Page 37 of Just the Tipsy
WAYLON
“What was that?”Jeremiah asks me as I bail out on my last set of squats with a grunt. “You crushed that weight like two days ago.”
“I don’t know.” I yawn. “A little sore and tired, I guess. I still can’t believe we used to get up this early in high school and do this almost every day.”
We’re in the gym he put together in his garage. A few times a week, we work out together before work, and usually I can keep up. But I slept like shit last night because I couldn’t stop thinking about Bianca and what we did yesterday. That mix of shy and a little bold she has scratches an itch I didn’t know I had.
It’s starting to be a problem. Then again, maybe I’m still a little pent up. I’ve seen just enough to obsess over her. I’m not sure when we’ll be able to hook up again — I’m assuming her bucket list has a lot more on it.
“We used to do a lot of shit in high school that makes me tired just thinking about it.” Jeremiah takes a swig of his water. “Working out before school, sitting in class all day, going to practice after, then doing homework? While living off beef jerky, energy drinks, and sugar? Sometimes I look at what my students are doing and wonder how they’re alive.”
“I think I’d die if I tried that today. I still don’t know how I made it.” I drink some water too and rake a hand over my face.
“Adrenaline and the fear that if you didn’t get into the right college you’d instantly die,” he says.
I huff a laugh. The pressure we were putting on ourselves and the pressure from our parents — okay, mostly my mom — was so absurd in retrospect. At the end of the day, we both got into our dream school, Crescent Hill University, and we were just fine.
“How are things with Bianca, by the way?” he asks, stretching.
We’ve known each other since we were in the same class in third grade — I know him well enough that he’s asking what he asked, but he’s asking about something else underneath.
I raise an eyebrow. “Fine. Good. Why?”
“I’ve been curious.” He motions for me to move, then takes my place when I do, pulling his locs from between the barbell and his back. “She kind of came out of nowhere. One day you were super busy with work, then the next you’re bringing this girl to the event.”
“It’s casual.” I spot him while he does another set. “I didn’t think I had to make a big announcement.”
“I’m not saying that you had to. I’m just wondering how she broke through your defenses.” He re-racks the barbell. “I mean, besides the fact that she’s literally a model.”
“Well, yeah. I only got through our first conversation because I had to talk about Sadie. And after that…I was less than smooth.”
“Like what kind of less than smooth?”
“Like…” I take a deep breath. I haven’t spoken about this since it happened, and my face is still hot at the memory. “Mansplaining chaps to her the first time we spoke. How all chaps are assless by default, so there was no need to call them ‘assless’ chaps.”
Jeremiah stares at me for several beats before bursting out laughing. Full on, bent at the waist wheezing.
“It wasn’tthatfunny,” I mumble.
“Bro,how?” he asks when he gets ahold of himself. “How did you fuck up so hard?”
“I just got struck stupid.” I’m leaving out the fact that her lightly touching my arm is what short-circuited my brain.
“But hey, she still went out with you,” he says. “Why not make it serious? You look happy with her.”
I nearly blurt out,I look happy with her?but I hold back. I do like hanging out with Bianca — she’s fairly quiet, but it feels like we’re on the same wavelength in a way I can’t explain.
Like she picked up on my irritation with my mom at the clinic and actually tried to steer Mom away from her obsession with making me this perfect figure in town who’s involved in everything. And she managed to make Catherine genuinely stunned into silence, which is a miracle.
It doesn’t hurt that talking to her is just easy. For someone who grew up in an environment where she and everyone else was judged constantly, she isn’t judgmental at all.
I don’t know what to think, but I didn’t think we looked so much like a genuine couple that my best friend would actually say something positive about it.
Guilt fills my chest for lying about the relationship, but a tinge of annoyance is there too. Of all people, Jeremiah should get why I’d keep it casual.
“You know why I wouldn’t want to make it serious,” I say.
“I know, but it seems like you should get back out there. You guys happened kind of fast and you look happy when you’re with her. Why not see if it can be deeper?”
