Page 49 of Unbearable

“Sure, I can. I have no life. Where are you going?”

“Thought I could take Lenny to the beach. She’s never been, believe it or not.”

“Why do you have to be such a good guy?”

“I’m not, clearly by your standards.” I glare at him and he laughs, leaning into the car with his arms crossed over his chest. “Tyler’s a good guy too.”

I almost laugh that he’s able to say something nice about him. “He is, but he doesn’t know what he wants.”

Red nods. “He’ll come around, I’m sure.” Reaching up, he takes the string around the tree we untied and unravels it. “So you can watch her here next weekend, right? I don’t think dorm life is for a five-year-old.”

“Yeah, here.” I turn to head to my car and then look back at him. “Does Lenny know?”

He shakes his head quickly. “No.Don’ttell her. It’s a surprise.”

We both look to the door where Lenny’s laughing on the porch, Nova at her feet. “I get to stay with you next weekend, Auntie!”

“Too late,” I yell out to Red and then air-five Nova. “Can’t wait, sweet cheeks!”

“Nova,” Red groans, smiling at her as he brings the tree down. “Darlin’, that was supposed to be a secret.”

Nova shrugs. “Stop telling me secrets. You know I can’t keep them.”

Once I’m in my car, I watch the three of them for a moment. Red’s proudly holding the tree and Lenny has the biggest grin on her face. This will be the first Christmas she’s actually had a real family around.

I’m also a bit sad too, because this will be our first Christmas without my dad. Thanksgiving was hard enough, I can’t imagine how Christmas will be for us all.

THE WEEK BACK at school seems to fly by, mostly because I have to basically study my ass off if I’m going to pass any class and get my mind off Tyler. And it doesn’t work. Why I thought it would is beyond me.

What else doesn’t help is when I’m rushing to my marketing management class—the one I’m failing—Holden finds me. “Hey, you okay?”

I give him a confused look. “Yeah, why?”

“Oh, well someone said you had a rough night at the party a few weeks back.”

I don’t know how I forgot about that. “Oh, that, right.” Adjusting my bag on my shoulder, I squint into the sun. “Yeah.”

He stares at me. “I would have drove you back to your dorm.”

“Tyler did.”

Holden’s jaw tightens and I have no idea why so I start walking and he follows.

“Tyler’s… he’s Red’s friend?”

“Yeah, you’ve met him, haven’t you?”

“I have.”

I want to laugh imagining what Holden must have thought when he encountered Red and Tyler together. I can imagine. He probably pissed himself. Though Holden’s a football player, there’s no chance in hell at standing up against my brother or Tyler.

He bites down on his lower lip and tiny frown lines appear on his forehead. “So is he like… your boyfriend?”

In my dreams.

“No, I just fuck him on occasion.”

And he comes on my face every once in a while.

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