Scar Patterson
The following morning, I was in a better mood. It dawned on me that I could get any girl I wanted, and I was sure they would appreciate me more than Francesca did. I could live without her, yeah, I totally could.
“Amy!” I called from the foot of the stairs, simultaneously swinging my backpack over one shoulder. “Get down here now, or I'm leaving without you.”
My sister poked her head out from the banister on the second floor. “You’re giving me a ride?”
I stared silently at her for a full moment before stepping away from the railing. “Just hurry up,” I tried to say in an urgent, but soft tone, but I failed miserably and probably sounded like an impatient irritated jerk, which in all honesty, I was.
Amy dashed down the stairs and continued to run past me to the front door, breathing heavily as she lugged her backpack in one arm and her books in the other. Once she arrived at the passenger side of my Jeep and waited for me to unlock the door, she glanced over her shoulder to give me a puzzled look. “I can take the bus,” she offered as she chewed on her bottom lip, “you don’t have to drive me.”
I was so tempted to tell her to catch the bus just because she offered to relieve me of the awkwardness of driving to school with her, but I managed to push the thought aside by insisting, “Get in the car.” I climbed into the driver’s side and started the car up. Reluctantly, Amy got in without saying another word and most of the drive seemed to pass this way. I had been contemplating what to say for the entire duration of the drive, but couldn't find the right words to say them. Who knew I'd feel so uncomfortable talking to my own sister?
When I pulled into an empty parking space of our destination, the school parking lot, I took a deep breath and prepared to make some sort of conversation with my sister that didn’t have anything to do with her weight. “Listen, I don't want you hanging out with Jamie, or getting involved with him in any way, shape, or form.”
“Jamie?” she questioned, raising a dark eyebrow.
“The blond guy who kissed you yesterday. Stay away from him.”
Amy ducked her head, letting her thick brown curls fall over her face to hide the color rushing to her cheeks, and then she began to nervously tap her fingers against one of her textbooks. “Why?”
“I don’t trust him.”
She flicked her silver eyes to mine. “But I thought he was your friend.”
“No,” I refuted immediately. “He manipulated me, and I don't want him to manipulate you, so just stay away from him, okay? Promise me that.”
She remained still for a moment, her brows creasing thoughtfully, but she finally decided to voice her thoughts a minute later. “I don’t get it. Why do you care? You don’t care about me, so why should I even listen to you?”
“Of course I care about you,” I reassured her. “You’re my sister. We’re family. I know I’m a jerk sometimes, but I still care about who you become friends with and Jamie shouldn’t be one of them.”
She let out a loud, dry, humorless laugh. “Really? Because Jamie is actually nice. He told me I was pretty, and that’s more than you’ve ever done! All you ever do is tell me that I’m fat, which I get because I know I’m fat. But you don’t have to remind me.”
I tugged the keys out of the ignition to shut the car off and shoved them into my pocket before giving her my full attention. “I don’t make fun of you just for sport, Amy. It’s just that … every time I look at you and what you’ve become, it makes me think of Dad. When he was alive, you were skinny. He’s gone, and now you’re like this.”
Her head tilted skeptically to the side as her finger-tapping became more persistent. “What I've become? You make it sound like I turned into a monster!”
I clamped my mouth shut and laid my head back against the seat. Why did I have to say anything? It was more than obvious that I wasn't good at this sister-brother bonding stuff. “God, no, Amy. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“You know what?” She slammed her hands down on her books and squared her shoulders to face me, her facial expression growing unfriendly. “You got your name changed because you felt like it would help you cope. Mom and I were okay with that. You wanna know why? Because we love you, and we would do anything to see you get better. But whenever you put me down for my weight, it doesn’t help me get better. Don’t you see that?”
I stared back at the hurt look on her face and couldn’t help but feel like less of a person, less of a man, less of a brother, for being so mean to her. Maybe I shouldn’t have blamed Francesca for changing because it was clear that I had changed, too.
“I’m sorry, Amy.”
“Whatever, thanks for the ride.”
She stepped out of the Jeep, but before she could shut the door behind her, Trey appeared into sight with a huge grin on his face. He gave me a slight wave, and then he averted his eyes to my sister. “Hey, Amy!”
“Hi, Trey,” she responded in a dull tone just before walking away to disappear into the swarm of people who were also making their way to the main entrance.
Trey poked his head into the passenger side’s window, leaning against it, and adjusted the position of his baseball cap. “Hey, man, what’s good?”
“Sibling drama,” I said, short.
“Oh.” He nodded as though he understood where I was coming from, even though he was the only child of two ridiculously rich parents. “Well, I got somethin’ to share with ya.”
Sighing, I climbed out of the driver’s seat, slammed the door shut, and circled around the car to meet up with him. Now that we were in such close proximity, Trey nudged my shoulder playfully and started to head toward the school’s main doors, urging me to follow suit. “What is it?” I asked, but I wasn’t really interested in anything he had to say. I had lost a girlfriend and possibly a sister in just 12 hours—that had to be a new low for me.
Trey nudged my shoulder again, this time to draw my attention to a photo on his phone. It took me a moment to realize the photo was taken on Monday afternoon, the first day of the kissing booth, and it was of my first, and last, gay kiss. “You told me that you kissed him on the cheek, dude. That is not the cheek.”
I rolled my eyes. “If I told you the truth, you wouldn’t have stopped teasing me about it.”
He nodded. “You’re right, and I probably won’t stop teasing you about it now that I know you’re getting down with other dudes!”
“I’m not getting down with any dudes,” I spat at him. “I was just trying to save my ass. Jamie threatened to tell the carnival managers that we weren’t donating the money to an actual charity. I did this for us, man.”
Trey raised a skeptical brow. “So you guys are on a first-name basis now?”
I stopped in my tracks to shoot him a side glare. “Trey.”
“Ah, you know I’m just messin’ with you.” He swung an arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer to him. “So, there’s a party tonight at JJ’s house. You in?”
“That’s tonight?”
“Yeah, what’d you think?”
Sighing, I flicked his arm off my shoulder. “I’m not really in the mood to party.” As soon as I spoke, I realized I shouldn’t have said anything because Trey loomed over my shoulder with his eyebrows raised as though he was expecting me to elaborate. Releasing yet another sigh, I told him, “Francesca and I broke up.”
“What?” His signature care-free facial expression vanished. “Why?”
I shrugged. “Long story.”
“Well, if it helps you feel better … I bet you can find a rebound babe at JJ’s party.” His grin reappeared, and I never felt more annoyed to see him smile than I did in that very moment. “Come on, Patterson. Say you’ll come?” Hope and anticipation filled his dark eyes as he awaited a response.
“All right, all right,” I agreed with a fake chuckle to appease him, “just get off my dick, dude.”
“’Kay, I’ll see you then.” Trey backed away from me, creating a significant distance between us, and smiled that careless little smile of his before he took off running to meet with his other friends.
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