I’d gotten Lion up off the sofa. As for calling me a rich dickhead, well…I’d get him back for that.

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