AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It was Grant Wheeler who walked in, along with some of the guys that followed him around like some kind of entourage. He worked at the auto shop called Speed Junky – a competitor of Manic Motors and they tried to take our business at times. Grant drove a ’68 Camaro and foamed at the mouth just to get me to drag race him with my 69 Chevelle. He spotted me and Travis right away. I turned my back and ignored him then focused on the game of pool with Travis.
Grant just wouldn’t shut up and kept talking smack about how he would leave me in the dust if we put his Camaro against my Chevelle on the starting line. Thirty minutes later, I ended up outside of the Brass Billiards with Grant. As Travis watched, along with Grant’s entourage, I took Grant down onto the asphalt, ending up with a busted lip and scraped-up knuckles.
A bartender came out of the bar shouting to break it up or they were calling the police. I was shit-faced so Travis drove the Chevelle, taking me to my house. It was after midnight when Travis crashed on my couch. I walked and stumbled a few times over to Madi’s house, and knocked on her front door. About a minute later, her living room light came on. She moved the curtain aside at the side window and I waved at her. She unlocked and opened her door just a crack.
I scratched my head, and my mouth went dry. “Hi, Madi. I know it’s late. I just…. Well…. I just wanted to say I’m sorry – “
“Are you drunk?” she interrupted, “You’re bleeding!”
I touched my lip. “Owe. Oh yeah. It’s nothing.”
“Your knuckles are bloody too!” She pulled me and I stumbled through the front door. “Go sit on the couch. I’ll get something to clean you up with.”
I made my way to her couch, dropped down on it, and looked around. Madi’s living room was nice and full of shelves with books and trinkets.
I drank way too many beers and the scrap with Grant suddenly hit me as the living room started to spin. Madi came back and sat next to me on the couch with a wet washcloth.
She touched it to my bleeding lip. “Do NOT tell me you drove home, Ben.”
The cold wet cloth was soothing. “No. My buddy Travis did. He just crashed on my couch.”
Madi was dressed in a pair of tiny shorts with butterflies all over them and a matching tank top. She looked adorable with her bed hair as she focused on wiping the blood off my lip. “What happened? Did you get into a fight too?”
I took both her hands and looked into her eyes. “It’s nothing to worry about. Madi, listen. I know I’m an asshole. I’m sorry about going way too fast with you. I didn’t mean to hurt you. But if I did, then I’m sorry for that too.”
She pulled her hands away. Her eyes were sad. “There’s no need for you to say sorry. And you didn’t hurt me. Things just happened way too fast that day.”
I lifted her chin, “I really like you Madi. Can we just start over? I want us to be friends.”
“Yes. I would like that too, Ben.”
Seeing her smile just made that heavy weight of guilt lift off my shoulders. But I was so tired. I leaned my head back against the couch. And crashed.
Chapter 5
Madi
OnceBen’sheadfellback on my couch, he fell asleep. I breathed a heavy sigh and covered him with one of my couch throws. He looked like a little boy as he slept with his messy blond hair and a silly smile on his face with a busted lip. When I woke up the next morning, I found him already gone, the couch throw bunched up and tossed on the couch where he slept.
I worried that things would be weird between us even though we both wanted to start over and be friends. At first, I started to fall back into the familiar habit of trying to avoid Ben. But Ben being Ben, he wouldn’t allow me to. He’d show up at my house with Travis & ask if they could go for a swim, inviting me to join them. Eventually, the summer months consisted of him inviting his friends over, and me inviting Carly and her friends over, for cookouts and pool parties. I still struggled with not being as social as Carly and her friends, who went out on weekends to clubs and bars. But Ben helped get me out of my shell. I didn’t tell Carly about the date with Ben or our hook-up in the pool, because I didn’t want her to think less of him and compare him to other guys like Alex. The problem was, the more time I spent with Ben, the more I realized that even though I have so much desire for Ben - how could any woman not think he was so hot – I wanted more than just sex with him.
It was Labor Day weekend in September as I stood with Ben drinking a beer. He flipped burgers on his grill in his yard while people were over at my pool. “I’m not much of a cook, but I can work a grill enough to feed all these hungry heathens.” He said as he waved the spatula toward the fence as his friend Travis did a cannonball in my pool, splashing everyone by the poolside.
I laughed. “I like your friends and this summer has been really fun.”
“That’s what it’s all about Madi – good times with good friends.” He clinked his beer bottle to mine and drank the rest of his. “I’ll go get us both another beer. Watch the burgers for me?”
He handed me the spatula. “Sure.”
Ben disappeared into his house while I watched the burgers. I waited and waited and he never returned. The batch of burgers was done so I scooped them off the grill, put them on a plate, and carried it into Ben’s house.
As I rounded the corner to enter the kitchen, I stopped. Ben stood by the refrigerator holding 2 bottles of beer. There was a blond girl, her back turned to me, with her arms around his waist.
I stepped back and felt like an intruder standing there with a plate of burgers, but I was dying to know who the girl was and a feeling of jealousy just hit me.
“But maybe it will be different the second time around.” I heard the girl whine.
“No Brooke. It was over between us a long time ago.”
