AllFreeNovel
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“I know.” I sighed. He wasn’t a bad guardian. He was just reeling from the shittiness of this past year and losing his partner… And now I unfortunately knew a little more about what that felt like. The Jettersen brothers needed to get our shit together. “I’ll put this in terms you’ll understand real quick.”
He waited patiently.
I rapped my knuckles against the wooden table. “I had an Addie… kinda.”
That sobered him up real quick. “Kinda? What does that mean?”
“It wasn’t exactly romantic love like you guys had, but… I loved her,” I choked out,
“Oh.” He nodded. “Well, what happened?”
I covered my eyes, willing them to stop burning. “I don’t really want to talk about it.” I reached for his beer, but he quickly swatted my hand away, then paused.
“What the fuck, Tyler.” His voice sounded exhausted.
“What? Oh…” I looked down at my right fist. I forgot I punched the display glass.
He pushed himself up and went to the fridge. He rustled in the freezer for a minute before pulling out a bag of frozen peas. He shook his head at me before practically chucking the bag at my head. “Do I even want to know?”
I winced. “Probably not.”
We sat in silence for a minute, but I should’ve known better than to think the conversation was over.
“So, the detentions, skipping classes, this…” He reached over and yanked my ear.
“Ow!” I slapped him away with my good hand. “She said it’d close up in a month,” I grumbled.
He laughed aloud. “Not sure it works the same for everyone, little brother.”
“Whatever.” I really didn’t give a shit, so long as she kept her word and never smoked again. “Wait, how’d you know about the detentions? Thought we got them hidden.”
“Jesus,” he muttered, rubbing a hand over his jaw to hide what I detected was a slight grin. “She sounds like trouble.”
“She was.” I smiled thinking of her. “So, how’d you know?”
He arched an eyebrow at me. “I have my ways.”
“Do I even want to know?” I asked.
He snorted. “Probably not. Let’s just say, I had an inside man checking in on ya. Wasn’t sure why I stopped getting those behavior notifications because I knew there’s no way you turned into a straight A student and cleaned up your act that quickly.”
I rolled my eyes. “Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence, bro.”
He just shrugged and drained the rest of his beer before getting up to retrieve another from the fridge.
“My… friend, she’s an artist.” I wasn’t sure why I was even telling him. “She’s really great at it.”
He popped the top of his next beer. “Sounds like a cool person. Sorry, man.”
I shrugged. “She wasn’t my girlfriend or anything,” I clarified.
“Same kinda hurt.”
His words justified my feelings, and suddenly I was glad I confided in him. He pushed up from his chair and walked to the corner of the room to cue up the ancient record player.
“What are you doing?”
“It’s sad boy hours here in the Jettersen household,” he mumbled. “We’re either going to the gym and hitting the bag ‘til we’re both dead, or we’re wallowing in our own self-pity with Miss Swift. Right now, I’m hurting too badly to hit the gym with you.” Seconds later, Taylor Swift’s voice singing, ‘All Too Well’ filled the room. “Makes me think of her,” he said, sitting back down. “Is this pathetic? Yes. Do I care?” He cocked his head to the side. “No.”
