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A total cliché.
A total fucking nobody.
I feel a hand on my shoulder. I look over. Harrison has come to my side, concern on his face. “Hey. Look. I’m not being tough on you because I hate you or anything. Out here on the farm, you got to put everything into your work. It’s important you learn—”
“All my friends are leaving me.”
He blinks. “So …?”
“So they’re heading off to college, and I just lost my truck. I don’t qualify for any scholarships based on my scores alone. Hell, I can’t afford the tuition even with financial aid.”
He drops his hand from my shoulder. “Well, you can still—”
“I’m stuck on this fucking farm, that’s my problem. Stuck here with people who hate me. All I wanna do is grow and be somethin’ better than I used to be, but how am I supposed to do that here? What am I gonna become if I can’t go to college? How am I gonna make something of myself?”
Harrison turns and leans against his desk, crossing his arms. “I didn’t go to college. I make enough out of myself here. It isn’t the end of the world, Hoyt. You can’t possibly predict what’ll come out of your life. You’re young. You’ve got time to figure it out.”
My eyes slide to the waist of his jeans. He buttoned them up, but they’re just low enough to show off his Adonis belt, pointing like a flashing, fleshy arrow to what he keeps stuffed in those jeans.
I’m suddenly annoyed. “Why the hell don’t you put a damned shirt on?”
He lifts an eyebrow. “Huh?”
“It’s distracting.”
I’ve apparently confused him. “I’m winding down in my own damned house. I don’t have to wear anything if I don’t want.”
He’s so damned stubborn. “What are all those tattoos anyway? You got, like, a zillion of ‘em.”
“You got a problem with my tats?”
“No. I got a problem with you.” I turn and face him. “I see all your little tricks, Harrison. I know what you’re really doing.”
His eyes flash. “The hell you mean …?”
I press a finger to his chest. “You’re giving me the bitch work, that’s what. You’re doing this just to punish me. Not to teach me. Not so I learn to ‘put everything in my work’. That’s bullshit.”
“It isn’t bullshit. It’s—”
“You think you’re sticking up for Toby? You don’t even know him. And who exactly do you think helped get his boyfriend and him back together when they had a falling out?” I jab a finger at my chest now. “Me. That was me. We’re cool now. Hell, Toby texts me with updates, tellin’ me how his new beachside life is like.” Or, well, he used to. Now it seems like he’s too busy. Not that I’ll tell that part to Harrison. “Even his moody boyfriend likes me. Can’t explain it, but he does. They moved on. They forgave me.” I glare at him. “The only person who still seems hung up on my past is you.”
Harrison scoffs and shakes his head. “Hoyt, you’re such a …” He pushes away from the desk and towers over me. “You act like the whole world owes you. I see that entitled look in your eyes. But you gotta put in the work first before you get respect. It’s a rule that’s true anywhere, no matter who you are. And right now, you’re not putting in anything but crocodile tears.”
“Crocodile—??” I sputter indignantly. “I just had fucking pig shit on my face!”
“Oh, now I get it. You want me to write you a doctor’s note? Excuse you from work tomorrow?”
I don’t know where my anger comes from, but it’s like a fire that’s quickly burning out of control with no sign of a fire truck. “I was captain of the football team! I had my flaws, but I made my coach proud. I won’t be … turned into some fuckin’ worker grunt nobody now, just because you have a childish vendetta against me, for something that has nothing to do with you. This is humiliating work for the sake of humiliation, and you know it.”
“It’s not humiliating work. It’s honest work—and tough work. Maybe football wasn’t so much of a challenge for you,” he goes on, despite my eyes filling with anger and my nostrils emitting flames. “I know your type. Football came easy. Athletic guy like you, hard-bodied, capable. Victories came out of thin air. Girls cheered you on. Guys revered you. Things fall into your lap. But now in the real world, getting into a good college is a challenge. Adult friendships are a challenge. And this farm? This farm is your challenge.”
“Victories didn’t fall into my lap,” I mutter, annoyed.
He gets right in my face. “Take this as a life lesson from a dude who’s lived it himself. You have got to work hard for things that truly matter. For real rewards in life. I am not Tanner Strong. I won’t just hand it to you.”
