“You asked for a burger, hold the pickle,” he says with a straight face. I can’t help it, I burst into laughter along with Everest.
This guy.
After lunch and that disturbing image of Derek fisting a pickle, I head to the bathroom for my afternoon pick me up.
I lock myself in the stall like usual and inhale the delicious powder.
I give myself a moment to reassess when I hear the door to the bathroom swing open.
Footsteps echo against the tile. Slow. Casual. But each one tightens the knot in my stomach. I shift, trying to stay silent and lean just enough to peek through the narrow gap in the stall.
Raul. Shit. My stomach does a weird flip, panic shooting up my spine. No way in hell am I letting him see me like this. I can’t deal with the questions, thelookhe’ll give me. My breath hitches and all I can do is pray he doesn’t notice. Please don’t notice.
I swipe under my nose in a rush, acutely hyper-aware of every trace I might’ve left behind. Every breath too loud. Every movement too sharp.
The silence stretches. Then—
The flush of the urinal.
The metallic zip of his fly.
I freeze. My lungs beg for air, but I won’t risk making a sound.
The door swings open. Shuts again.
Only then do I let out the breath I’d been holding. My knees almost buckle.
Too close.
***
How can a girl make such an enormous imprint on a man’s mind? It’s like, whatever I do, I think about this mystery girl, even though I don’t even know her name. Rebecca? Jessica? Lily? I have no freaking clue.
She could be gone in a different state for all I know.
All I know is she ruined the color green for me. I thought of her when I saw Derek holding that freaking pickle, for crying out loud. I will never be able to look at a goddamn tree the same.
A fucking tree.
How fucked is that?
I used to laugh when my friends in high school would swoon over girls, brushing it off like it was nothing. But now? Now I know exactly what they meant.
Having a girl take up most of your brain capacity is not ideal, but there’s nothing I can do.
Hopefully, going to this party will get my mind off of her. Unless there's something green, then I’m really fucked.
Everest pulls up to our apartment to pick Derek and I up around 8:00. His shity ass 2015 Ford F-150 rolls out of our parking lot and we head to the party.
We drive down the same road I always take to work when Everest pulls into a gas station and says, “gotta make a pit stop for some beers.”
I roll my eyes because he Everest cons his way through life and it’s annoying how well he does it. He’s only seventeen and has a fake ID and an older friend who works at the gas station that allows him to get booze whenever he wants. As an older brother, what good am I even for if I can’t buy my underaged brother a bottle?
He puts the car in park, hops out of the driver’s seat, and strolls into the gas station. The slam from his side door rings throughout the air.
Derek breaks the silence first.
“There better be some hot bitches there.”
