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It was a mix of the truth and his version of our first interaction, making him chuckle as he brought his lips to mine for a quick kiss. But I guess that tiny bit of joy was too much for his big sister who asked, “What the hell are you so happy about? Y’all just got y’all’s asses kicked out there!”
“Hello to you too, Kim,” Kendall groaned, extracting himself from my arms as he asked Anastasia, “Was she like this all game?”
“Pretty much,” Anastasia sighed.
And like she’d completely missed the undertone of what her siblings were communicating, Kimberly scolded, “I didn’t come all the way to Texas to watch you play like shit, Snoop.”
“You sayin’ it like I did the shit on purpose or somethin’.”
“Well you could’ve fooled me.”
“Y’all are annoying,” Anastasia groaned, rolling her eyes before she asked, “Are you riding back to the house with us or with Snoop?”
Feeling like a fly on the wall of their childhood home, it took me a second to realize she was talking to me until all three siblings looked my way.
“Oh. Uh, I’ll ride with him,” I answered, lowkey looking forward to the small break from Kimberly’s bad vibes. But that didn’t keep me from bringing her up the second we got to Kendall’s truck, genuinely curious when I asked him, “What’s your sister’s deal?”
“What you mean?”
“Imean,why was she a bitch to me all game and then a bitch to you right after?” I asked, Kendall frowning hard when he glanced my way from the driver’s seat and said, “Does she have to be the b-word, though? That’s still my family, Shake.”
“Well why is yourfamily memberlike that?”
Without giving it much thought, Kendall answered, “She’s just ultra-protective and ultra-competitive,” pausing before he added, “We all are.”
If he hadn’t tagged on that last part, I might’ve believed him. But I’d been around him and his younger sister enough to feel comfortable arguing, “You and Anastasia donotact like that.”
“Nah, we do,” he insisted. “You just haven’t seen it yet.”
Maybe I hadn’t.
Or maybe he was just trying to justify the unjustifiable.
Either way, I wasn’t moved by his claim, the disagreement creating a heavy silence between us until Kendall sighed, “Look. I know Kim is tough, but you just gotta get to know her better.”
Once again, I might’ve believed him if I didn’t already have evidence to debunk his theory, sharing what I’d learned earlier today when I told him, “Bryn said it’s been four years, and Kimberly still doesn’t like her.”
Chuckling, Kendall defended, “That’s only because Kimberly thought Bryn was the wrong choice to represent me, and she refuses to admit she was wrong about that shit.”
“And y’all are treating that like it’s normal after all this time?”
Instead of answering my question, Kendall released another sigh before asking, “Remember when you pleaded with me to give your dad a chance, and I said I would? That’s the kinda energy I’ma need from you when it comes to Kim.”
“My dad was never an asshole to you, though,” I argued. “In fact, if I remember correctly, he was super chill, andyouwere the one acting weird.”
“I had my reasons,” he insisted, taking it a step further when he emphasized, “Havemy reasons.”
“And while that may be true, it still doesn’t mean he and Kimberly are on the same level when it comes to deserving chances, Kendall.”
“Why ain’t they?”
“Cause she was mean to me,” I whined, instantly annoyed by the way I’d sounded.
I mean, with anybody else, I would’ve just given them a piece of my mind and go on about my life. But wanting to be a part of Kendall’s life and knowing how important his family was to him meant I had to be a little more mindful,a little more delicate, in how I handled this, making the entire situation even more frustrating as Kendall asked, “You want me to talk to her?”
“Do you even know how?”
“Wow,” he groaned, every line in his face hardening as he nodded emphatically while telling me, “Okay.” And then the thick silence returned, andI… started to feel bad about what I’d said, the scowl on Kendall’s face and the tension in his knuckles from how hard he was squeezing his steering wheel making it evident that I’d struck a nerve which I knew wasn’t helpful; especially when helpful was really all he was trying to be.
