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Lexus leapt into the vehicle and bounced happily across the bench seat, embracing the driver. He was beginning to look strangely familiar to me. Like I should somehow know him, or I’d seen him before.
Then she kissed him right on the mouth.
HOLY SHIT!
I watched it all happen clear as day, right through the giant windshield. The guy leaned over and Lexus kissed him slowly, sensuously, for a good two or three seconds. Then the truck’s motor started up with an ear-splitting roar, and it rumbled away on its comically tremendous tires.
I stood there for almost half a minute, totally heedless of the rain, before finally making my way back to the coffee shop. I was shocked. Dumbfounded. Totally soaked through.
And very, very fucking pissed off.
~ 17 ~
ARIANA
“Malcolm…” Tyler repeated again, murmuring the word like some forgotten mantra. He looked lost in thought now. Unnaturally calm, considering the circumstances.
“That was definitely the name on the cup,” I assured him. “Both orders were called in separately, according to Katie. But it was Lexus who came in and picked them both up.”
My stomach growled, prompting me to bite into my second slice of pizza. Tyler’s sat untouched on his side of my kitchen table, leeching grease onto the doubled-up paper plates I provided him.
“I’m sorry I didn’t find out more,” I apologized. “They left so fast, though. And I was just so surprised, I wasn’t thinking straig—“
“Malcolm Newell?” Tyler snapped his fingers. “From the Jagrbombers?”
I sat up a little straighter, rushing to swallow the bite in my mouth. “Umm… maybe?”
I’d spent the rest of the day agonizing over what to do, all the way up until ten o’clock at night. That’s when I called Tyler, urging him to come over because I had something important to tell him. It’s also when I realized I hadn’t eaten anything for the rest of the day.
Tyler showed up not twenty minutes later, bearing one the last cheese pizzas from Gio’s, right before they shut down for the night. I tore into it immediately, as I glumly relayed the events of this afternoon.
“Do you remember when we played the Jagrbombers?” Tyler was asking.
“Not really,” I admitted. “You play so many teams throughout the season, though. And each one has so many players…”
I trailed off, watching as Tyler fumbled with his phone. He pulled up the Jagrbombers team website, clicked on the roster tab, and scrolled down a few spaces.
“Here,” he said, flipping the screen my way. “Is this him?”
The guy in the yellow-and-black jersey smiling back at me was unmistakable. Even without the sunglasses, I was totally sure.
“That’s him,” I confirmed. “One-hundred percent.”
Tyler sank back into his chair again. The hiss of air escaping the shitty cushion reminded me sharply that I needed a new dinette set.
“Lexus and Malcolm Newell,” he repeated numbly. “Wow.”
I’d felt terrible all day, but now I felt even worse. Good or bad, Tyler had been dating this girl for a very long time. He’d given her everything, and she’d done nothing but take him for granted in return. His time, his attention, even his limited resources; he’d dumped everything into this one-sided relationship, which was as unhealthy as they came.
Lexus on the other hand was an anchor to Tyler’s rising star. She took and took and never gave back, even going as far as to urge him to work less hours, simply so he could spend more time with her. She didn’t care about the money or opportunity Tyler would be losing out on, and that’s because Lexus was rich. Jobs were things for other people, not her. Money, which her daddy apparently grew on trees, was inconsequential.
Worst of all, once we graduated and Tyler was away attending Michigan State, Lexus had been the singular reason he’d come home. When she wasn’t distracting him from his schoolwork by flying him back to Seattle every other weekend, she was traveling to his campus to ‘surprise’ him for long stretches at a time. She encouraged him to ditch classes. Took him on off-campus getaways for days on end. When missed hockey practices finally put his starting position with the D1 team in jeopardy, Tyler tried buckling down and making his girlfriend more of a secondary focus in his life.
A few weeks later he was stepping off a plane, shoulders slumped, having dropped out of school.
No, Lexus was outright fucking poison from the very beginning and we all knew it. Everyone that is, except Tyler. Axel and Zane would give him occasional shit about it, and even drop hints here and there as to what an albatross his girlfriend truly was. But as a ‘supportive’ best friend, all I could do was sit and watch and occasionally listen. All while waiting for the inevitable end.
“Shit Tyler, I’m sorry.”
