AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Bryce
I’m not really surprised that Rowan Bates has sent her drink back, but Matt and Dereck seem to take this as some sort of personal challenge, and I can tell already that this isn’t going to end well. Matt and Dereck are my best friends, sure, but they’re two men who don’t get turned down often. I don’t know what they were expecting, really, but apparently this wasn’t it.
“Who does she think she is?” growls Dereck, popping his knuckles angrily like the buffoon he is. Besides Matt, he’s my best friend, but I think he’s too bold for his own good. “Doesn’t she know that we’re trying to make peace?”
“Bullshit,” I say, an annoying itch rising under the collar of my shirt. “Why would she want to make peace with us? We were horrible to her, and so were others, and we never did anything to stop it. Nothing. She was alone and we didn’t care.”
“That was a long time ago,” Dereck huffs.
“It was like, less than six years ago.”
“Whatever,” Dereck mutters. “We were all kids, any teasing was in good fun and you know it. She just wasn’t a popular person.”
“Don’t be a fucking douche, man. No one deserved that, not even her.”
“Yeah, well, look at her now,” Dereck continues, and I want nothing more than to reach out and bloody his nose. “Maybe it’s us that got her to work on herself a little bit. We’re like Picasso, and she’s the Mona Lisa.”
“Da Vinci did the Mona Lisa, man. Not fucking Picasso.”
“Either way, we created a masterpiece. Admit it.”
Finally, Matt, who hasn’t said much about it at all, wheels on Dereck, fists pumping at his sides. His eyes burn fire, and I see Dereck cower, just a little bit.
“Shut the fuck up, Dereck.” The words roll off Matt’s tongue with pure confidence, and the corner of my mouth ticks up slightly at how much this makes Dereck uncomfortable. Dereck doesn’t take much shit from me, but no one fucks with Matt, not even the cocky college quarterback.
“Whoa, man, I’m just fucking with her.” Dereck puts his hands in the air in surrender. Finally, someone has put him in his place. But it won’t be the last time, I’m sure. “She’s hot now, you know? I’d tap that.”
“Don’t kid yourself, Dereck, you’d tap anything.” I reach for my beer and take a long gulp, wishing we’d started drinking earlier. Dereck and I are still facing the bar, but Matt has turned back around, and when I sneak a glance over my shoulder, Rowan is still staring at us, her eyes burning a hole in the back of our heads. Matt, however, is holding her gaze steady. Always the brave soul, Matthew Nelson.
“Maybe you’re right,” he says suddenly. Dereck is midway through a drink of his beer when he coughs, spewing sticky foam all over the countertop. I slap his back, harder than necessary, probably, as he whirls around in his seat.
“Did you just say I’m right?” Dereck asks, shrugging my hand off.
“Yeah,” is all Matts says, seemingly under Rowan’s spell. Then he breaks eye contact quickly, as if he’d inadvertently looked into the eyes of Medusa. Thankfully, he hadn’t turned to stone … yet.
“Well, maybe I’ll go on over there and see if she wants to hang out sometime,” says Dereck, and I have to resist the urge to cringe aloud.
I empty my mug, holding back the shock that fills me. I clear my throat. “There are three girls at that table, Dereck. What about the other ones?”
Dereck shoots me a look, then breaks eye contact. Perhaps he’s thinking what I’m thinking–the other two girls have nothing on Rowan. But I don’t dare speak those words.
“Fuck it,” Dereck says, tossing a crumbled bill for our drinks on the counter. “Watch and learn, boys. You’re about to witness a miracle.”
