Page 13 of Thick & Thin

“You’re welcome.” He winked.

“It’s not a good thing, JJ. No one wants to see your white ass.”

At her words, the rest of the group at the table laughed.

“I’ll have you know, there are plenty of girls who want to see my ass. You can deny it all you want, but we both know you look at it.”

“Nope.”

The room continued to fill with high schoolers, all seniors ready to graduate. Most were ready to say their goodbyes to our four stoplight town, Jenny and myself included, but as I looked around the space, taking in the faces of the people I had grown up with, I couldn’t help but feel a sadness sweep over me.

Our childhood was officially over.

Our teenage years were ending.

We were on the brink of adulthood, and it filled me with anxiety. Not that I would ever admit that. I wondered if anyone else in the room was as nervous as I was.

JJ’s and Jenny’s teasing became a buzz in my ear as the reality of not seeing Jenny every day settled over me. I was leaving. She was leaving. And it wasn’t together.

I lifted my bottle of beer from the table and chugged it, the cold brew putting out the fire in my chest. It wasn’t like we were going to be a few hours apart.

No.

She was going to be in Texas, and me … well, I had no fucking idea where I would end up.

“Put your money where your mouth is.” I heard Jenny say, already preparing to take JJ’s money.

“Fine. A game of pool. Loser streaks naked through town.”

That caught my attention.

I had no doubt Jenny could beat JJ’s ass in a game of pool, but I wasn’t about to take any chances. Before she could agree, I spoke up. “No. Jenny’s playing me. Y’all can compete with each other later over something else.”

I stood from the table and grabbed my beer around the neck.

“You coming?” I directed my attention at Jenny.

She rolled her eyes, knowing what I was up to without me admitting it.

“Yeah.”

JJ followed us even though for the first time in a long while I hoped he wouldn’t. Maybe going out wasn’t a great idea. Maybe instead of being around everyone, we should have planned a night alone with video games and candy like the old days. But even as the thoughts flowed through my mind, I knew it was a bad idea.

Being alone with Jenny no longer felt safe. I worried my self-control was close to snapping when it came to her, and the last thing I wanted to do was push her away when we were so close to leaving each other. When we finally went our separate ways, I wanted it to be on good terms. It was the only way. Changing the shape of our relationship at such a vital time was a terrible idea. I wasn’t willing to lose her completely.

“You rack ’em,” she said, pulling her hair out of her ponytail holder.

It fell around her shoulders in long waves before she pulled it back up again, smoothing away the flyaway hairs. It was something she did when she was preparing to beat some ass. Jenny was the most competitive person I knew.

Next to JJ, of course.

We stopped at an empty table in the corner, and I collected the balls and arranged them in the rack. Once they were settled, I plucked the rack from around the balls, leaving them in a perfect triangle.

“You break,” I said, pulling a pool cue from the holder screwed to the wall.

I took another pull from my beer before setting it on the side of the pool table. Then I packed the tip of my cue with the blue cue chalk. As I twisted the chalk onto the tip, my eyes caught on Jenny as she slid her hands over the white talcum powder before she stroked her pool cue.

Fuck.

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