Page 76 of Thick & Thin

It wasn’t that I hadn’t seen his truck in a while or anything. He hadn’t taken it with him, so it was always parked in the driveaway at his parents’ house. On occasion, I would see Genie driving it around town, which would send my heart into overdrive, thinking he was back.

When I reached the driver’s side door, I stood there and watched him sleep. In sleep, his expression was lax. His long dark lashes rested on his high cheekbones, and his plump lips were open just a bit. I longed to feel his hot breath on my fingertips … to touch his soft lips and know that he was real. When he was softly sleeping that way, I could almost forget the way he acted at Sprints.

He was resting. He wasn’t staring back at me angry or spouting cruel words, and when I looked at him while he slept, I could almost see the boy he used to be in his relaxed features. He was just Josh. My best friend. The boy I loved. The one person in the entire world who got me.

I pressed my fingertips to the glass, and the heat of my touch against the cold windows left a mark. I closed my eyes, wishing it was him I was touching instead of his truck window. Then the memory of him talking about my weight moved over my brain, knocking me back into the correct headspace, and instead of lightly touching the glass, I found myself pounding on it with the side of my fist.

He jerked, looking around his truck after being abruptly awakened before he turned, and his eyes landed on me. I saw him sigh in annoyance before he reached out and rolled the window down.

“Why are you sleeping in my yard?” I asked before he could say anything rude and piss me off.

He looked around before lying his head on the back of the seat and breathing deeply. “This isn’t your yard.”

“It’s practically my fucking driveaway.”

He waved me off. “It’s too early for your shit. Go back in the house.”

The nerve of this motherfucker.

“Seriously?”

He turned my way, and his eyes moved over me face. “You look like shit. Did you just wake up?”

“It’s seven in the morning. What do you think? I ask again, why are you sleeping in my driveway?”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but I haven’t been home in three years. I went for a ride last night to see how much things have changed.”

“Your girlfriend didn’t want to come along?”

I hadn’t meant to say it. As soon as the words left my lips, I could hear how pathetic they sounded.

“Girlfriend?”

“Yeah. The girl at Sprints with you.”

“Again, not that it’s any of your business, but she’s just a friend.”

“Right. I bet they’re all ‘just friends.’” I used air quotations with my fingers.

He shook his head. “I’m not like you.”

In other words, he wasn’t a big mcslut muffin.

“Right,” I said, elongating the word. “I forgot. You don’t sleep around the way I do. Got it.”

His brows pulled down in confusion when I openly admitted what the town was saying.

There was no hiding from their gossip. As far as they were concerned, I was just a big ole whore. A nasty one, too. Apparently, I had let at least five different guys run a train on me in Texas and possibly a few girls, too. Who the hell knew? The story grew more elaborate every time I heard it. All that was missing was a large scarlet A on the front of all my T-shirts.

“Anyway,” I changed the subject. “Nothing’s changed,” I said as I crossed my arms over my chest.

I hadn’t realized until that very moment that I wasn’t wearing a bra.

“I thought I’d come by and see how the old place looked,” he continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “Same old dump.”

Then he sat up and turned the key in the ignition, bringing his truck to life. His truck door rumbled against the front of my body, making me step away.

“That’s an asshole thing to say.”

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