Page 77 of The Sun
Groaning, I tossed my head back. “Nothing’s going on. I’m not seeing him.”
“Then where have you been going when you drop me off at Travis’s?”
“The beach. Look, it doesn’t matter, okay. I just wanted to help you out, and I knew you would get all weird if I just went by myself, but I’ve been fine, and you’re fine, and everything is just. Fine.”
“Yeah, because the definition of fine is me and you pretending to date so I can see a guy and so you can go sit on the beach alone.”
I snagged a piping hot hushpuppy and popped the whole thing in my mouth, burning my tongue just so I didn’t have to talk for a second.
“He cares about you,” he said.
I looked down at the gum stuck to the concrete.
“Are you listening to me? He cares about you, and he thinks we’re dating.”
I swallowed the dry bread thinking about how Elias had told me to love Brandon. “He doesn’t care, Brandon. Trust me.”
“Bullshit. When he had me pinned to the floor earlier, he told me, ‘If I didn’t think she loved you’. . . He didn’t deck me because he thought it would hurtyou.”
I turned the rings on my finger, feeling my nostrils flare as I fought to keep my emotions in check.
“I may think he’s a dick, but he loves you.”
“It doesn’t matter. My dad would kill me if I dated him.”
A dull smile shaped his lips. “And you think my dad wouldn’t kill me if he knew I was seeing Travis? You don’t get to choose who you love, Sunny. It just happens.”
The waitress scooted by, and Brandon reached across the table, squeezing my hand. “Maybe we should break up?”
My thoughts sped from heartache to worry over the message I had read earlier in the day, and I shook my head. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“I thought you loved him?”
I stared at Brandon hard, upset he would question that. “I do.”
“Then why are you hurting him by letting him think you’re with me?”
“Because I don’t want anyone to hurt you.” Tears burned my eyes, and I fought them back. I was so sick of not knowing what was right anymore.
Brandon dipped his chin, and his hold on my hand grew tighter. “You’re something special Sunny Lower. I sure hope you know that, and that’s why I can’t let you hurt yourself.”
The waitress dropped our food off, and neither of us touched our plate of greasy fries and undercooked hamburger. We just sat, holding hands, maybe trying to figure out why things that should be so simple were so complicated.
23
Elias
Headlights streamed through the window. I kept my gaze aimed at the TV, watching some weirdo in a black shroud and a stupid white mask try to stab someone through the slit in a bathroom stall. “This is stupid,” I mumbled.
“Bet you wouldn’t think it was stupid if the guy was chasing you.” Atlas shoved half his arm inside the family sized bag of potato chips and then crammed his mouth so full he looked like a chipmunk storing nuts for winter.
“I wouldn’t run from that asshole,” I said.
Someone knocked on the door. I glanced at Atlas, but he didn’t budge. “Dude?” I said. “That’s probably Doodle. You answer it.”
With a roll of his eyes, he tossed the chips on the recliner and trudged across the room. “What’s McClure doing here?”
That got my attention. The guy had some major balls if he was showing up at my house to start a fight. Atlas slid the latch back. The hinges creaked. From where I was on the couch, the open door blocked my view. “Is your brother here?”
