Page 15 of Big Pucking Deal
When we walked back out into the yard, my brother and Brooke were nowhere to be found. My eyes searched the remaining faces —which was a total of three— but they were gone. I had a pretty good idea of what that meant, but I had no clue where they would’ve gone.
Oh shit.
“Um, are we—my brother is probably home right now and he’s gonna want—you know, he’s probably wondering—“
“Jo,” he says, putting a stop to the incoherent rambling. “Jordan knows.”
I scrunch up my brows and nose and ask, “Jordan knows what?”
I watch his throat work, his Adam’s apple moving up and down. Street lamps highlight his handsome face as we pass under them, and the switch between dark and light feels like a prelude.
“He knows I was going in that house to stop you.”
“But you didn’t stop me. Well, not at first,” I counter.
If the way he kissed and touched me was his way of stopping me, I’m curious to see what he does when he likes someone.
“I may have lied.” He shrugs with a crooked grin that reminds me of all the times we’d disappear without Jordan, laughing and talking about kid stuff, then telling Jo we couldn’t find him anywhere.
We pull up to their house and he taps the button under his rearview mirror, and the engine of his Porsche Targa growls as we drive forward. Some people might say purr, but Joaquín’s car definitely growls. Like it’s telling every other car to get out of its fucking way.
My brother's car is noticeably absent from where it’s usually parked and now my brain is really turning with where he could be.
“Where is he?” I ask Joaquín but he only shrugs.
“Let’s talk. Inside,” he says after the engine quiets.
I give him a single nod of my head and follow him in. I assume we’re going to sit in the living room to talk about what happened tonight, but he pulls me by my hand up the stairs and straight to his room.
I step in the dark room and hear the door shut and the lock click behind me.
“Bean, what are you doing?”
“Giving us some privacy, Bunny. Your car isn’t here so for all he knows, I’m here alone. We won’t be bothered when he gets home.” He flips on his light then presses a remote, dimming the harsh overhead light. “Sit.”
I gulp and walk over to his bed, hopping up on the mattress and he follows suit. Only he doesn’t hop, which is part of the reason he calls me Bunny. My incessant hopping and skipping when I was younger.
I bring my thumb to my mouth and begin chewing away at my manicured nails. My nerves are starting to burn through me like wildfire. Joaquín reaches out and pulls my hand away then twines his fingers with mine.
“Tell me how is it that you find yourself an almost twenty-three year old virgin?” He asks and now it’s time to spill the truth.
I feel the tears building again.Will he think I’m ridiculous, saving myself for him when he clearly was not?But then what he said back at Bram’s slams into me.
“Why did you tell Bram I’ve been yours since we were seven years old?”
He sighs and kicks off his shoes before scooting up the bed and resting against the pillows. He holds out his hand and motions for me to come to sit with him. I do the same and toss my shoes, then crawl on hands and knees to him. His arm is splayed wide, and I snuggle against him.
Once again, this is a feeling that is familiar yet somewhat foreign after so many years of not having the other in our lives. It’s like learning the language all over again.
“I told Bram that tonight because it’s true,” he says, very plain and simple. “I noticed you before I noticed Jordan and I felt something that, at that young age, I couldn’t understand or describe. I know now that something was the feeling that I had found my person.”
My head shakes slowly from side to side. “I don’t get it. How could you say that I was your person but yet, you treated me only as if I were a sister and nothing more. You walked away from our grad party with Tiff that night and never looked back. That was four years ago, Joaquín. You don’t just break your person’s heart then shut them out like they never existed.”
“You do if that person has a brother that is constantly reminding you that she’s too good for you and deserves better, and that if you touch her he’ll break your neck,” he explains and my mouth literally drops open.
It gives any cartoon character a run for their money with how outrageously wide it hangs.
“Jordan threatened you and said you weren’t good enough?”
